As banks shed jobs, tech companies ramp up fintech hires

Big banks, particularly in Europe, are shedding jobs. Societe Generale and Nomura are dropping thousands of full time positions. Some of these jobs are being eliminated in front of an economic slowdown, while others are already feeling the pressure of automation.

In spite of all the layoffs, scandals, and ascendent fintech firms, people still want to work for banks, according to new Linkedin data. Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase all made Linkedin's 2019 Top Companies List, which analyzes where people want to work right now.

Fintechs are ramping up staff, too. Challenger banks like Revolut and N26 are scaling their businesses internationally and that means lots of recruiting activity. Linkedin shows that the UK-based neobank has 635 open positions around the world. N26 has 296 open roles on Linkedin. Top payments companies are also hiring globally: both Stripe and Square have almost 300 open positions each on Linkedin.

But some of the most interesting fintech hires are being made by companies outside of financial services. The rise of banking as a service enables companies in any industry to offer financial services without the headache of becoming a bank or regulated financial entity. We're seeing companies like Walmart, Apple, and Lyft launch impactful financial products for their constituents.

Ride hailing leader Uber is hiring a product manager to handle its (future) financial products.

"...you'll be responsible for leading a cross-functional team's alignment on the vision and execution across a global set of financial services and payment experiences," reads the job opening. "Your future team is at the intersection of consumer experiences, payments, and our core rides and Eats businesses - and you'll interact with design, marketing, data science, engineering, and partnerships to ship innovation across the globe."

Facebook is also hiring a product manager to lead its mobile financial services. As part of FB's Marketplace team, this new professional is tasked with lowering the barrier to financial services for users.

"The mission of the Mobile Financial Services team is to bring people together through commerce, making financial services ubiquitously accessible and useful," according to Facebook's job posting. "The team is focused on delivering the benefits of Facebook's technology and scale to decrease existing barriers to financial access."

Apple is hiring a business development manager for Apple Pay ecommerce. With the launch of its new credit card, Apple is poised to circulate more cash within its walled garden of a content ecosystem. Apple wants to push on the growth button for merchant and customer takeup of Apple Pay.

Jobs and careers in the financial industry are undergoing pretty deep change. It's not so much that jobs are being eliminated as it is that the employers of financial professionals are changing. As technology, APIs and open banking take root, it's entirely possible that we bank with our favorite brands in the future. Those brands may also be the biggest employers of financial talent, too.