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BlackRock Engineering

To build the most advanced investment technology platform that democratizes financial well-being for people worldwide.

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Align the strategy

BlackRock Engineering SWOT Analysis

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To build the most advanced investment technology platform that democratizes financial well-being for people worldwide.

Strengths

  • PLATFORM: Aladdin's industry-leading risk analytics & portfolio mgmt
  • TALENT: World-class engineering team with deep financial expertise
  • SCALE: $10T+ AUM enables robust technology investment capacity
  • INTEGRATION: Seamless API ecosystem connecting financial systems
  • DATA: Proprietary financial data lake spanning global markets

Weaknesses

  • AGILITY: Legacy components slow deployment cycles to 6+ weeks
  • TALENT: 22% engineer turnover rate exceeds financial tech average
  • CLOUD: Only 65% of infrastructure migrated to cloud platforms
  • UX: Client interfaces lag consumer-grade experience expectations
  • SILOS: Engineering teams operate in product-specific domains

Opportunities

  • AI: Embed predictive analytics across investment workflows
  • APIS: Expand open financial ecosystem for third-party integration
  • RETAIL: Extend enterprise technology to serve individual investors
  • ESG: Develop industry-leading sustainability data & analytics
  • MARKETS: Expand technology footprint in emerging global markets

Threats

  • COMPETITION: Fintech startups targeting niche Aladdin functions
  • TALENT: Big tech firms aggressively recruiting financial engineers
  • COMPLIANCE: Expanding regulatory requirements across jurisdictions
  • SECURITY: Sophisticated cyber threats targeting financial data
  • DISRUPTION: Blockchain/DeFi challenging traditional infrastructure

Key Priorities

  • MODERNIZATION: Accelerate cloud migration for platform agility
  • TALENT: Revamp engineering culture to reduce turnover by 50%
  • AI: Implement ML capabilities across core investment workflows
  • DATA: Unify cross-platform data architecture for actionable insights
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Align the plan

BlackRock Engineering OKR Plan

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To build the most advanced investment technology platform that democratizes financial well-being for people worldwide.

MODERNIZE

Transform our technology foundation for agility & scale

  • CLOUD: Migrate 85% of Aladdin infrastructure to cloud-native architecture with 99.99% availability
  • MICROSERVICES: Decompose 12 critical monolithic components into scalable microservices by Q3
  • DEVOPS: Reduce release cycles from 6 weeks to 2 weeks through automated CI/CD implementation
  • COST: Optimize cloud infrastructure spending to achieve 15% efficiency gains while scaling capacity
EMPOWER

Cultivate a world-class engineering culture

  • TALENT: Reduce engineering turnover from 22% to 10% through enhanced growth & recognition programs
  • SKILLS: Ensure 90% of engineers complete advanced cloud & AI certification programs this quarter
  • INNOVATION: Launch engineering hackathon program with 75%+ participation and 8 productized projects
  • DIVERSITY: Increase representation of underrepresented groups in engineering by 30% this year
INTELLIGENCE

Embed AI throughout our investment platform

  • PLATFORM: Launch unified AI development platform adopted by 85% of product engineering teams
  • MODELS: Deploy 15 new ML models for risk assessment with 35% improved predictive accuracy
  • ASSISTANT: Release Aladdin Insights AI assistant with 80%+ accuracy on investment queries
  • AUTOMATION: Reduce manual operational tasks by 40% through intelligent process automation
UNIFY

Create a seamless data ecosystem for insights

  • ARCHITECTURE: Implement unified data mesh architecture across 90% of critical data domains
  • GOVERNANCE: Achieve 95% compliance with new data quality & lineage standards across platforms
  • APIS: Expand public API ecosystem by 40 new endpoints with developer adoption growing 25% QoQ
  • EXPERIENCE: Increase data accessibility NPS from 65 to 80 through improved discovery interfaces
METRICS
  • ALADDIN REVENUE: 15% YoY growth for 2025
  • PLATFORM RELIABILITY: 99.99% availability across all critical services
  • ENGINEERING VELOCITY: Reduce time-to-production from 45 to 15 days
VALUES
  • Client First: Relentlessly focus on client outcomes above all else
  • Innovation: Continuously challenge conventional thinking with bold ideas
  • Integrity: Uphold the highest standards of ethics and transparency
  • One BlackRock: Collaborate across boundaries for collective impact
  • Inclusivity: Embrace diverse perspectives to drive better decisions
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Align the learnings

BlackRock Engineering Retrospective

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To build the most advanced investment technology platform that democratizes financial well-being for people worldwide.

What Went Well

  • REVENUE: Technology services grew 12% YoY exceeding market estimates
  • ADOPTION: Aladdin platform user growth increased 14% to 55,000+ users
  • EFFICIENCY: Engineering productivity improved 9% through DevOps adoption
  • SECURITY: Zero critical incidents despite 25% increase in attack surface
  • INNOVATION: Launched 7 new AI-enhanced features with strong client uptake

Not So Well

  • DELIVERY: Three major platform releases delayed by average of 8 weeks
  • COSTS: Cloud infrastructure spending exceeded budget by 22% YoY growth
  • RETENTION: Lost 8 senior engineering leaders to competitors this quarter
  • TECHNICAL: Aladdin platform experienced 4 significant availability issues
  • INTEGRATION: Post-acquisition tech integration timelines missed by 40%

Learnings

  • ARCHITECTURE: Monolithic components creating single points of failure
  • PROCESS: Release frameworks need standardization across product teams
  • CULTURE: Need for improved engineering career path transparency
  • DEBT: Technical debt accumulation rate exceeding remediation capacity
  • COMPLEXITY: Client implementation processes overly customized & manual

Action Items

  • MODERNIZE: Accelerate decomposition of 5 critical monolithic services
  • AUTOMATE: Implement CI/CD across 85% of codebase to improve velocity
  • TALENT: Launch engineering excellence program with clearer growth paths
  • CLOUD: Optimize cloud architecture to reduce infrastructure costs by 15%
  • QUALITY: Enhance automated testing coverage from 72% to 90% by Q3 2025
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Drive AI transformation

BlackRock Engineering AI Strategy SWOT Analysis

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To build the most advanced investment technology platform that democratizes financial well-being for people worldwide.

Strengths

  • FOUNDATION: Extensive financial data assets for AI model training
  • RESEARCH: Dedicated AI research team with 45+ PhD data scientists
  • COMPUTE: Substantial GPU infrastructure for model development
  • ADOPTION: 78% of institutional clients using AI-enhanced features
  • TALENT: Strategic ML engineering hires from leading tech companies

Weaknesses

  • INTEGRATION: AI capabilities siloed within specific product teams
  • GOVERNANCE: Inconsistent model validation and explainability
  • TALENT: Shortage of engineers with both ML and finance expertise
  • TOOLS: Limited internal ML operations and experiment tooling
  • LEGACY: Architectural constraints for real-time model inference

Opportunities

  • PERSONALIZATION: Customized investment insights at scale
  • EFFICIENCY: Automate 40% of manual operational workflows
  • RISK: Next-gen predictive risk models using multimodal data
  • NATURAL: Conversational interfaces for complex financial questions
  • DISCOVERY: AI-powered pattern recognition in market behavior

Threats

  • TALENT: Intense competition for AI engineering talent
  • REGULATION: Emerging global AI governance frameworks
  • ADOPTION: Client hesitancy around black-box AI recommendations
  • ETHICS: Potential AI bias in investment decision processes
  • COMPETITION: AI-native fintech firms targeting key segments

Key Priorities

  • PLATFORM: Develop unified AI/ML platform for cross-team leverage
  • GOVERNANCE: Implement rigorous AI ethics and validation framework
  • TALENT: Create specialized AI engineering development program
  • INSIGHTS: Deploy next-gen conversational investment assistant