Contact us
5 minutes read

IT jobs are in high demand among unemployed workers or college graduates, as well as qualified candidates are in short supply for most positions within the industry. Fintech, however, takes that to another level.

As a booming industry that is continually changing legacy institutions by disruption and the rapid pace of evolution, financial technologies need people to fuel the progress. The interest in the Fintech industry is at its highest at the moment, and there is little surprise that many people are breaking into Fintech.

Whether one is aiming to get the job in Fintech solely at monetary benefits (which is fine), wants to join the process of shaping the future of finances or find a spot to reach the maximum personal development score — Fintech is a fine place to start looking for a vacant position.

Here’s how Joblift visualizes the positive dynamic of the UK’s fintech job market (alongside some salary numbers) in comparison to traditional positions in financial institutions (including investment banks).

fintech vs traditional banking

The monetary benefits seem obvious. And the thought of possibly changing the future technology is somewhat romantic as well. It's time to divide the job market into segments and explain what exactly the Fintech industry needs at the moment.

How to Get into Fintech: Best Tips to Succeed

Hard Skills

Traditional Programming Top IT Jobs in the Fintech Segment

Regardless of the niche and industry, some good old code writing is required pretty much everywhere, especially in the Fintech industry. In fact, the majority of recruiters are searching for someone with a background in technology. Fintech's backbone and primary distinction is technology, which makes it a profitable sector. Any fintech platform's cornerstones are mobile and web engineering, APIs, backend engineering using Java, Python, SQL, C++ and C#, data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, which leads us to the sector's key opportunities, such as product managers, software developers, cloud engineers, and data scientists, to name a few. The programmers and Fintech professionals can find their skill set useful for various projects, from basic to the most complex ones.

Here are several options to check out for when you're pursuing a career in financial technology and want to know where your professional path may take you.

  • App Developer
  • Blockchain Developer
  • Website Developer  (Full-Stack)
  • Crowdfunding Specialist
  • Risk and Compliance Expert
  • Financial Analyst
  • Business Analyst
  • Quantitative Analyst
  • Product Manager
  • Financial Manager
  • Data Scientist

The list can shrink or grow depending on the region, company, and its activity sphere, but you get the general picture. Based on your skill and experience, you can get a job in Fintech that would guarantee anything while fintech salaries presently vary from $80,500  to $138,000, with top earners reaching $169,000 per year in the USA.

If you’re new to programming and have mastered front-end development, your services will be required. If you are skilled enough for more complex issues, Fintech is full of platforms that need to be maintained and APIs to create.


AI and Machine Learning Jobs Get more Popular among Employers

Artificial intelligence is nearly complete in its training for artificial tasks such as chess gambits and recognizing unnatural algorithms and occurrences. This new stage of embedding neural networks into real-world human activity has begun, ranging from forecasting trade trends and controlling city traffic to genomic analysis and medical research.

Fintech job skills encompass acquiring, analyzing, and utilizing the data from countless sources. Artificial intelligence helps to navigate and find the required information, allowing a more comfortable life for data scientists. However, they must know how to operate and train the AI.

Fintech companies are ready to pay around 25% more for Fintech professionals who master data science than other businesses, which makes it an excellent choice for those knowledgeable about AIs and training patterns. The cost-effectiveness trends demand a better conversion of acquired data. Petabytes of information must be thoroughly examined to provide a unique user experience for each customer, thus increasing ROI.

The specialist would have to be proficient at data science toolkits and visualization tools, alongside query languages and NoSQL databases. Each position will demand its own unique Fintech job skills, but the general picture outlines precisely these requirements.

That is why artificial intelligence researchers are working difficult to put neural networks to work in the financial industry. Once neural networks are trained on a given person's behavioural patterns, AI will be able to trade for individuals in the same way that they would trade, only more effectively and around the clock. As a result, a fintech CEO should take artificial intelligence and machine learning seriously.

Automation is What Makes Fintech’s Processes to another Level

The original idea of Fintech was to deliver better results for less time while cutting costs and offering unique value to the client. All that had to come from new technology. But as each business model can be improved, so can be the technology.

Automation engineers will need to tackle the core of the company and find ways to make it work faster and comply with the original requirements we mentioned in the previous paragraph. Some Fintech roles require mastering how to combine the automation with AI, Deep Learning and Machine Learning, taking it solely to the data analysis niche. Regardless, an employee that knows how to make the processes more efficient and consume fewer resources, would be an invaluable addition to a Fintech startup team.

As firms extend their technological frontiers, the necessity and demand for process automation continue to rise. As a consequence, there has been a lot of demand for DevOps and competent labour in this field. As the amount of relevant data grows, so does the need to automate and handle it. As an effect, organizations are adopting a DevOps mindset to improve productivity and reduce the conventional software development lifecycle.

Cybersecurity is a Necessity for Most Fintech Companies

Cybersecurity is far more important than you may realize. Take a peek at how many high-profile data breaches and cyberattacks occur annually. Hundreds of millions of customer funds have been hacked, putting firms' reputations in danger. This is why cyber security is keeping CEOs of all types of businesses up late at night. After all, his responsibilities include:

  • Threats to information security should be identified
  • Take the necessary safeguards
  • Implement privacy best practices to safeguard all data
  • Create methods to keep data from being lost

FinTech firms are much more dangerous targets since they typically manage large sums of money. So that's why cybersecurity experts are in such high demand.

This skill (although it is nearly impossible to specify the technologies or qualifications that are common or general) is the door to institutions like startups and government facilities at the same time. By 2024, worldwide security revenues in the retail banking industry will have increased from $7.9 billion in 2019 to $9.8 billion.

Cybersecurity stats

The damage dealt with other industries by cybercriminals is equally staggering, meaning that a cybersecurity expert can easily expect to find a job in any of the spheres mentioned above.

Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers as the New Trend for Financial Services

Probably the talk of the decade, blockchain is discussed by countless experts, yet much fewer can make it work for a particular environment. 

Businesses are constantly seeking individuals who can assist them in leveraging blockchain technology to save billions of dollars in avoidable expenditures. And that's what makes this such an appealing profession.

The use of blockchains allows contracts and agreements to be executed without the participation of attorneys or bureaucratic red tape, assuring the security of investments through the use of smart contracts to efficiently manage risks. Moreover, utilizing blockchain technology, copyrights can be readily verified, and blockchain technology may be utilized in a wide range of applications, from trade to electoral voting.

Due to blockchain technology, companies can eliminate third-party participation in financial transactions. One may keep and move funds without the assistance of a bank since, as previously said, blockchain systems have effectively incorporated the power to check identities, record transactions, and execute contracts.

Inventory and asset management, transportation and logistics process management, trading, tracing the origins of items and materials, supplier identification optimization, signing procurement contracts, and auditing and tracking activities are all possible with decentralized systems.

As a side benefit, this technology is employed not just in banking and financial services, but also in a number of other businesses, making life easier and more pleasant for customers. Consequently, a financial professional's ability to understand the foundations of blockchains is just as important.

An expert with blockchain knowledge will be asked to build platforms for money transfer (both crypto and fiat), smart contracts, advanced data management, and so forth. Across the United States, a skilled blockchain developer can secure a deal that pays range from $124,500 to $203,000, with the highest earners averaging $231,500 each year.

 Data Science as an Integral Part of the Industry

Data science is among the most important differentiators for every fintech firm. Data Scientists can employ data models on a regular basis to examine historical and current data and forecast future patterns in order to apply what they've learned to credit risk scoring, fraud detection and prevention, portfolio optimization and asset management, and client retention. An analyst's responsibilities include using SQL, Python, and other computer languages, as well as creating dashboards and automating procedures. However, these are only tools for attaining two goals:

  • Produce more fact-based and statistically-based decisions (as opposed to opinion, intuition, and experience).
  • Search for ways for the product and the company to grow together.

The fintech analytics service includes solutions to both asked and unasked questions, the creation of conceptual theories and approaches, and recommendations based on those models and frameworks, all of which contribute to enhanced corporate performance.

Dealing with data is the ideal strategy in most cases, although this isn't always the case. Decisions that lead to product and business actions are aided by analytics. In certain cases, you may be able to make a decision without looking at the data by simply formalizing all possible situations and options and then removing the majority based on what the team already knows. It has nothing to do with programming for the industry. As a data analyst, you must be able to read documentation quickly, learn and use data manipulation tools quickly, and automate your routine.

Jobs in Fintech Startups

The number of Fintech startups is growing so the demand for Fintech professionals. Startups make it easier for those having Fintech certification to get their dream job.

Soft Skills Get More Value for Most IT Jobs

While there's a substantial list of what you can do to succeed in financial technology jobs, the nature of the industry demands that you have your soft skills well-developed. Fintech originated from the spirit of innovation and versatility, brought to the business by startups, and the soft skills of the employees are given huge importance on a daily basis. Here are some that one would most likely encounter in most of the Fintech careers ads:

- Openness. As a manager, you have to be as open with other employees as possible. As a developer or engineer, the same thing is always preferable. An open person can communicate better, seek assistance faster, and thus deal with problems far more efficiently than a guy who likes to do everything by himself.

- Problem-solving. An employee solves a ton of issues on a daily basis, one may say. This concept, however, circulates the mentality. An employee must be proactive and seek opportunities to improve on existing results. Quick thinking is a crucial part of problem-solving, as it allows no time for hesitation or panic — only determination and cold analysis of the destination.

- Communication. A derivative of openness. It means how well the person integrates with the team both on and off the actual working process. Communication allows more efficient collaboration of the departments and teams, thus granting bigger benefits in the end. It is imperative to build strong bonds within the team, so each employee is ready to take on any challenge for themselves and for "that guy next to them."

- Transparency throughout the organization. A concept that applies more towards managerial staff. The age of startups made traditional management obsolete. Nobody will appreciate secrecy, or worse treatment just based on position. Today's mentality is about CEOs being equal to junior developers on a human level. When managers are openly discussing casual stuff or project details with everyone else despite their position, it creates a bond within the team that is highly beneficial for the company.

- Adaptability. The atmosphere and workflow of a Fintech startup inevitably mean issues that one will need to tackle regardless of their skill or position. Versatility and the ability to adapt are critical for an employee to move further up the career ladder within startups or other highly digital environments.

Fintech Salary

Fintech salaries are rising due to the demand for Fintech jobs that is constantly growing. Indeed research shows that the most high-paying jobs in the Fintech industry embrace management roles, project owners, software engineers and architects, sales, and obviously C-suite.

Summing Up

All in all, why should you strive to work in financial technology? The truth is that financial institutions, investment banks, and other Fintech companies are in a hunt for professionals who are highly skilled and valued. In our modern world, it’s just crucial to be an expert in a peculiar, narrow field. If you want to get a job in Fintech, master both the hard and soft skills we’ve talked about in this blog, and go ahead!

If you are on another side — not looking for a job, but looking for someone to work for your startup — contact inVerita. We have component professionals who can help you with the technological challenges you face right now.                    

1 people like this
The article was updated on January 31, 2022

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.

Learn more
Thank you for getting in touch!
We'll get back to you soon.
Sending error!
Please try again later.
Thank you, your message has been sent.
Please try again later, or contact directly through email:
Format: doc, docx, rtf, txt, odt, pdf (5Mb max size)
Thank you, your message has been sent.
Please try again later, or contact directly through email: