The fintech industry is growing and evolving all the time. Hays’ Tom Wood takes a closer look at some of the biggest fintech jobs right now.
The fintech industry has continued to gain momentum globally over the past few years, with the UK sector very much in acceleration mode. Recent figures reveal the UK accounts for 11pc of the global fintech industry and London has without a doubt cemented its status as a global fintech hub.
Within the UK and globally, there are no signs of a slowdown in terms of investment into fintech, with UK fintechs alone receiving £2.6bn of investment in 2018. However, despite fintech being an undeniably attractive sector in which to work, there is a talent deficit, and tech industry figures such as Will Shu, CEO of Deliveroo, have spoken out in favour of fast-track visa processes to help source talent from overseas.
As large banks are investing more in digital products, they are competing with cutting-edge fintech start-ups for talent. Start-ups and established fintechs such as Monzo have already built up a reputation with their relaxed culture, workplace flexibility and rapid career advancement options, giving them the upper hand when it comes to attracting talent. Additionally, there is the attraction to work for a fintech as a business built on technology instead of large banks, which face frustrations of legacy technology. With the appetite for talent in mind, here is a rundown of the hottest jobs in fintech right now.
Software engineers
Consistent with the last couple of years, demand for developers remains high and, with many fintechs competing for talent, there are very attractive salaries on the market. Skillsets such as Java or other JVM languages are very much in demand, resulting in significant salary rises over the last year for technical leads and developers.
More and more, fintechs will be looking for engineers with a broad range of development languages or at least the appetite to learn more. Although most software engineers are educated to a degree level, there is a rising number who have entered commercial roles without a degree. Therefore, employers who do want to recruit the most qualified candidates must value demonstrated expertise every bit as much as formal education credentials. Positively, candidates can now easily showcase this by including links to their open source contributions or similar on their applications or CVs.
Cybersecurity roles
As best practice becomes more established in the evolving world of cybersecurity, a greater number of employers are taking a long-term view and hiring more permanent staff to implement their organisation’s cybersecurity strategy.
Not only are large banks investing in cybersecurity staff, fintech start-ups are also particularly vulnerable to security breaches and as such have kept the demand for cybersecurity professionals high.
Site reliability engineers
Google coined the concept of site reliability engineering and overall it involves applying aspects of software engineering to operations, with the ultimate goal of creating systems that are scalable and reliable. It’s a role that has certainly gained traction over the past few years.
The role is most in demand among top banks and high-performing fintech companies that have complex technical challenges. Positively, it is possible to transition into this role if you already have a good background in software or systems engineering, and the role is only set to grow in demand, which will open up more flexibility in terms of career opportunities.
Data scientists
As employers seek to use their data in better ways, data scientists and data analysts have transitioned to play key roles in the sector. Despite the majority of fintech start-ups utilising these roles from start-up phase, banks are now building in-house innovation labs, of which data science is a key factor.
Candidates are now seeing a market with a large variety of roles available across both large banks and smaller fintech firms, making those hiring work harder to attract in-demand talent.
By Tom Wood
Tom Wood is the head of finance technology at Hays.
