The Wall Street banks that are most desperate for tech talent right now

While most large financial firms are relocating back-office positions to cheaper locations, New York is still home to tens of thousands of tech jobs at big banks, particularly senior-level and revenue-generating roles, like quants and strats. Still, not all banks are equal. Some are much hungrier to add New York-based developers and engineers than others. So which banks have the most current needs?

To find out, we combed through the career sites of the biggest investment banks in New York, pulling out every tech and engineering vacancy in New York City. The chart below only includes jobs located in the five boroughs, though several banks operate large offices across the river in Jersey City, which is highly commutable from Manhattan. We broke those numbers down separately below.

Unsurprisingly, the big five U.S. banks dominate the list. If you want to work at J.P. Morgan, the firm with the most New York vacancies, you have the choice of working out of a few different office locations, though they have relocated most of their tech jobs to two state-of-the-art locations at Hudson Yards in Manhattan and within the MetroTech Center in Brooklyn. However, of the 143 current tech openings, just 32 are Brooklyn.

If you want to work at either location, having experience programming with Java appears extremely helpful. Java is mentioned in a higher percentage of tech-related job postings at J.P. Morgan than at any other bank on the list, according to analytics provider Burning Glass. Conversely, J.P. Morgan seems to have fewer needs for Python specialists than other banks, at least in New York.

Despite only having the third most tech openings in the city, Goldman Sachs actually stands out as they are a smaller, non-full-service bank. However, Goldman’s recent entrance into retail with the launch of its online consumer bank, Marcus, likely has them eyeing more tech talent than normal.

While it comes as no surprise that the four foreign banks tail all U.S. firms, Nomura’s total seems particularly low considering the Japanese bank’s continued desire to grow their footprint in the U.S., though they have had a habit of focusing their spending on investment bankers and other front-office staff in the states.

Jersey City

Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America and Citi all have large offices in Jersey City, just across the Hudson River and easily commutable via the PATH train. J.P. Morgan actually has more technology openings in Jersey City than in Manhattan and Brooklyn combined; the numbers are close for Goldman.

Reviews on Glassdoor from employees working in New York and Jersey City are rather similar at Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citi, though that’s not exactly the case at J.P. Morgan. New York and Brooklyn employees give the company an average ranking of a 3.8 while Jersey City workers give it a 3.5. Many of the reviews by tech workers at J.P. Morgan complain that the pay in New Jersey isn’t on par with other investment banks.

J.P. Morgan currently has a massive number of technology openings in Jersey City: 175. That leads Goldman Sachs (69), Bank of America (36) and Citi (17). UBS runs its U.S. trading operations in Stamford, Connecticut, where there are 11 tech vacancies, though Stamford is a good hour outside of the city. UBS and Credit Suisse have small offices in Jersey City but nothing currently available in technology.

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