Fintech: what skills do jobseekers need?
The rise in fintech jobs has created a need for candidates with specific skill sets. But what skills are considered desirable in this evolving sector?
The fintech sector has grown significantly in recent years. At CWJobs, we’ve certainly seen an increase in the number of fintech jobs posted on our jobs board. According to Robert Walters’ UK Fintech Salary Report, jobs within the sector increased by 61% in 2018 with demand pushing salaries up by as much as 25%.
The report also shows that London continues to be the number one city in Europe for attracting fintech investments with a capital share of 39%, compared with 21% in Berlin and 18% in Paris. We outlined some of the reasons for London’s popularity with tech investors in a previous post, which includes its high concentration of developers and billion-dollar unicorns.
The rise in FinTech jobs has created a need for candidates with specific skillsets. Let’s take a look at what skills are considered desirable in this evolving sector:
What is fintech?
Financial technology (fintech), is a term that describes new tech that aims to improve and automate the delivery of financial services. The technology is used by both consumers and companies to better manage their finances and their associated processes.
The term covers anything from cryptocurrency to mobile payment apps and is used in a variety of sub-sectors including education, insurance and banking. Some of the largest and most well-known fintech companies include TransferWise, Funding Circle, Algomi and Monzo.
How is the fintech sector evolving?
The term ‘fintech’ emerged in the 21st Century and was used to describe the back-end systems of financial institutions. Since then, the sector has grown to include consumer-focused services like personal finance apps and money transfer systems. According to a 2018 survey by financial services company Bankrate, 64% of smartphone users have at least one financial app.
Today, fintech is used in a range of industries where there’s a need for payment processing and monetary tracking. In recent years, financial technology has become synonymous with the rise of crypto-currencies like bitcoin and its growth is expected to continue well into the future. According to the Global FinTech Market Research Report 2019, the growth of fintech is expected to continue at a compound annual growth rate of 74.16% between 2019 and 2025.
As the sector continues to evolve, we expect to see a rise in the use of certain technologies, including blockchain, mobile payment technology and cloud technology.
What skills do jobseekers need to work in fintech?
According to Robert Walters’ report, 42% of fintech roles currently require IT skills, which is unsurprising considering the tech industry’s current IT skills shortage. The report reveals that development and engineering skills are most in demand, followed by corporate sales (B2B) and IT management. Let’s take a closer look at each of these skillsets:
Development & engineering
With the rise in mobile and internet banking, the fintech sector increasingly needs candidates with web, application and software development skills to create, maintain and improve financial services both online and off.
Corporate sales
The rise of financial technology means that the B2B marketplace is becoming increasingly competitive. Fintech companies need candidates who have a strong understanding of their products, coupled with the sales skills needed to engage clients and attract new business.
IT management
The fintech sector also needs candidates who can oversee IT infrastructures and ensure that daily operations run smoothly. IT management goes hand-in-hand with the ability to lead and motivate teams while getting the most out of technical staff.
What fintech skills will employers look for in the future?
As the sector moves increasingly towards crypto-currencies and continues to embrace emerging tech, we’ve taken our pick of the fintech skills that employers will look for in the near-future:
Blockchain development
We predict that an increasing number of financial companies will require candidates with blockchain expertise. This might involve having user experience (UX) skills with mobile apps and experience in coding smart contracts to transfer payments.
Programming Skills
An increasing number of programmers will be required to develop application programming interfaces (APIs) for new services. Candidates who have experience programming in Java, JavaScript, C#, C++ and Python will be particularly sought-after.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) Skills
As data science continues to make strong inroads into the financial services sector, companies will increasingly require candidates with experience working with AI. This might include having experience working data visualisation tools like D3.js and being proficient in using query languages like SQL and Hive.
Browse the latest FinTech Jobs on the CWJobs website.