Senior Product Manager, Aladdin Product Management, Vice President

Job Description

About this role

BlackRock is one of the world’s leading asset management firms and Aladdin® is the firm’s an end-to-end operating system for investment professionals to see their whole portfolio, understand risk exposure, and act with precision. Aladdin is the central nervous system powering the investment decisions of both the firm and its clients; a $1+ bn technology business that has significant growth aspirations over the next five years. Our mission is to evolve Aladdin as a platform, open its architecture, and transform its design & create ease of use.

The team is responsible for designing, building and operating Aladdin. Being a member of the team means working with the industry’s thought leaders to build innovative and next generation products that shape the financial markets.

Job background

We are looking for Product Manager to join the Aladdin Investment Operations Product Management team and lead the Trade Operations product area. This area encompasses the all the functionality for Confirmation workflows, Settlement notifications, and all of the associated messaging such as FIX, SWIFT and FpML. This is one of the core components of Aladdin and is used by BlackRock as well as all the Aladdin customers.

The position is a combination of Strategic and Tactical tasks. There are many strategic areas that need exploration, evaluation and prioritization, while in parallel ensuring that the tactical needs for continuing to operate the platform are met. It is a delicate balance of resource allocation and stakeholder management.

You will support the end-to-end product road map. In this role, you will advance the regulatory requirements, feature development, automation, and user experience. On a day-to-day basis, you will be responsible for capturing requests from multiple stakeholders, capturing product requirements, translating these into our Agile operating model Epics and Feature stories and prioritizing them as part of the backlog grooming. You will also work very closely with both our UX design and engineering teams to bring the product to market.

You will work as part of a dynamic and vertically integrated team. Additionally, the structure of the business internally means you will need to operate in a matrixed fashion with multiple stakeholders in functions like the Platforms team (infrastructure), Product Marketing, Client Services, etc. who are each focused on diverse clients and users. As you develop the product road map, you will need to skillfully solve for this complexity of users and stakeholders and bring people on the journey in an effective way.

Our ideal candidate is someone who has a solid understanding of Post Trade Trade-Operations space, a strong technical product orientation, a passion for user experience, and an ability to turn complex requirements into products that make peoples’ lives easier.

Primary responsibilities

• Aladdin Investment Ops Trade Operations Product Manager: inclusive of road map, delivery and results. You will translate product strategy into detailed requirements, backlogs and partner with design and engineering teams to bring those to life through concepts, wireframes, and final delivery in market.
• Collaborate with Design Leads to optimize how we use data and UX research to define and solve user problems. Part of this also includes monitoring external trends and being able to communicate these in a simple, compelling way.
• Partner with Engineering Leads to ensure sprints are managed within our release cycle and testing protocols.
• Manage stakeholders effectively - you need to communicate product developments in a way that partners understand what we’re doing and why. You’ll be expected to partner with other product managers to ensure these are in sync with other priorities.
• Support the business case and rationale for new features and innovations.
• Keep leadership informed of the team’s progress and provide a realistic picture of what is achievable with the resources at hand.
• Work with Product Marketing, Client Services, and other stakeholders on promotional plans to ensure that strategies are integrated.
• Represent the firm and the product by meeting with clients to solicit feedback and be flexible to travel approx. 10% as needed.

Essential skills / experience

• You must have at least 6+ years of experience leading technical product developments, managing all aspects of a successful product throughout its lifecycle.
• Understanding and awareness of post trade ecosystem in 3 areas:
• Asset management
• Asset servicing
• Utilities such as CTM, OSTTRA, etc
• Can acquire a deep functional understanding of Aladdin and client use cases.
• Understanding of design thinking, Lean UX practices (e.g. concepting, user testing, prototyping etc), web/mobile development practices, and knowledge of APIs a significant bonus.
• Experience and understanding of both waterfall and Agile project management disciplines, with an emphasis on Scrum.

• Good written and verbal communication and ability to gain buy-in on plans from a non-technical audience at varying degrees of seniority.
• Positive attitude and resilience, with strong problem-solving skills.
• Skilled at working effectively with cross functional teams in a matrix organization.
• Working with large scale transactions & data volumes is helpful
• CTM, FIX, SWIFT knowledge would be beneficial

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.

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.

For additional information on BlackRock, please visit @blackrock | Twitter: @blackrock | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/blackrock

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.