Director, Technology Audit - Engineering and Architecture

About this role

Internal Audit’s primary mission is to provide assurance to the Board of Directors and Executive Management that BlackRock’s businesses are well managed and meeting strategic, operational and risk management objectives. The team engages with senior leaders and all of BlackRock’s individual business units globally to understand and advise on the risks in their business, evaluate the effectiveness of key processes and assist in the design of best practices that can improve their results. Internal Audit’s work builds confidence that BlackRock will meet its obligations to clients, shareholders, employees and other stakeholders.

The team includes professionals with trading, sales, risk management, compliance, technology, finance and operational experience. Internal Audit reports directly to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.

The Technology Audit team performs regional and global audits covering all aspects of BlackRock’s Technology portfolio, including application systems and related data platforms, infrastructure components such as networks, operating systems, data centers, and messaging platforms as well as activities related to cyber security and cloud-related control evaluation. In addition to pure technology reviews, The Technology Audit team also participates in business-integrated audits in which the technology components of various BlackRock business units are evaluated for control effectiveness, resiliency and scalability.

BlackRock’s Technology Audit Team is currently based in Atlanta, Edinburgh, Gurgaon, London, New York, Princeton, San Francisco and Singapore.

Role Description

The Internal Audit Technology Engineering and Architecture Director will have primary oversight for evaluating controls concerning the way in which technology solutions are designed and developed across the firm. She / he is expected to collaborate with other team members across the Global Technology and Global Business Audit teams while establishing the framework by which the audit department will assess and review our technology architecture and engineering efforts. As the firm has more formally built out its technology architecture practice, there is a need to focus on how this architecture is being adopted and embedded within the technology solutions being constructed by core technology teams as well as by business units in their citizen developer activities. Directly following the architecture is the engineering which transforms design into functionality, resulting in technology capabilities that are leveraged by BlackRock and its clients. As such, this role will focus on the controls embedded within relevant lifecycles and frameworks in order to provide ongoing assurance related to secure build and sustainable architecture, both of which represent increasingly important foundational considerations as the complexity of our technology state continues to increase. A related area of oversight will be the second line technology risk management function, currently covered via a distinct auditable unit.

Based in Atlanta, Princeton or New York, the role will report to the Global Head of Technology Audit and is expected to involve some level of travel, approximately 15%.

Responsibilities:

The Technology Audit Engineering and Architecture Director will play a leading role within the global technology audit team and will be expected to contribute significantly to strategic planning, process innovation, and assurance/advisory project execution.

Specific responsibilities will include:

• Develop a macro-level approach by which technology architecture and engineering efforts can be appropriately assessed from a control perspective – this is anticipated to include a re-evaluation of our AU structure that is relevant to these specific domains.
• Provide oversight, leadership and serve as Accountable Audit Director on audit assurance reviews aimed at validating the controls by which applications and other technology solutions are designed, developed and deployed, inclusive of efforts within the Aladdin Product Group (APG) as well as other technology and business units that may be developing technology solutions
• Build strong relationships with the technology leadership team and other business partners, including Information Security and Technology Risk Management
• Serve as primary Relationship Manager (RM) for relevant stakeholders, leading business engagements while developing a deep understanding of their practices, portfolio, ongoing projects and longer-term plans
• Collaborate with other Corporate risk and control functions to ensure a high level of coordination
• Serve as Accountable Audit Director or Independent Audit Director on selected technology reviews within the applications and data practice as well as the cloud, cyber, infrastructure