This chart says it all now, at least when it comes to when people will be back in the office. As such, it is only a few months until the next major transformation of the workplace will start to manifest itself. That transformation may be the largest long-term effect of the pandemic. It’s now clear that hybrid work setups will dominate the employment landscape going forward. Employees want it, and it is cheaper for employers – win/win = inevitable. Some real examples:
Two Sigma testing 2 days remote after Labor Day
Spotify has told workers they can work anywhere
Salesforce expects workers in the office 1-3 days/week
Citigroup said a majority of workers would be designated hybrid with an expectation of at least 3 days/week in the office
We see it very clearly: Employees want flexibility and are willing to trade significant $ for it.
This Forbes article talks about how Goldman, Google, and other firms are “getting it right” moving to return to offices and offer flexibility to employees.
Busiest Market in Years
Investment Bank IT Job Listings for NYC
Investment Bank IT Job Listings for NYC
I have commented on location strategy and various other factors dampening hiring in New York for the past couple of years. While those factors persist, the overall hiring picture is very good. We are as busy as we have ever been, as we experience a significant uptick in hiring from banks, hedge funds, and fintech firms.
Above is a chart of aggregate IT hiring in NYC among the top banks. While the 1st quarter consistently shows a cyclical upward trend, the action in 2021 shows significantly stronger hiring across all banks than in 2020. Granted it’s an unusual year for year over year comparisons, but the trend for 2021 is clear. We normally would expect these numbers to soon level and then decrease for the rest of the year. We’ll watch and see.
What’s driving the hiring? The trend is broad, but we see continued demand for data engineering, SRE/DevOps, and more and more demand for cloud expertise. Firms whose systems are not cloud based are jumping in with both feet to realize cost savings and flexibility. Operations are investing heavily in technology to automate processes (BPA) and modernize systems. These efforts are driven by cost benefits, the risks of old technology (see Citi’s mistaken payment of $900M), and the competition from FinTech.
Where the Action is in Banking IT
Reduced risk taking and the rise of FinTech have changed where the action is in investment banking IT. Trading systems are taking a backseat to the reinvention of the modern, unbundled, financial eco-system. CBInsights .com wrote Unbundling of Bank of America. In a picture:
Goldman has built what is calls “a treasury of the future.” We are seeing every bank engaged in rearchitecting their Payments systems to avoid being left behind. Much of our recent work for the banks has been focused in these areas. While banks have competition from FinTech on my flanks, unbundling adds complexity to the user experience. The nimbler traditional banks may well come out on top.
The Future - DeFi
DeFi stands for “decentralized finance.” Jump Trading has just announced their involvement in something called Pyth Network. The objectives include, "allowing the raw material of very high performance, very precise market data to be injected into smart contracts that were written using these protocols." I could chase links and read about blockchain technology and smart contracts for days. These are clearly important trends. BTW, pretty cool that Jump, a highly secretive firm, has a podcast.
Data Engineering
Data engineering has been the story in the quantitative development space for the past several years. Two Sigma’s CTO gives a good perspective on this area and how good data engineering has a multiplier effect. If you’re interested, David Siegel, Chairman of Two Sigma, opines on whether we are using technology to build the world that we want.
OS-Climate
Goldman joins with Linux Foundation in an interesting technical development as momentum grows for ESG investment.
Current Priorities
FinTech
Most in Demand: Distributed Systems/Micro Services, Data Engineering, DevOps
· Full-stack engineer - Python/Javascript – early stage startup – equity position
· Distributed Systems Engineer - Go, Kafka (Go experience not required)
· Senior full-stack Engineer - Typescript, React, Go, Kafka
· Senior Data Engineer - Python, SQL, Go, Postgres, Kafka
· Data Engineer – Data Ops – Python, SQL, Go, Postgres, Kafka
Buy Side
Most in Demand: C++, Python, Data Engineering, DevOps
· Data Engineer – C#, SQL
· SRE - Trading Operations Engineer/Support (Princeton)
· Data Engineer (Princeton)
· Research Engineer (Princeton)
· Research Scientist (Princeton)
· Machine Learning Researcher (Princeton)
· Javascript/ReactJS UI Engineer
· Equity Risk C++ Engineer
· Fixed Income eTrading Java engineer
· Geneva SRE/Support, SRE/DevOps, QA – 3 roles
· Cloud DevOps Engineer
· CorpTech full-stack Engineer – C#, Javascript/Angular
· Fixed Income Risk/Pricing/P&L - Java or C# Financial Engineers – (Newport Beach, CA)
· C++ Engineer – eTrading platform
· Java Engineer – post-trade systems
· On Desk Mortgage Tech Lead – Python, KDB (prior knowledge not required)
· Market Data C++ Engineer
· Mid-senior Real-time Java Developer – trading systems
· Mid-senior Data Engineer – Python, SQL
· QuantDev Portfolio Solutions – C++, Python
· QuantDev Fixed Income – C++
· Commodities Data Engineer – Python
· Commodities Platform Engineer – Python
· Fixed Income QuantDev Lead – Rates/Mortgages/FX – C++
· Fixed Income QuantDev Lead – Linear Rates – C++
· Credit Platform Engineer – C++
· Credit Platform SRE
· Credit QuantDev – Equity Vol – C++
· Credit QuantDev – Credit – C++
· Regulatory Reporting – python, SQL w/ Reg or Trade Lifecycle experience
· Front-office post-trade – Java or C++
· Post-trade Engineering Business Manager
Sell Side
Most in Demand: Java, DevOps, Data Engineering, Big Data – Diversity
· ED: Business Process Transformation (Process & Task Mining) Lead
· App Dev, Business Process Transformation (Process & Task Mining)
· ED: Semantic and Graph Technology - Application Development Lead
· App Dev, Semantic and Graph Technology
· ED: Payments IT Tech Lead
· Java Engineers – many flavors, FTE and Contract
· VP: Rates eTrading Sr Java
· ED: Quantitative Risk Analyst – Hedge Fund Risk
· SRE
· VP: Technical Delivery Manager – Loans Controllers – rare, non-coding lead role
· C#/Angular – Contract, Atlanta, GA
· KDB Developer, Trade post-execution
· VP: QuantDev: Quantitative Investment Strats (QIS)
· Assoc/VP: Java Data Engineering – Dallas
· VP: SRE – NYC, Dallas, Salt Lake City
· ED: Global Head of Cloud Engineering
· VP: Senior Cloud Engineer
· VP/ED: QuantDev FICC Systematic Market Making
· VP/ED: QuantDev FX Systematic Market Making
· VP/ED: QuantDev Fundamental Equity Strats
· VP/Contract: QuantDev IRSwaps Pricing – Java
· VP/Contract: Realtime Java - Risk
· VP/Contract: Fixed Income eTrading Java engineer
Contract
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