System Administrator ,Associate

About this role

Are you interested in building innovative technology that crafts the financial markets? Do you like working at the speed of a startup, and solving some of the world’s most exciting challenges? Do you want to work with, and learn from, hands-on leaders in technology and finance?

At BlackRock, we are looking for Software Engineers who like to innovate and solve sophisticated problems. We recognize that strength comes from diversity, and will embrace your outstanding skills, curiosity, and passion while giving you the opportunity to grow technically and as an individual.

We invest and protect over $11 trillion (USD) of assets and have an extraordinary responsibility to our clients all over the world. Our technology empowers millions of investors to save for retirement, pay for college, buy a home, and improve their financial well-being.

Being a technologist at BlackRock means you get the best of both worlds: working for one of the most sophisticated financial companies and being part of a software development team responsible for next generation technology and solutions.

What are Aladdin and Aladdin Engineering?

• You will be working on BlackRock's investment operating system called Aladdin, which is used both internally within BlackRock and externally by many financial institutions. Aladdin combines sophisticated risk analytics with comprehensive portfolio management, trading, and operations tools on a single platform. It powers informed decision-making and creates a connective tissue for thousands of users investing worldwide.

• Our development teams are part of Aladdin Engineering. We collaborate to build the next generation of technology that transforms the way information, people, and technology intersect for global investment firms. We build and package tools that manage trillions in assets and support millions of financial instruments. We perform risk calculations and process millions of transactions for thousands of users worldwide every day.

Your Team:

The Database Hosting Team is a key part of Platform Hosting Services, which operates under the broader Aladdin Engineering group. Hosting Services is responsible for managing the reliability, stability, and performance of the firm's financial systems, including Aladdin, and ensuring its availability to our business partners and customers.

We are a globally distributed team, spanning multiple regions, providing engineering and operational support for online transaction processing, data warehousing, data replication, and distributed data processing platforms.

Your Role and Impact:

Data is the backbone of any world-class financial institution. The Database Operations Team ensures the resiliency and integrity of that data while providing instantaneous access to a large global user base at BlackRock and across many institutional clients. As specialists in database technology, our team is involved in every aspect of system design, implementation, tuning, and monitoring, using a wide variety of industry-leading database technologies.

We also develop code to provide analysis, insights, and automate our solutions at scale.

Although our specialty is database technology, to excel in our role, we must understand the environment in which our technology operates. This includes understanding the business needs, application server stack, and interactions between database software, operating systems, and host hardware to deliver the best possible service.

We are passionate about performance and innovation. At every level of the firm, we embrace diversity and offer flexibility to enhance work-life balance.

Your Responsibilities:

The role involves providing operations, development, and project support within the global database environment across various platforms. Key responsibilities include:

• Operational Support for Database Technology:

• Engineering, administration, and operations of OLTP, OLAP, data warehousing platforms, and distributed No-SQL systems.

• Collaboration with infrastructure teams, application developers, and business teams across time zones to deliver high-quality service to Aladdin users.

• Automation and development of database operational, monitoring, and maintenance toolsets to achieve scalability and efficiency.

• Database configuration management, capacity and scale management, schema releases, consistency, security, disaster recovery, and audit management.

• Managing operational incidents, conducting root-cause analysis, resolving critical issues, and mitigating future risks.

• Assessing issues for severity, troubleshooting proactively, and ensuring timely resolution of critical system issues. Escalating outages when necessary, collaborating with Client Technical Services and other teams, and coordinating with external vendors for support.

• Project-Based Participation:

• Involvement in major upgrades and migration/consolidation exercises.

• Exploring and implementing new product features.

• Contributing to performance tuning and engineering activities.

• Contributing to Our Software Toolset:

• Enhancing monitoring and maintenance utilities in Perl, Python, and Java.

• Contributing to data captures to enable deeper system analysis.

Qualifications:

• (Outside India): B.S./M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

• (India-specific): B.E./B.Tech/MCA or another relevant engineering degree from a reputable university.

• For Associate Level: 4+ years of proven experience in Data Administration or a similar role.

Skills and Experience:

• Enthusiasm for acquiring new technical skills.

• Effective communication with senior management from both IT and business areas.

• Understanding of large-scale enterprise application setups across data centers/cloud environments.

• Willingness to work weekends on DBA activities and shift hours.

• Experience with database platforms like SAP Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, Apache Cassandra, Cosmos DB, PostgreSQL, and data warehouse platforms such as Snowflake, Greenplum.

• Exposure to public cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud.

• Knowledge of programming languages like Python, Perl, Java, Go; automation tools such as Ansible/AWX; source control systems like GIT and Azure DevOps.

• Experience with operating systems like Linux and Windows.

• Strong background in supporting mission-critical applications and performing deep technical analysis.

• Flexibility to work with various technologies and write high-quality code.

• Exposure to project management.

• Passion for interactive troubleshooting, operational support, and innovation.

• Creativity and a drive to learn new technologies.

• Data-driven problem-solving skills and a desire to scale technology for future needs.

Operating Systems: Familiarity with Linux/Windows.

• Proficiency with shell commands (grep, find, sed, awk, ls, cp, netstat, etc.).

• Experience checking system performance metrics like CPU, memory, and disk usage on Unix/Linux.

Other Personal Characteristics:

• Integrity and the highest ethical standards.

• Ability to quickly adjust to complex data and information, displaying strong learning agility.

• Self-starter with a commitment to superior performance.

• Natural curiosity and a desire to always learn.

If this excites you, we would love to discuss your potential role on our team!

Our benefits

To help you stay energized, engaged and inspired, we offer a wide range of benefits including a strong retirement plan, tuition reimbursement, comprehensive healthcare, support for working parents and Flexible Time Off (FTO) so you can relax, recharge and be there for the people you care about.

Our hybrid work model

BlackRock’s hybrid work model is designed to enable a culture of collaboration and apprenticeship that enriches the experience of our employees, while supporting flexibility for all. Employees are currently required to work at least 4 days in the office per week, with the flexibility to work from home 1 day a week. Some business groups may require more time in the office due to their roles and responsibilities. We remain focused on increasing the impactful moments that arise when we work together in person – aligned with our commitment to performance and innovation. As a new joiner, you can count on this hybrid model to accelerate your learning and onboarding experience here at BlackRock.

Guidance on AI use for candidates

At BlackRock, AI has long been part of how we work – enhancing decision-making, improving operations, and helping us deliver better outcomes for clients. We encourage candidates to use AI thoughtfully to learn, prepare, and work more effectively; but during our interview process, we want to focus on getting to know you through your own experiences, thinking, and judgment. To support you, we’ve provided guidance on when and how to use AI during our hiring process so you can approach each step with confidence and showcase your best self.

About BlackRock

At BlackRock, we are all connected by one mission: to help more and more people experience financial well-being. Our clients, and the people they serve, are saving for retirement, paying for their children’s educations, buying homes and starting businesses. Their investments also help to strengthen the global economy: support businesses small and large; finance infrastructure projects that connect and power cities; and facilitate innovations that drive progress.

This mission would not be possible without our smartest investment – the one we make in our employees. It’s why we’re dedicated to creating an environment where our colleagues feel welcomed, valued and supported with networks, benefits and development opportunities to help them thrive.

To learn more about BlackRock, please visit Careers.BlackRock.com. We also encourage you to get to know us on LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, X, and TikTok.

BlackRock is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to age, disability, family status, gender identity, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation and other protected attributes at law.