Director, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Engineer

BlackRock, Inc.; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Retirement investment

Education reimbursement

Health and wellbeing resources

Family support programs

Flexible Time Off

Job summary

BlackRock AI Labs in Edinburgh is seeking a senior software engineer to lead and design scalable AI/ML systems across the firm. You will guide architecture, build production-grade solutions, and collaborate with business, risk, and data teams to deliver impactful AI capabilities.

The role emphasizes strong Python proficiency, APIs, data pipelines, and containerized deployments, with a focus on responsible, scalable, and observable AI platforms in a hybrid work model.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience including designing, building, and operating complex production systems.
• 6+ years of experience building and deploying AI/ML, optimization, or model-driven applications in production.
• Strong proficiency in Python and maintainable production software.
• Strong SQL skills and experience with large-scale datasets.
• Experience designing APIs, services, data pipelines, or distributed systems for AI/ML apps.
• Experience with containerization/orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Proven ability to lead complex technical solutions from architecture to production deployment.
• Strong problem-solving, collaboration, and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership, set architectural direction, and drive key design decisions across multidisciplinary teams.
• Design, build, and operate production AI/ML systems in areas like generative AI, intelligent agents, predictive modeling, and optimization.
• Develop reusable AI platforms, services, and infrastructure to accelerate experimentation, deployment, monitoring, and adoption.
• Translate emerging AI capabilities into robust, scalable solutions with measurable business impact.
• Define evaluation, testing, and observability for AI systems, including non-deterministic and agentic apps.
• Optimize AI systems for latency, throughput, compute efficiency, reliability, security, and cost.
• Partner with business and risk teams to move solutions from concept to production and operation.
• Establish engineering standards, mentor engineers, and influence technical strategy.

Skills

Python

SQL

APIs

Data pipelines

Distributed systems

Problem solving

Communication

Leadership

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

PyTorch

TensorFlow

JAX

Job description

About this role

AI Labs Overview

For more than three decades, BlackRock has combined world-class talent and technology to redefine what's possible in asset management. Today, AI is reshaping every aspect of our industry, from investments and client experiences to operations, risk management, and product innovation. BlackRock AI Labs sits at the center of that transformation.

AI Labs is BlackRock's advanced AI science and engineering organization. We partner with teams across the firm to solve some of the most complex and consequential challenges in financial services, applying generative AI, machine learning, optimization, and statistics to deliver measurable business impact. Our mission is simple but ambitious: combine human and machine intelligence to revolutionize asset management.

What sets AI Labs apart is our ability to move from idea to impact. We are not a research lab detached from the business, nor are we a traditional software engineering organization. We are a hybrid team of scientists and engineers who build solutions that run at scale in production environments and create capacity for our business partners. From AI-powered investment insights and risk management solutions to next-generation agentic workflows and enterprise AI platforms, our work is helping to shape the future of BlackRock.

Our teams work on some of the firm's highest priority strategic initiatives, including large-scale generative AI systems, intelligent agents, predictive analytics, optimization engines, operational risk solutions, and AI platforms that accelerate innovation across BlackRock. We help define best practices, establish technical standards, and enable teams throughout the organization to adopt AI safely, effectively, and at scale.

AI Labs has offices in New York, Edinburgh, Atlanta, San Francisco and Seattle.

We are looking for candidates with unique backgrounds and diverse skill sets with fresh perspectives to accelerate and amplify our efforts to make an impact at BlackRock.

In this role, you can expect to:

• Provide technical leadership, set architectural direction, and drive key design decisions across multidisciplinary teams.
• Design, build, and operate production AI/ML systems across areas such as generative AI, intelligent agents, predictive modeling, and optimization.
• Develop reusable AI platforms, services, and infrastructure that accelerate experimentation, deployment, monitoring, and adoption across the firm.
• Translate emerging AI capabilities into robust, scalable solutions that deliver measurable business impact.
• Define evaluation, testing, and observability approaches for AI systems, including non-deterministic and agentic applications.
• Optimize AI systems and workloads for latency, throughput, compute efficiency, reliability, security, and cost.
• Partner with business, engineering, data, risk, and control teams to take solutions from concept through production deployment and ongoing operation.
• Establish engineering standards, mentor engineers, and influence technical strategy across teams.

The minimum requirements for this position are:

• 12+ years of software engineering experience, including significant experience designing, building, and operating complex production systems.
• 6+ years of experience building and deploying AI/ML, optimization, or other model-driven applications in production.
• Strong proficiency in Python and a track record of developing maintainable, well-tested production software.
• Strong SQL skills and experience working with data-intensive applications and large-scale datasets.
• Experience designing and building APIs, services, data pipelines, or distributed systems that support AI/ML applications.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies, such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical solutions from architecture and design through production deployment, operation, and continuous improvement.
• Strong problem-solving, collaboration, and communication skills, with the ability to influence technical decisions across multidisciplinary teams.

Additional knowledge and experience we value includes:

• Experience collaborating with research teams in fast-moving environments, ideating quickly on research prototypes.
• Generative AI, large language models, AI agents, and architectures for production AI systems.
• Evaluation, experimentation, observability, debugging, and testing approaches for AI/ML systems, including non-deterministic and agentic applications.
• Machine learning and optimization frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX.
• Distributed systems, cloud infrastructure, model serving, orchestration, data pipelines, and API design.
• Performance optimization across latency, throughput, compute utilization, reliability, scalability, and cost.
• Responsible AI, security, governance, and controls in enterprise or regulated environments.
• Experience with a systems- or performance-oriented programming language such as Rust, C++, C, Go, or Zig.
• Experience in financial services or another regulated industry.

Our benefits

• retirement investment and tools designed to help you in building a sound financial future
• access to education reimbursement
• comprehensive resources to support your physical health and emotional well-being
• family support programs
• 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, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation and other protected characteristics at law.