Changing Job Opportunities in Fintech
Post- COVID, the whole of financial services has been going through a major transformation. On one hand, the fintech industry is going through an unprecedented transition due to the pandemic while on another side, the entire banking & financial sector upping the game of digitization internally. It is hardly surprising that this is affecting the employment space as well.
With businesses rushing to digitize their customer touchpoints and entire value chain, demand for digital professionals is on the rise. In addition, the industry is also transforming with innovation, the emergence of new business models such as Banking- As- A- Service or Embedded Finance. This would lead to new roles and responsibilities coming into existence across areas like product, technology, digital marketing, compliance, user experience, data science, partnerships, etc.
We believe that there would be rightsizing (10 to 50 %) in the areas of operations, credit, sales, finance, etc, whose work may be partially or fully automated. Many of these impacted employees will move towards newer roles through accelerated training programs. So, It is vital for individuals to align their careers and upskill themselves in order to stay relevant in their chosen fields.
The technology & digital fields, especially those working in digital transformation are expected to see a positive impact in terms of job opportunities and growth. There would be an increase of up to 30 percent with the management expectation moving from just “ third party management or program management” to “ insourcing and building cutting edge technology stack”. The number of lateral movements is expected to increase within companies as forward-looking institutions will prefer to fill the new roles and vacancies created with existing employees from the institution rather than look outside for new talents. In the next 12 to 24 months, almost 30 % of the top management would be highly specialized in digital/ customer engagement/ technology, etc. Almost all Financial institutions would have at least one Digital Leader on their board. This may even be mandated by the regulators.
Digital Partnership Manager:
With the financial industry shifting to a collaborative model, this will be a critical role in any organization. Banks, Insurance Companies, Brokerage houses will be pushing for more partnerships with Fintechs to drive new customer segments and new revenue opportunities. The partnership manager will be expected to develop and manage business models & relationships driven through partnership in the financial services ecosystem. They will be required to manage partnerships with payment service providers, and fintech, negotiate deals and business terms, and also track and analyze the key metrics.
In order to be competent in this role, such individuals will be required to have cross-functional knowledge spanning across areas like digital payments, digital lending, alternate data analysis, technology, etc.
Fintech Product Manager
As organizations are looking to improve their customer journey, more and more companies are now embedding fintech solutions into their product portfolio. Take an example of platform solutions like Uber or Amazon, they now offer embedded payment solutions and wallets to their customers, allowing them to have a seamless checkout process. They also use this opportunity to cross-sell other financial products like loans, insurance, etc.
The role of a fintech product manager will be vital to an organization as they will be responsible for innovating and building the best financial products & systems that suit
the need of the customer. They will be required to have deep knowledge of the fintech industry and work closely with other teams to ensure compliance and data reliability. This role will also require an individual to have got a deep understanding of the processes and data flows, and translate business requirements into executable specifications.
Digital Insights Specialist
It is said that data is the new oil. But having data is not enough, it is vital that an organization should have the capability to dissect that data and find usable insights that can enable the organization to improve its products and operations.
This role will require individuals with a strong understanding of sales processes and systems, and the capability to discover pain points from the data provided. A strong knowledge base in the existing solutions available in the market will prove to be invaluable in this area as it will help you ideate and build the right solutions to solve these pain points.
API Management Based Positions
Over the past decade, APIs have become phenomena in itself and become an integral part of business operations. APIs have been driving Open Banking powered new business models. They play a critical role in enabling organizations to expose their business functionalities and data for the consumption of other players and vice versa. Ensuring that an API is designed and developed to facilitate the rollout of services in an expected fashion is crucial for the functioning of the organization.
Thus, roles like API developer, tester, and solution engineer will be integrated into the organizational structure of companies to drive customer success and engagement. They will be required to have sound knowledge of the product and business architecture, the working of APIs from a business standpoint, and also ensure compliance to the organization’s API program policies.
Digital Lending Expert
Digitizing the lending journey of a customer has been one of the major pain points for banking and other financial companies. Also, with the government pushing to increase financial inclusion in the country, organizations are now trying to improve their lending journey to make it more seamless and accessible to the masses.
This has created a need for expertise in digital lending and alternate data within organizations. They require candidates to Build Digital Lending Business models for various lending segments such as SME Lending, Merchant Finance, Marketplace Lending, Captive Model, Invoice Discounting, etc. The candidates are required to have a strong understanding of Digital Technologies such as APIs, Automation, Mobility, AI/ ML, cloud computing and to work on various digital use cases within Lending. A strong background in underwriting and how alternate data can be used to assess the risk profile of a customer is an added bonus.
Digital Payment Expert
The payments segment has been a hot favorite for the last five years in India especially after the introduction of UPI in 2016. India’s interoperability approach has emerged as greatly beneficial as it allows apps to scan and pay QR codes of different platforms.
With the government of India allotting 1,500 Crores to boost the structure of the digital payments, we expect both the payments and the embedded finance space to see more traction in the coming months. The recent guidelines released by the government on payment security also open up several new avenues in terms of development and employment opportunities in the payments sectors.
Candidates who are experienced in designing and building new payment solutions across various products, and those who have a strong understanding of local regulations on payments, will be in high demand in the coming years.
With the new opportunities coming up, time is now to assess your career, plan out your career path, and rejig your growth story.
