If you’re looking for a new banking job and you want an immediate response, you might want to avoid areas like private equity, which are renowned for attracting a huge surfeit of candidates. Why not focus, instead, on the jobs banks can’t seem to fill? – The obscure jobs in the unusual markets requiring niche skill-sets?
Based on banks’ own job sites, we’ve assembled a contemporary list of these below. Unless stated, the jobs are in London. They’ve all been advertised for around three months, although some have been vacant for five. If you apply for any these roles and you fit the requirements, you can be assured the bank will get back to you. The only downside is that you may not fit the requirements – there’s a reason these roles have been empty so long.
1. UBS has spent a long time looking for a head of risk management technology
After years stocking up on risk management professionals, banks are now looking to “automate the risk function” and thereby cut some of their bloated risk headcount back again.
Instead of risk professionals, therefore, the new hot skillset is ‘risk management technologists’.
UBS has been looking for someone who fits this description for a while. The Swiss bank doesn’t provide dates next to its job adverts, but the longest running vacancy in its investment bank is for a head of risk management technology who can, ‘design an architect a risk management platform to support equity derivatives, foreign exchange, fixed income and credit business streams.’
2. Nomura’s been looking for a Bermuda-based compliance and control head since February
If you want to escape London’s long, hot, politically volatile summer, you could always apply for a compliance job with Nomura in Bermuda.
The Japanese bank has been looking for an associate or vice president-level compliance and control officer for four months. The job doesn’t sound wildly exciting – it’s all about the, “identification, review, escalation and resolution of possible trade breaks.” But: Bermuda.
3. Deutsche’s been looking for an Asia-focused FX trader, based in London, since March
Deutsche Bank’s having trouble filling an foreign exchange trading role. Although the German bank ranks fifth for FX trading globally (down from first five years ago), no one seems to want its job pricing and risk managing Asian FX spot and forwards and interest rate products within Europe for Asian clients.
This might be because Deutsche is looking for some pretty specific skills: candidates need to be fluent in Mandarin, and to have experience of trading in Asia, and to be able to program in Java, Python and VBA.
4. Citi’s been looking for investment banking associates, based in Frankfurt, since March
It doesn’t bode well for Brexit that Frankfurt-based junior bankers seem hard to come by.
Citi wants some. It’s not looking for anything fancy – just candidates with three to six years’ experience, “in the investment banking division of a major international bank or equivalent,” for its Frankfurt office. You’ll need to speak English and German, fluently.
5. Bank of America Merrill Lynch has been trying to fill various e-trading jobs since March and April
BAML’s problem seems to be e-trading, or finding people to build its e-trading systems. For the past few months, it’s been looking for: a quant to join its “fast growing” e-trading strats group, and a C++ programmer and core Java developer to on with its global FX Algorithmic Trading Technology team.
6. Morgan Stanley’s been looking for an equity researcher covering Saudi Arabia since March
Saudi Arabia is hot (in more ways than one). Goldman Sachs applied for a license to trade equities there earlier this month and Citigroup got a new license to operate there in April after leaving 13 years earlier. Morgan Stanley is working on Saudi Aramco’s $100 billion initial public offering and James Gorman said last week that Saudi Arabia could be a “major opportunity” for the bank.
This may be so, but it would help if Morgan Stanley could find a dedicated equity researcher to cover the country. It’s been looking for an associate-level researcher to write thematic research on Saudi Arabia since March.
7. Morgan Stanley’s been looking for a counterparty risk quant since January
Morgan Stanley also needs a quant to sit on its counterparty risk desk. This is a potentially exciting role building quantitative models for the central risk desk that hedges against the bank’s aggregate exposure to its trading counterparties. You can work in London or New York so long as you know derivatives and can program in C++ or java or scala.
8. Goldman Sachs has been looking for a compliance officer to cover Frankfurt regulatory affairs since March
Goldman Sachs is all for Frankfurt. European president Richard Gnodde loves Angela Merkel and hard Brexit or not the firm is moving at least 200 people there. As with Citi, however, Goldman may be discovering that finding talent in Frankfurt – a city of less than a million people – isn’t as easy as in London. It’s been looking for someone to help it interpret German regulatory requirements for three months now.
9. Goldman Sachs has been looking for an analyst or associate to work in its Pine Street executive training facility since February
Goldman’s also looking for a junior to help train its managing directors and partners. The individual in question will work in Goldman’s “Pine Street” executive training facility which selects and grooms its future leaders. There they will, ‘play a role in designing, managing and evaluating MD/Partner-level initiatives,’ according to the needs of the firm.
You’ll need at least four years’ experience in training and development to work with Goldman’s elite. Strangely, no one seems to have come forwards.
10. J.P. Morgan has been trying to fill roles on its London FIG team since February
Lastly, recruiters caution that Financial Institutions Group (FIG) jobs are the worst in investment banking. The trouble is that FIG is so different to other industry sectors that once you’re in it, you can’t get out . For this reason, junior bankers who want to keep their options open are advised to avoid it.
This might be the reason J.P. Morgan can’t seem to fill its London FIG vacancies. The U.S. bank is currently advertising four roles for FIG analysts and associates – two of which have been open since February.
Follow @MadameButcher
Contact: sbutcher@efinancialcareers.com
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