Opportunities

We are moving to Twitter to keep people apprised of interesting job opportunities. Please follow AffinityFin. As always, we have an interesting list of current opportunities. Details below.

2016 Q2 Summary

Q2 was largely status quo as firms continue to watch budgets carefully and hire only in areas of extreme need. We frequently see openings being filled by internal transfers. An MD at Barclays told me last week that he is under a lot of pressure to fill his open positions by transferring employees who are looking for internal mobility.

Q2 results aren’t out yet, but I’ve heard encouraging things. Q1 was terrible, and banks have resized at this point, so there’s cautious optimism for a healthier Q2. The head of talent acquisition at a major investment bank told me a few weeks ago that he sees hiring picking up in the near future.

Management Compression

We’ve commented in previous reports about the reduction in the management ranks. I’ve heard that a very large bank is tracking the ratio of managers/reports with a target ratio of 8:1. That’s a large number, as anyone who has managed a team knows. There’s also a required reduction in the number of layers below the CTO.

Continued Pressure on Contract Rates

We saw contract rates cut across the board at several large investment banks over the past six months. These cuts were generally 5-10%. I was informed that Citi cut contract rates in some areas 20% in April. Really? That seems like an open invitation for your better people to leave as soon as possible.

WFH

When I was still working for a bank, the “WFH” (working from home) emails were a daily phenomenon and increased steadily over the years. One bank recently checked badge swipes for the employees in their IT division. They found a surprisingly low % of employees were actually on premise on a given day. Interesting from a number of perspectives.

Visas

We recently started working with a very large eCommerce startup. I was surprised and pleased to learn that the company starts green card processing within a month after start date. Smart move when you’re competing for the best technical talent.

Salaries outside of Wall Street

Ever wonder how people get paid at the big technology companies? This blog provides some insight.

Golden Age of Fintech

NY surpassed Silicon Valley in venture funding for Fintech for the first time in Q1 2016. The phenomenon is driven by more collaboration with financial institutions. Interesting take here including, “Finance will be the most disrupted industry in the next 10 years” and “There are more than 8,000 fintech start-ups just in the U.S. today.”

Crowd Sourced Hedge Fund

http://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/249108/meet-man-leading-team-80000-quants/ (some members of this distribution list have participated and done well).

Intangibles

Our focus is technical disciplines, and often the focus is on the challenges of technical interviews. What else are hiring managers looking for? Asking questions and the ability to navigate ambiguity are two key traits.

Julia

Is Julia the next language to learn?

The current language to learn is javascript. Almost every HM I talk to asks for javascript/HTML5 developers.

Current Opportunities

Great roles, high standards -

Buy Side

A storied hedge fund in Greenwich seeks a senior trading system dev/architect, C++/Python – green field development to build a new systematic trading platform
A very exciting prop trading firm needs a Network Architect and a Systems Engineer
A large hedge fund needs a QA Lead as well as a senior DevOps professional
A very sophisticated technology team at a major hedge fund seeks a super strong developer with good knowledge of markets and trading technologies
A dynamic hedge fund is seeking talented C++/Python developers for Quant/Dev roles
A leading HFT prop firm seeks C++ developers with experience building ultra-low-latency systems
A leading hedge fund is hiring a dev/quant for analytics development – 1 FX expert, 1 Commodities expert

Sell Side

A foreign investment bank from the Southern Hemisphere is seeking a dev/quant for its Commodities Index desk – VP level, sits on the desk
A leading investment bank is seeking a hands-on java developer for a VP position in Rates IT
A foreign IB seeks a very strong, VP level, java developer for their equities vol trading IT team

Technology/Fintech

A leading ecommerce startup ($500+mm raised) seeks talented developers
A Fintech company seeks a java/scala developer with good knowledge of bond pricing - REMOTE position
A Fintech company seeks a Javascript/HTML5/AngularJS developer - REMOTE position

As always, don’t hesitate to call if you are interested in discussing these observations, the current market, or how we can help you advance your goals.