What investment banking techies are earning, how to bring in £1.5k a day

For all the talk of investment banking technology super-stars, and IT staff replacing those in the front office, banks don’t appear to be overly keen to commit to new recruits.

Investment banks are dithering when it comes to taking on technologists. According to research by specialist IT in Finance recruiters The JM Group, the recruitment process for technology staff is now taking up 10 weeks on average, up from 6 weeks at this point last year – a period when most firms had a hiring freeze in place.

What’s more, banks are overpaying for certain skills because of this – technologists are often realising that they can get a better rate joining a consultancy, which take less than a week to extend an offer: “We have seen cases where a candidate has been offered a £80k by a bank, only to be offered the exact same role with the same bank through a consultancy for £10k more a week later. This candidate was then charged out to that bank at rate of £1,500 per day,” said the research.

If you want to secure an investment banking IT role now, the core technical skill to possess is Java, as we’ve suggested previously, with solution architects and technical architects in high demand. From a domain-expertise point of view, FX, equity finance and risk remain attractive, suggests JM Group.

Both contractor day rates and salaries have largely remained stable over the past 12 months, it suggests, and only those working at analyst or associate level full-time have received a salary uplift of 7%.

Here are what investment banking technologists should expect to earn currently: