Jobs boom on the buy side

Demand for techie types to fill project management and derivatives roles at fund managers is higher than it's been for six years.

A study this week by the CBI and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found 86% of fund managers expect to increase their IT spending this year. A similar proportion are gearing up to add staff.

"We're expecting to see quite a number of systems changing because of the arrival of MiFID this November, but there is also a lot of automation of the front office," says Pars Purewal, UK investment and real estate management leader at PwC.

"People are trying to get to a stage where once a deal happens from then on it happens automatically," he adds.

Key IT hotspots are set to include programmers and project managers. Depending on how much IT is being outsourced, outsourcing managers could also be hot, argues Purewal.

Spending by investment managers on IT has been on the up ever since 2003 and rose 10% last year, agrees Karen Andrews, head of recruitment at fund management consultancy Investit.

"Fund management firms are showing a strong desire to invest in IT to drive business development, rather than to meet business as usual costs. Key areas of IT spend are supporting OTC derivatives, client management and front-office systems," she explains.

Move for 25% more

"Experience in OTC derivatives is scarce and we have seen salary expectations rise rapidly - firms now have to pay a premium of up to 25% and to move quickly to grab high-quality staff. There is similar demand for IT project skills in client reporting, CRM systems and front-office system upgrades, although the premium is not quite so high," adds Andrews.