Technologists: Would you be open to a move to Russia?
To many technologists in the UK, the thought of pursuing a new job opportunity in a relatively frontier market like Russia seems like a risky move. However, demand is picking up for IT professionals with exposure to complex financial products and more banks are looking to the City for expertise.
Russia is tipped to be a target for a new wave of foreign trading firms this year. Recent research from TABB Group pointed to an expected influx of 20 new proprietary trading firms this year, which could mean Russian markets account for 15% of global volume.
In this age of electronic trading, it's natural to expect a decent amount of development work to come out of this increased activity. However, most of this is carried out on-the-ground in Russia, which is known for its healthy supply of IT talent.
For instance, investment bank Otkritie offers UK clients access to Russian markets, but carries out all its programming work locally.
Nonetheless, more banks are open to the idea of recruiting from the UK for roles in Russia.
"In terms of pure programming skills, there's no shortage of top quality talent in the local market," says Sergey Rozov, chief technology officer at Russian investment bank Otkritie. "However, exposure to complex banking technology, such as high frequency trading, is still relatively rare in Russia, so experience in developed financial markets is valued. Big international banks also want to hire foreigners for their Russian offices in order to interface with global systems."
This isn't something you'd look to do at a junior level, however. Rozov says that it's "much cheaper" for banks to hire programmers and project managers from the local market.
"For senior level hires, this compensation difference is much reduced, but Russian language skills and familiarity with Russian culture is important alongside the more technical skills," he says.
If you're interested in a role related to Russia, but don't fancy a wholesale move out to the country, the job of 'IT relationship manager', which provides the technical link between London and emerging markets for clients, is becoming increasingly prevalent, suggest recruiters.
Generally, this involves client liaison - helping access to more complex emerging markets like Russia and fire-fighting when technical glitches occur, they suggest. These roles pay between 70-90k.
Unfortunately, they also usually require Russian language skills.
