5 Trends for Technology, Fintech and Financial Services for 2019

As the year-end approaches, The Edge Singapore would like to share some insights on the hiring trends for this year.

Singapore's political stability and the business-friendly environment have made it a uniquely attractive technology hub in the heart of Southeast Asia. The year that has been 2019 has given us some takeaways that should be reflected on and provides some insights into the year to come. The following areas are worth watching out for:

Financial Services– Digital Transformation Journey (Banking & Insurance) - There is a keen realization that technology and data will be instrumental in the organization’s transformation journey and help to improve customer experience.

Some regional players are already on the path to huge digital and cloud transformation and more are following their footsteps. We have seen demand in Big Data, Data Analytics, Data Science, Cloud Architecture, Cloud System Engineering, Mobile Development, and DevOps Engineering

Additionally, firms will continue to look for developers with skills in server-side Java programming, Full Stack Development, Enterprise Data Management, Distributed Systems with experience in working in an Agile environment.

Interestingly, certain sections of Financial services have set up innovation labs and we expect this trend to continue as more firms follow the first movers.

Singapore Government Initiatives - Singapore Government is investing a lot into the smart future. It is keen to nurture local talent as well as attracting talent in areas of technology, research and innovation. This is demonstrated by the very successful and well attended Singapore FinTech Festival in November 2019. There is a stream of new funding directed towards not only to Fintech and Regtech but also to Healthtech, Biotech, Insurtech. This will certainly create job opportunities. To address the talent gap, the Government is introducing a new technology curriculum. They are encouraging organizations to upskill and reskill their current workforce in order to equip them with the skills required for the digital economy and smart nation.

Fintech - With its unique attributes, Singapore has attracted many Fintech firms and that continues to grow at a healthy pace. We have seen demand for a good mix of junior to mid-level technology professionals. We anticipate roles in the area of Micro Services, Multi-Threading, Machine Learning, Data Science and Data Analytics. Developers with skills such as UI, Angular and Java, C++ and Python will continue to be sought after.

RegTech - With the regulatory landscape becoming ever more complex, firms are scrambling to keep up the pace. RegTech are looking to make a play in automating compliance processes and so are banking and financial services companies. AI, Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics are hot topics that will see a demand for people with the relevant skillset both from a technology and domain knowledge perspective.

Cyber Security / Cloud Security - With data being critical to the new economy and the fact that new data is being generated exponentially, new risks are being introduced. With ever more attacks on the organizations from Cyber criminal’s efforts are apace to build strong Cyber and Cloud security teams. We anticipate continued demand in Amazon Web Services, Azure, Cloud Engineering with programing knowledge in Pearl, Ruby on Rails Python etc.

 At The Edge, my focus is on Technology roles across Banking, Investment firms and Technology firms.

 Any views or comments on the above are welcome.

Please reach out to me via LinkedIn or at purvi@theedgeinasia.com if you would like to discuss hiring or career plans for 2020.