Deutsche Bank hiring hundreds, targeting women
Deutsche Bank is looking for hundreds of female technologists and operations professionals as part of an expansion drive in the UK city of Birmingham.
Ambitiously, according to recruiters with knowledge of the project, the bank has set itself a 35% ‘gender diversity’ target for a hiring spree of “several hundred” people within its Birmingham-based technology and investment banking operations teams.
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Technology roles within the banking sector has traditionally struggled to attract female recruits. Figures from our own CV database suggest that women comprise just 19% of the workforce in technology, while only 20% of applicants for J.P. Morgan’s IT graduate roles are female. Royal Bank of Scotland was singled out for praise after increasing the number of female recruits into its graduate programme, but even here the proportion rose from 24% in 2009 to 35% in 2012.
Like most investment banks, Deutsche has been shifting back office jobs away from the City of London towards lower cost destinations in the UK, but it’s the only major player in Birmingham. The technology jobs on offer will focus on application support, rather than the more interesting, higher-paying positions building e-Commerce platforms or electronic trading system. This suggests that the 35% target for female recruits may be even harder to reach.
However, banks are targeting potential female technology recruits in order to highlight careers in the financial sector. J.P. Morgan, for instance, held an insight day for over 200 female students considering engineering degrees at university earlier this month in an attempt to showcase the jobs on offer in banking technology. Deutsche Bank started a campaign last year to attract more mature tech-savvy women into the organisation.
Deutsche Bank set up in Birmingham with just 30 employees in 2006, and its Brindleyplace office now employs over 1,000 people. It’s aiming to double headcount in the city by the end of this year, and will be relying on the plentiful supply of local graduates.
Not only is it hiring for technology and operations, but Deutsche Bank is also building a trading floor that will house 150 people across trading, structuring and research.
Deutsche Bank didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
