In February 2022, the TIOBE Survey reported that Wall Street’s coding language of choice, Python, had become the number one most popular language in the world. Banks, brokers and asset managers are facing a persistent shortage of talent, caused by going head-to-head with technology behemoths and most likely exacerbated by legacy hiring practices. With a shortage of developers and rapidly rising pay, financial services companies face postponing or cancelling important projects, unless they embrace third-party providers.

Digital transformation and cloud computing are spurring tremendous demand for developers. Companies across the economy are moving manual and spreadsheet processes online, and launching web and mobile apps for internal as well as customer applications. The financial industry’s focus on Python is a result of its effectiveness for data science and analytics, AI and machine learning, and natural language processing. 

Python is open-source and general-purpose, while its easy-to-learn syntax make it readable and low maintenance. The expanding user base adds to the wealth of open-access libraries and frameworks, many of which are focused on big data and machine learning. This makes projects easier to build because there is a ready-made solution for much of your work. Easy syntax, the ability to handle intricate processes and support for numerous extensions, mean Python is best suited to the triple-A of automation, analytics and AI.

All of this is driving up the cost of Python resources, assuming of course that you can find any. In mid-2021, Springboard reported openings for 38,000 Python developers in the US, where the average salary for developers is $110,840 and the entry level salary around $86,000. In New York, the average rises to $126,798, and this is before payroll taxes and other costs. Figures from recruitment specialist Indeed suggest the cost is even higher.

A recent poll revealed that 66% of developers were working remotely during the pandemic, and that 70% wanted to do so at least part of the time. ManpowerGroup reports 13.2% turnover in US IT, which is the highest for any industry, and that the cost of replacing departing employees may rise to 250% of salary. This situation is unlikely to change soon, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasting a shortage of over 1.2 million engineers by 2026. Manpower reports that more than half of employers hire tech staff with lower skill levels than the minimum requirements for the role.

Wall Street’s hiring practices may be exacerbating the problem. A Forbes article authored by the co-founder and CEO of CodeSignal, highlighted that resume reviews and the traditional focus on elite schools, often resulted in overlooking self-taught developers and those learning skills at language boot

camps. The use of software to scan resumes and key-word searches exacerbates the problem and created a stir on Twitter last year, when a developer named Angelina Lee posted a fake c.v., bursting with buzzwords and name-dropping, which claimed a 60% response rate.   

The developer skills shortage is nothing new and is not going away. Computer scientists topped the list of McKinsey’s skills gap survey published in 2020, with data analytics specialists in shortest supply, followed by mobile and web designers. Here at RemoraTech, data science, derived analytics and visualisation are the three most in-demand services we provide.

A typical project for an asset manager would involve automating the downloading of data from the cloud, processing the data to present it in the user’s preferred format, and using the data for execution or algo building workflows. Our customers are creating a competitive advantage, not through access to data, but by rapid deployment of user-friendly analysis of that data and the speed-to-market of subsequent workflows.

We are delighted to be partnering with some of finance’s most progressive and competitive companies and would welcome the opportunity to discuss how our deep bench of development talent will keep your projects on track.