The market for tech professionals is on fire right now. I have never experienced as robust a market. Everyone is hiring.
Investment bank hiring (see chart Q1) has only continued to trend upward. Among the large banks we track, there are currently ~1800 tech jobs posted in the NYC market. That number is almost double the number at the end of Q1 and three times the number of posting we saw at any time last year, even pre-Covid. That figure stands at the highest level it has for all of 2021, despite aggressive hiring since the beginning of the year. There is no sign of this market slowing down any time soon.
This is the first rising-tide-lifts-all-boats market we have seen in some time. Salaries and contract rates are up across the board. The financial industry is feeling intense competition from Big Tech, and companies are responding. Base salaries and overall packages are up significantly from just a couple of years ago. Salaries for lower-cost, near-shore locations like Dallas and Florida are also very competitive.
Back to the Office
Hybrid work arrangements continue to evolve. Now that people are returning to the office, companies are having to establish what the new rules of engagement are. The top CEO’s have all made statements about an expectation of returning to the office, and Goldman’s David Solomon called remote work an “aberration.” However, the rules are going to be different for IT departments. Arrangements will be more relaxed for tech workers, and managers will make their own decisions regarding their teams. Do not expect badge swipes to be tracked. How else can these firms compete for top people with the firms that are embracing remote work?
We hear from many people every day that remote work is a significant priority. Hybrid work will continue to evolve with the ultimate arrangement determined by a firms’ ability to attract and retain top people. Flexible work arrangements are a new currency.
Does it matter? This article says there is no impact on innovation. But if you are trying to raise your profile and get ahead, do you really want to not be in the office?
Hedge Funds Still Pay
With steady increases in share prices, tech firms have been able to poach from the financial industry for some time with stock-heavy packages. However, top payers in the financial industry continue to poach from tech firms with significant, all-cash compensation. Stock prices cannot go up forever. Notable is Two Sigma’s recent hire of Carter Clark Page. Our hedge fund clients are paying what it takes to attract top people.
Cloud Cloud Cloud
We are seeing more and more cloud focused roles including an ED level Cloud Architect role at Morgan Stanley. A cloud partnership between Morgan Stanley and Microsoft was announced recently. The cloud architect role will surely be involved in the evolution of Azure for the financial market.
DeFi
DeFi is evolving quickly and shedding disbelievers. Major hedge funds are setting up DeFi funds. And Goldman now offers bitcoin derivatives. And in an only-in-the-twenty-first-century marketing play, GrayScale Investments has partnered with the New York Giants, surely yielding click-throughs for people thinking, “What the heck?”
Affinity North Team
Not everyone knows the great Affinity North team. All are very experienced and expert in the financial technology field. Please see their bios linked below:
· Alan Todtenkopf (sabbatical)
Current Priorities
NOTE: This is only a sampling, too many roles to include!
FinTech
Most in Demand: Distributed Systems/Micro Services, Data Engineering, DevOps
· BlockChain Application Developer – language agnostic, prior BlockChain experience not required
· Application Lead Developer – Java/Scala
· Remote: Production Support Engineer
· Remote: FIX Engineer – Asian Markets – Java/Scala/FIX – West Coast or Hawaii time zone ideal
· Remote: Pre-Trade Developer – Asian Markets – Java/Scala/Fixed Income – West Coast or Hawaii time zone ideal
· Remote: Post-Trade Developer – Asian Markets – Java/Scala/Fixed Income – West Coast or Hawaii time zone ideal
· Data Analyst – Python, Jupyter Notebooks
· Product Manager - Derivatives, XVA, Margin, RWA, CCAR
· Quantitative Developer – Python, Fixed Income, complex Optimization
· Developer – Python, Fixed Income
· Full-stack engineer - Python/Javascript – early stage startup – equity position
· Data Infrastructure Engineer – Python, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes
· 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
· Trading Systems Developer – Build a trading platform from scratch – OMS, Risk, Reporting – Startup Hedge Fund
· Junior Dev/Strat – Java, SQL – Asset Manager
· Python, Javascript Engineer – Large Hedge Fund – Miami
· Quant Developer – C++, Python
· Quant Trader - C++, Python, data science, statistical inference models and predictive analytics
· Quant Research Lead - C++, Python, data science, statistical inference models and predictive analytics
· Junior Quant Researcher – C++, Python, Stats/ML
· Quant Researcher – Alpha research – C++, Python, Stats/ML
· Data Engineer – Structured Credit
· Reference Data Engineer – Java, SQL, Reference Data
· Senior Risk Engineer – Java, financial products, Risk
· Senior Trading Systems Engineer – C++, OMS, eTrading, low-latency a plus
· Senior Applications Developer – Java, Javascript
· Javascript/Typescript/ReactJS UI Engineer
· Equity Risk C++ Engineer
· Fixed Income eTrading Java engineer
· C++ Engineer – eTrading platform
· Market Data C++ Engineer
· Mid-senior Real-time Java Developer – trading systems
· Commodities Data Engineer – Python
Sell Side
Most in Demand: Java, DevOps, Data Engineering, Big Data – Diversity
· C++ Developer – CVA Systems
· Systems Support - Low-latency, equity trading
· Quantdev – Asset Management – Portfolio construction – Python, Java, or C++
· Java Architect – AMD Engineering – NOT a coding role
· Product Manager – Data products
· Java Developer – Dallas – many roles
· Data Engineer – Dallas – many roles
· Senior Java Developer – Rates eTrading
· Java Contractor – Rates eTrading
· Fullstack Engineer – Java, Javascript – Liquidity Engineering
· ED: Cloud Architect – Azure cloud expert
· Python Engineer – Investment Management
· 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
· VP: SRE – NYC, Dallas, Salt Lake City
· ED: Global Head of Cloud Engineering
· VP/ED: QuantDev FICC Systematic Market Making
· VP/Contract: Fixed Income eTrading Java engineer