The right technology is often the differentiating factor in giving a financial services company the edge over its competitors. It can also help the organisation save money, so financial firms are among the biggest spenders on IT. Investment banks, retail banks, fund managers, brokers and insurance firms all spend billions on technology. By the end of 2011, they are expected to have spent $363.8bn globally on IT, according to research from consultancy Celent.

The big user of technology is the trading floor and everything related to it. Whether it is buying and selling financial products electronically, processing them through smart-order routing systems, or communicating to ensure trades go through smoothly, multi-million dollar technology projects are crucial.

“We have over 3,000 IT professionals in the Asia-Pacific region alone; it’s our largest division and our professionals are responsible for providing support to the bank in more than 50 countries around the world,” says Divyesh Vithlani, chief information officer of Credit Suisse Asia-Pacific.

Roles and career paths

IT roles fall into five camps; development, business analysis, project management, infrastructure and technical support.

The developer is at the coalface of the IT department. Much of the technology is developed in-house, but when banks purchase software from third-party vendors, developers need to tailor it to banks’ individual needs. Within products traded in large volumes, such as equities or foreign exchange, developers aim for ‘low latency’ or reducing the time it takes to execute and process a trade. The speed with which a trade is placed can be crucial to its profitability.

Business analysts liaise between the IT department and the company. Project managers will take on the new venture once it has been given the go-ahead. You’ll have to manage a team of developers, liaise with third-party vendors, and be answerable should plans go awry.

Technical support solves problems when they arise on the trading floor: glitches could cost banks millions of dollars within minutes. Traders are not shy in berating you for IT gremlins, so a thick skin is a must.

Infrastructure jobs deal with the IT nuts and bolts – from servers to operating systems to databases.

There is also the option of working for third-party vendors, which specialise in providing software to financial services. If you want to work for a vendor, try sending your CV to major players such as Sungard or Oracle, or apply to specialist financial services software vendors such as Fidessa, Sophis, SimCorp, OpenLink or Charles River.

Pay and bonuses

IT in finance pay doesn’t reach the dizzy heights to be found in investment banking, but it’s not to be sneezed at either. Generally, if you possess knowledge of more complex financial products, or have a comparatively rare skill set, your earning potential will be greater.

A business analyst working in an investment bank in London starts out on £ 35k-45k ($58k-74k), according to figures from recruiters Hudson, rising to £ 80k-100k ($132k-164k) at the senior end. In more specialist areas, like fixed income, this upper end rises to £95k-110k ($156k-180k). Junior project managers are paid £50k-75k ($82.2k-123k), which increases to £75k-120k ($123k -197k) at the senior end, depending on product knowledge. Programme managers, who look after several related projects, start at £ 95k-100k ($156k-164k), and salaries rise to £ 120k-140k  ($197k-230k) at the senior end.

If you work in development, being in a front-office role means more money. Junior C# GUI developers earn £35k-45k ($58k-74k), which increases to £65k-85k ($106k-140k) at the upper end, while C++/Unix developers start at the same level but can earn £75k-90k ($123k-148k) with more experience. Java developers in the front office start on £35k-45k ($58k-74k), which increases to £65k-90k ($106k-148k) at the senior end.

Skills sought

In IT, the majority of successful applicants will have a computer science degree, and those who don’t tend to come from a maths or physics background. However, for less technical roles, such as business analysis or project management, banks will consider other degree disciplines.

“In this case, we are looking for strong all-rounders and potential leaders,” says Ian Scott, IT manager, fixed-income division at BNP Paribas in London. “These may be technically inclined or may be more interested in the analytical, business-facing and people-centric activities such as analysis, project management or application support. A non-technical degree is often fine, provided that they demonstrate good analytical and organisational skills and some evidence of commitment to the role they are applying for, such as financial industry knowledge.”

If you want to move into a development role, experience with programming languages such as Java, C++ or C# is important. However, you don’t need to be a whizz kid at entry level. Soft skills are valuable for business analyst or project management roles.

Business analysts, for example, have to be able to explain the benefits and pitfalls behind a potential technology investment, without leaving non-IT people swimming in a sea of jargon.

Project manager roles have to be able to act as a central coordinator for disparate groups with differing interests in a particular technology endeavour. Any IT role, though, requires a certain degree of business acumen and ability to communicate and work well with other areas of the company. The image of the introverted nerd working in a tech position is irrelevant to today’s roles.

“You must be able to ask key questions and develop technology solutions that work,” says Peter Devlin, executive director, emerging power and gas technology, commodities at J.P. Morgan in New York. “The business is dynamic – profitability changes, regulations change, so you must be able to reinvent yourself and be prepared to adapt to a changing environment.”

Credit Suisse’s Vithlani adds: “As well as academic achievement we look for candidates who show leadership potential and have the ability to inspire confidence and loyalty. “We especially like candidates who are self-motivated and resourceful, who collaborate well with others and build strong working relationships.”