BlackRock Investment Institute, AI Solutions, Research Associate

BlackRock is the world's largest and most prominent investment management firm, managing trillions of dollars in assets for institutions, governments, and individuals worldwide. We offer a wide range of investment products and services, including mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and alternative investments, catering to various investor needs and risk appetites. The BlackRock Investment Institute (BII) leverages BlackRock's expertise to produce proprietary research on the global economy, markets, geopolitics, and long-term asset allocation, helping clients and portfolio managers navigate financial markets.

About the role

This role sits at the center of BII’s transformation toward an AI-first operating model, helping design and implement the agentic systems, workflow automation, and AI infrastructure that will underpin the future of BII. Reporting to BII’s AI leadership team, you will execute BII’s AI strategy and serve as a bridge between investment professionals, domain experts, and technology partners. The role focuses on designing and deploying AI-powered workflows, building agentic systems for key BII functions, and establishing the operating architecture for more automated, continuous, and scalable research processes.

Responsibilities

• Partner with BII leadership to execute the Institute’s AI strategy and roadmap.
• Design, prototype, and deploy AI-powered workflows, copilots, and agentic systems that improve research, content creation, forecasting, and investment processes.
• Work alongside PMG and technology teams to define and implement BII’s AI architecture, governance frameworks, and operating model.
• Build workflow-specific AI solutions for major BII processes, including capital market assumptions (CMAs), tactical asset allocation (TAA), macro research, content production, and client-facing insights.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive or low-value tasks and redesign workflows around AI-native processes.
• Translate business requirements into technical specifications and coordinate implementation with engineering and platform teams.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies, models, frameworks, and vendors to determine applicability to BII use cases.
• Productionize prototypes and proof-of-concepts using modern AI tooling, including large language models, agentic coding frameworks, retrieval systems, and workflow orchestration platforms.
• Drive adoption of AI tools through training, change management, stakeholder engagement, and continuous feedback loops.
• Measure impact through productivity, quality, and scalability metrics and continuously improve deployed solutions.
• Contribute to the development of BII’s long-term vision for an agentic and continuously operating research organization.

Requirements

• Strong understanding of modern AI systems, including large language models, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic workflows, multi-agent systems, and workflow orchestration.
• Hands-on experience building AI applications, agents, automation solutions, or decision-support tools using commercial and/or open-source AI technologies.
• Experience with Python and modern AI development ecosystems, including APIs, prompt engineering, evaluation frameworks, vector databases, and agent frameworks.
• Familiarity with software architecture concepts, product development lifecycles, and enterprise deployment considerations.
• Ability to rapidly prototype solutions while maintaining a pragmatic focus on scalability, governance, and business value.
• Strong understanding of AI risks and controls, including model quality, hallucination risk, evaluation, explainability, security, and responsible AI.
• Interest in financial markets, macroeconomics, asset allocation, and investment research.
• Ability to understand complex investment workflows and identify opportunities to improve them through technology and automation.
• Experience working with research, analytics, investment, strategy, consulting, or product teams is highly desirable.
• Ability to synthesize technical and business considerations into actionable recommendations for senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• 2–5 years of relevant experience in AI, technology, product management, analytics, consulting, or related fields.
• Strong problem-solving skills and demonstrated ability to independently drive complex initiatives from concept through execution.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Proven ability to collaborate across multidisciplinary teams and influence stakeholders without direct authority.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with a bias toward experimentation, learning, and continuous improvement.
• Deep knowledge of Microsoft Office suite (PowerPoint, Excel, Word) and deep experience with Python and AI development tools.

Pay

For New York, NY, the salary range for this position is USD $145,000.00 - USD $190,000.00. Additionally, employees are eligible for an annual discretionary bonus and benefits including healthcare, leave benefits, and retirement benefits. BlackRock operates a pay-for-performance compensation philosophy, and your total compensation may vary based on role, location, firm, department, and individual performance.

Benefits

• Strong retirement plan
• Tuition reimbursement
• Comprehensive healthcare
• Support for working parents
• Flexible Time Off (FTO) to relax, recharge, and be there for the people you care about

Schedule

BlackRock’s hybrid work model requires employees 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.