Bank of America poised for tech hiring spree

After the merger between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch in late-2008, the primary focus of technologists last year was integrating the two firms' disparate IT systems. Now, however, new projects are back on track and there are signs that it's hiring in this area again.

Since Bank of America Merrill Lynch unveiled former Goldman veteran Michael Dubno as its head of global markets technology in January, a number of senior IT hires have emerged.

John Tumilty, is set to join the firm in June as chief operating officer and head of global equity technology from UBS, as is Kirat Singh, who will take the post of head of global markets risk systems. Glenn Gribble, formerly Goldman's chief technology officer for risk, is to take the post of head of developer architecture at BofA Merrill.

The bank also hired Liam Hudson, who was formerly at BarCap, as global head of FX e-commerce in February.

"These senior hires are a fairly bold statement of the bank's intention to build in technology again," says one IT in finance headhunter. "They lost quite a few people during the integration process, but now they're picking up where they left off two years' ago and have a definite need to recruit."

BofA's current UK tech hiring is focused around equity portfolio technology as well as support of back office systems and wealth management IT. Although it's hiring for risk technology, the bulk of these roles are in the US.

The bank didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Nonetheless, recruiters are quick to point to BofA's appetite to hire techies currently.

"We've placed a number of people in Bank of America recently," says one IT in finance recruiter. "The feedback we're getting is hiring is set to take off in the coming months."