Associate, Client Contracting

About this role

About BlackRock

About Client Experience

Our mission within the Client Experience (CX) organization is to make it easier for clients to do business with BlackRock, making service so simple it becomes a source of alpha. We are organized across 4 key pillars:

Client Experience Delivery- client-facing teams orchestrating all aspects of service delivery, and onboarding teams bringing new business onto our platform; Wealth- differentiated capability for both Whole Portfolio and Wealth clients & products, respectively; Client Experience Operations- core client operations teams driving reporting, billing, and onboarding due diligence across the globe; and Client Experience Transformation- accelerating progress towards our CX mission via research and competitive insights, analytics, marketing, business and change management.

Team Overview

The Contracting team sits within Client Experience Delivery and is responsible for drafting investment agreements, negotiating agreements with clients, and collaborating with internal stakeholders to gather input on contractual terms while running a simple, transparent and risk-controlled onboarding process to bring new client and business opportunities onto the BlackRock platform. Contract Officers are contract managers who draft and negotiate investment agreements while engaging with internal and external stakeholders to understand the capabilities of BlackRock to memorialize negotiated provisions and mitigate risk to BlackRock.

Role Responsibility

• Drive the contracting process from initial drafting through client negotiation and execution for your portfolio of business and meet client expectations
• Focus on a specific client channel, supervise the book of work for that channel
• Facilitate and coordinate with internal partners across functions involved in the contracting process, ensuring their comments flow through to the contract and requisite approvals are acquired
• Manage client expectations throughout the negotiation process
• Ensure that the appropriate contracting process is followed to mitigate risk to BlackRock
• Identify potential issues that are disseminated to potentially impacted internal stakeholders for review, discussion, negotiation and resolution
• Negotiate contractual provisions with clients directly on negotiation calls
• Capture and record relevant non-standard contractual clauses on an ongoing basis and maintain the contractual documentation database
• Ensure that all completed contractual documentation is properly filed and circulated to relevant groups
• Find opportunities for process and client experience improvements
• Support the sales team with contractual documentation queries

Proficiencies

• Proven track record of drafting and negotiating sophisticated legal contracts
• Ability to perform and deliver high quality legal contracts in a fast-paced environment
• Prior investment management experience highly preferred
• Juris Doctor degree required; state bar preferred
• Proven skills in successfully managing competing internal and external demands within timeframe
• Knowledge of the asset management industry (fund types, client base and strategies, operational set up and products) and applicable law and regulations
• Ability to engage in client-facing communications
• Comfort in working with multiple systems to supervise and handle the contract negotiation lifecycle
• Ability to independently handle tasks and workload with some guidance and oversight
• Ability to think out of the box, to navigate sophisticated internal processes and functions, and be able to offer practical solutions that will be mutually helpful to both the client and Blackrock
• Demonstrated ability to balance client needs with BlackRock policies and operational procedures; possess regulatory and technical awareness in order to understand associated risks and provide innovative, risk-free and compliance friendly solutions
• Comfortable with working in a team setting

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