There are two main kinds of technology role available for graduate developers at a finance firm.

First, roles involving developing specialised technology tools for a particular part of the business. Second, roles involving developing technology to be used across the organisation.

Graduate opportunities for developers in finance: business unit-aligned roles

Those in business unit-aligned roles will be involved with developing applications used only in certain parts of the organisation. 

Roles here are very interactive as you’ll often be working with end-users (technologists often refer to end-users as “clients”), such as traders, and you can expect to have regular meetings with them.

These are also very focused roles, because you’ll have the chance to develop deep knowledge of a particular business unit – equities trading, for example.

Examples of business unit-aligned roles:

• Creating algorithms to calculate risk associated with a trade
• Developing systems to display market data quickly and intuitively
• Building low-latency algorithmic trading systems
• Producing software that traders can use to price products

Graduate opportunities for developers in finance:  business-wide roles

Business-wide (or infrastructure) roles involve looking at and understanding the wider needs of a finance organisation and helping to develop systems that respond to them.

Departments are divided up according to their function, such as managing systems risk, data management, and technology compatibility.

Roles here are focused around developing the underlying technology that will be used by other developers at the organisation. Hence you’ll often be working with the business unit-aligned groups.

Examples of business-wide roles:

• Designing a new data model to represent financial information
• Testing, integrating and monitoring applications
• Monitoring, managing and responding to systems risks
• Designing and maintaining networks and databases, and optimising them for speed