Corporations and professionals have noticed that the community here is considerably smarter and better-educated than most sites on the Internet. And, of course, SJW-free.
We would like to ask the Ilk for support in hiring for a few roles. The roles are located in London. Some of these are junior roles and aimed at university graduates; others are aimed at experienced staff in financial risk management/project delivery. The junior roles are for employees, the experienced ones can be both freelance contracting or direct employee roles; this is negotiable. Pay is competitive “at market”.
If you are interested, please consider the following minimum skill-set and experience requirements (note different for junior versus experienced hires):
For the “graduate” roles:
You have an excellent academic track record from a good school. Your highest degree is a PhD or MSc (or equivalent level) with a written thesis in a numerate (STEM) subject. For your submission it is necessary that you have completed a thesis/final project; please include the thesis title in your CV.
Notice it is not necessary that the thesis has anything to do with finance; the institution wants to hire “simply the best in STEM”. So if you’re good for the mathematical bits, then the hiring institution will consider you for a trainee position and train you up in the finance stuff. You should however bring along a keen motivation to learn about financial risk management; in particular mathematical methods to model market risks, liquidity risks, credit risks. In addition, it would greatly help your chances of consideration if you had mastered some (or even all) of the following areas at university: PDE’s, SDE’s, numerical methods (such as Monte Carlo, trees, finite differences, finite elements), probability theory or statistical analysis, time series analysis, a smattering of computer languages (good ones are SQL, scripting languages such as Unix shell/Perl/Python, Java, C/#/++, data structures/mappings such as XML or FpML, but notice these are not developer roles). Obviously some pre-existing knowledge in mathematical finance will be helpful as well.
The hiring process for the junior roles will emphasise your academic track record, all the way back to GCSE/A levels/college degrees. List all your marks/grades on your CV, including the individual mark/grade of your thesis versus the overall mark/grade of your MSc/PhD.
Please do not send us your CV for the junior positions if:
1. Your highest academic degree is a Bachelor or equivalent. The role will prove to be too challenging in that case. (Sorry Jonny Con!)
2. Your master degree is an MBA, a Master in Finance, a degree in accounting or law, or similar. These roles are exclusively for STEM candidates. The financial services industry offers tons of roles for people with your qualifications profile; these roles are not such and therefore not for you.
For the “experienced” roles:
You have 3 or more years of experience in credit or market risk business analysis, financial risk management, risk modelling, and/or risk system project delivery. You understand the use of quantitative methods in finance, especially in market risk management, liquidity risk management, and/or credit risk management; and you can explain the effects of the models to your internal customers including senior management. You have previously produced typically required artefacts for each project stage (please list all such project documents in your CV!) including stakeholder sign-off.
Your academic degree ideally is in a STEM or related subject. Bachelor or equivalent is sufficient here; the strict minimum criteria from the “junior” section do not apply; the assumption is that your practical experience will have made more than up for less time at uni. If your degree is not STEM but your project track record evidences good experience with successful delivery of quantitative finance and/or risk measurement models, then please add a sentence or two of explanation to your CV.
Be aware that these are Risk roles; previous experience in Front Office, Operations, Finance, Compliance are all surely useful, but if you never have worked in Risk this will be an uphill struggle. Similarly be aware that these are roles for change business analysts with a strong affinity to quantitative risk modelling; but if you are from a pure operational/BAU analyst background without hands-on project delivery experience, this could be too challenging as well.
For either of the roles, please send your CV listing all relevant skills and professional experience to Vox.