IT Director  -
Lead Software Product Architect/Engineer

Job Description

In order to take current ideas from the whiteboard to reality, we are seeking talented and experienced senior software engineer and application architect with current software development skills and experience. As head of product development and engineering (and member of the management team) you will be responsible for designing and building next generation software products and enjoy tremendous control over further refinements to the existing applications. Day-to-day responsibilities include development and management of most of the firms product development processes. The engineering function is very market driven and you will, therefore, be working closely with senior marketing management.

Key Accountabilities

• Provide technology direction and define product architecture current/future
• Ensure optimal application of technology and engineering resources to meet product development requirements, per the product roadmap and/or marketing requirements document
• Liaise with business groups to identify product requirements, define product roadmap, and prioritize business requests based on business impact
• Control and lead all product development activities and ensure that the products are correctly defined and fully documented
• Ensure that formal management processes are in place to support and drive the product development process
• Hire and direct staff to acquire necessary resources and plan to meet scheduled commitments

Desired Profile

• Strong academic background in computer science (MSc or PhD level preferred)
• Recent involvement in day-to-day application engineering work with hands-on abilities and understanding of software engineering domains. High level of subject matter expertise in software development
• Strong operational and project management skills and experience
• Demonstrated team building and leadership abilities
• Solid understanding of engineering technical issues/needs, financial, sales, and marketing as related to product design and development.

SVP - IT Infrastructure
Business Continuity Manager

Job Description

With keen focus business continuity, your team will help to plan, implement, test and maintain business continuity operations globally. Key accountabilities include:

• Understand and work within the firms established frameworks for BCP activities
• Build and maintain a network of business customer clientele. Understand and integrate their requirements into broader BCP planning
• Establish yourself and your organisation into various steering committees and work groups as required
• Create and plan test activities and lead personnel during major BCP testing
• Represent business continuity vis-a-vie other regional IT organizations
• Integrate, implement and exercise crisis management responses
• Ensure BCP awareness ensuring staff how to react in crisis scenarios
• Conduct regional capability gap analysis and provide remediation
• Provide crisis management plans and methods for personnel and potentially impacted systems
• Work with a wide range of stakeholders and IT teams to administer and test recovery scenarios

Desired Profile

• Previous leadership experience in a cross organizational role with obvious leadership skills and abilities
• Solid organizational skills and project management skills and experience; preferably gain within a larger internationally active organisation
• Well rounded IT background with strong analytical and business communication skills in German and English
• Able to work effectively with people at all levels, in team situations and equally well in self-directed assignments
• Able to effectively lead geographically disparate teams in high pressure situations
• Very good understanding of IT infrastructure technologies especially desktop and network infrastructure
• Previous financial services experience and BCP management experience (and or certification) would be very helpful
To apply for this challenging and very interesting IT management role working in a dynamic international financial services environment, please kindly send your complete dossier to us at
applications@sandraschmid.com

Database Application Performance Expert 

Job Description

Working in a tightly knit team of analysts, system engineers and developers you will support the team across several development and performance improvement projects. You will provide analysis and deep technical expertise in connection with database/application performance. As these applications are very data centric, properly tuned queries and database configurations are critical to ensuring robust high performance solutions.

Desired Profile

• Well rounded IT background with emphasis on application engineering and database maintenance and performance
• Familiarity with SDLC phases programming languages such as C# .Net and Java and code/change management tools is assumed
• Solid Unix skills and good knowledge of Windows Server environments is expected
• Several years of expert level experience with some or all of the following would be very helpful. MSSQL Server, Oracle, Sybase
• Background in financial services (especially front-office related business processes) would be very helpful
To express interest in this database engineering role with a top financial services firm, please send us your complete dossier as soon as possible. We look forward to hearing from you and welcome your queries. applications@sandraschmid.com

Product Manager -
Global Enterprise Applications

Job Description

Working in a fast paced, international environment, you will be responsible for the coordination, delivery and robust functionality of a portfolio of enterprise applications. As the applications are widely varied in function and based on a broad range of platforms and technologies, your well rounded IT knowledge and experience will be an asset to the firm every day. Your technical skills in combination with a command of best practices for process centric IT service delivery will help drive your teams successes. Ideally, your background would include several years of hands-on application engineering experience. Additionally, technical project management ability and team leadership background will help you to ensure the successful delivery of highly available, robust corporate solutions to demanding (and geographically disparate) constituents.

Desired Profile

• Solid educational background and training with an emphasis on computing technologies
• Several years of practical experience as a solutions engineer whereby command-line and shell facility is assumed
• Exposure to a wide range of enterprise application platforms and related technologies including at least some (if not all) of the following platforms/products:
  IBM MainFrame, Unix Solaris, Windows Server, Oracle, DB/2, Java, .Net
• A solid understanding of IT security technologies and related networking technologies and protocols would be a clear advantage
• Solid understanding and practical experience in all phases of a software development lifecycle is expected
• A command of best practices for process driven change management (e.g. ITIL), certification in IT project management, and practical leadership background in relevant roles/environment would be indicators of potential for success in this demanding role
• Solid experience with software configuration management, packaging, delivery as well as organisation of 2nd and 3rd level support teams would also be highly appreciated
• Experience with management and coordination of off-shore resources and partnering would be a further asset
• Excellent business communications abilities are assumed
  

Financial Services Business Analyst
_{(contract or permanent hire)}

Job Description

• The work in this organisation is focused around project requirements analysis, documentation and functional/technical application design. This is a project oriented environment wherein the business analyst may also be given varying levels of project management responsibility.
  
  Other areas of responsibility might include:
  
• Translating internal client requirements into well formatted specifications for the IT development teams. Facilitation/collaboration with business domain experts and IT colleagues to ensure that appropriate requirements are delivered and managed efficiently.
  
• There are a number of projects now getting underway, each requiring business analysis expertise with significant levels of ability/knowledge of trading and order management applications and business domain experience.

Desired Profile

• Familiarity with banking and if possible with trading and order management systems
• Sound knowledge of front to back trade life-cycle processes
• Understanding of portfolio accounting, foreign exchange and trade reconciliation systems beneficial
• Previous experience with object oriented application development and SDLC would be very helpful. Any experience with databases and query writing in SQL appreciated
  
• Familiarity with enterprise computing environment and tools
• Good communication in English and illustration skills (Visio) are a must

Senior C# Software Engineers 

(Long-Term Contract or Placement)

Job Description

Working in a fast-paced global securities trading environment, you will be involved in the design and development of trading applications. Technologies including trade capture/Order Management and trade life-cycle management will be included in the portfolio of work.

Desired Profile

• Several years of professional software development experience with at minimum 1 year of C# development in a comparable/relevant environment
• Solid SDLC knowledge and project experience is assumed. This should include your ability to professionally test and document your code
• Any previous experience in banking/financial services would be helpful. Any background in front-office solutions would be another big advantage
• Any experience with development and deployment of sophisticated C# based applications in a heterogeneous target environment would be very helpful
• Advanced knowledge in the development of multi-tier, multi-threaded database applications under MSSQL and/or Sybase would be very welcome
To apply for one of these interesting long-term .Net development positions within a global trading and front-office business environment, please forward your complete dossier to us at:
applications@sandraschmid.com

Senior HR Recruitment Specialist

Job Description

Working in a sophisticated and globally active organisation, you will work closely with HR team members and business unit stakeholder at all levels. The focus of your work will be the engagement of best available candidates while guiding hiring managers and candidates through the selection process. This individual will perform full lifecycle recruiting and maintain excellent relations with hiring managers, candidates, and the HR community.
• Collaborate with senior managers to identify personnel their talent requirements and help to define workforce planning strategies and search assignments -
  
• Develop job requirements into branded job descriptions to attract well qualified talent
  
• Proactively identify and sourcing specialist - develop and maintain a network of contacts to help source qualified specialists
• Develop and maintain strong working relationships with company leaders
•  Develop a thorough understanding of the various department cultures and use that understanding to help candidates fully understand opportunities
• Interview all candidates presented for detailed interviewing by hiring managers; providing them with complete, accurate, and inspiring information about the company and role
  
• Negotiate and develop offers in collaboration with the hiring managers , providing expert advice on difficult contractual details within the firms guidelines 
  
• Drive the development of ongoing creative and cost-effective sourcing strategies

Desired Profile

• German native speaker, excellent writing and oral communication skills are required in English, any other European languages of advantage 
• Degree level education and several years experience recruiting, preferably in the financial services industry 
• Good level of knowledge in direct sourcing strategies as well as understanding of appropriate sourcing channels
• Must be able to manage competing demands, accept criticism and constructive feedback, while being extremely adaptable and flexible
• Demonstrated ability to command the attention and respect of senior level leaders 
• Ability to build search assignment abstracts from client strategy sessions 
• Demonstrated ability to recruit on a national, multi-location level across a wide range of positions 
• Knowledge of recruitment and/or HR systems
• Strong initiative and solid judgment abilities/skills

In-house Business Engineering Consultant

(mid-level/senior)

Job Description

We are looking to attract talented business engineers and/or consultants in the area of business process reengineering to support cross-functional, end-to-end enterprise-wide projects that deal with operational efficiency and process improvement. Duties include the analysis of existing processes and evaluation of opportunities for improvement; using methodologies like Lean and Six Sigma to document the resulting process changes. You'll actively contribute to the management and delivery of change projects by participating in discussions with senior stakeholders to gather business input and ensure buy-in, report on and present your deliverables to the stakeholders. Key accountabilities include processes documentation, process improvement and change management.

Desired Profile

To be considered for this position, your profile should include at some or all of the following:
• Experience in business process management including executing process redesign initiatives. Typically, you will have participated in and/or led process redesign projects
• A Lean or Six Sigma Green/Black Belt certification
• Experience with enterprise-wide and/or cross-functional process change initiatives with a high degree of complexity
• Highly analytical in nature with ability to develop alternative solutions to problems and select the optimal solution
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Strong customer focus with developed conflict handling skills
• Strong organising skills and attention to detail


• Management consulting experience is a plus
• Experience in the financial services industry is considered an asset

Financial Applications Architect

Job Description

Working in a multidisciplinary team of project managers, business analysts, systems engineers and software developers, you'll provide application architecture expertise and advise in connection with the development of a suite of domain specific financial solutions. Typical duties will include: design and integration brainstorming sessions, reviews of proposed solutions, solution audits/walk-throughs, development of architecture presentations and documentation and provision of subject matter expertise and advise.

Desired Profile

• Degree level education and significant work experience in sophisticated application engineering environments
• Previous experience in financial services would be an advantage as would any professional certifications in software architecture and solution design
• Subject matter expertise in the areas of object oriented application design, SOA, MDA would be valuable and highly appreciated
• Tangible experience with the design of J2EE based applications and background with related middleware products and technologies would be highly appreciated
• A well rounded understanding of banking business processes would be helpful
• Professional business communication skills including (written & verbal) German and English would be a great advantage

Senior Risk Evaluation Analyst

Job Description

Working in a multidisciplinary international investment management environment, you'll work in numerous projects across private wealth management and investment banking domains. In a consultative capacity you will become responsible for the measurement and evaluation of various kinds of financial and operational risk, using appropriate models, methods and tools to evaluate risks.

Desired Profile

• A post-graduate level degree (PhD. or MSc.) in mathematics, economics or similar is a requirement for this quantitatively/mathematically challenging role
• Previous background in financial services and/or experience with business risk management duties would be very advantageous
• Experience with mathematical/statistical applications such as Mathlab, SAS, and the like would be helpful
• Solid business communication skills including fluency in German and English will help to round out your profile as our ideal candidate

Financial Services Business Analyst

Job Description

The work in this organisation is focused around ongoing design and functional/technical support of business applications, whereby software development, product integration and the management of projects in the areas of trade processing, portfolio accounting and reconciliation is the main focus. Areas of responsibility include: translating internal client requirements into well formatted specifications for the IT development teams. In this capacity, you'll collaborate with business experts and IT colleagues to ensure that appropriate business requirements are delivered.

Desired Profile

• Familiarity with interbank messaging protocols/systems and related security processes
• Sound knowledge of back- and middle office processes
• Understanding of trading, holdings and cash management highly desired
• Understanding of portfolio accounting and trade reconciliation systems highly beneficial
• Experience with databases and query writing in SQL
• Familiarity with enterprise computing environment and tools
• Experience with web applications would be helpful
• Good communication (E/D) and illustration skills (Visio) are a must

Director of IT
Engineering & Product Development

Job Description

In order to take current ideas from the whiteboard to reality, we are seeking talented and experienced IT manager with current skills and experience in the development of applications and supporting infrastructure and operations.

Reporting to the CEO and working closely with other senior managers, you will be responsible for all of the firms product development activities.
• Develop strategic planning, provide technical direction and guidance, as well as hands-on project management, for all product development
• Lead engineering team to implement products
• Provide technology direction and define overall technology architecture
• Ensure optimal application of technology and engineering resources to meet product development requirements, per the product roadmap and/or marketing requirements document
• Liaise with business groups to identify product requirements, define product roadmap, and prioritize business requests based on business impact
• Control and lead all product development activities and ensure that the products are correctly defined and fully documented
• Ensure that formal management processes are in place to support and drive the product development process
• Hire and direct staff to acquire necessary resources and plan to meet scheduled commitments

Desired Profile

• Strong operational and project management skills and background
• Demonstrated team building and leadership skills
• Solid understanding of engineering technical issues/needs, financial, sales, and marketing as related to product design and development
• Degree level education

Senior Business Analyst
^{(Financial Services)}

Job Description

Working in a multi-lateral, international organisation, the scope of responsibilities ranges from participation in the strategic management of product domains and related coordination of business work-flows and partnerships - to oversight and design of specific application suites and solutions. This work includes responsibility for the definition and implementation of such solutions as well as the implementation of related business practices, practical methods and tools used on a daily basis.

Key Responsibilities

• Business analysis of work-flows in relation with internal and external systems that support specific trading and sales domains
• Provide leadership, oversight and project management around the implementation of new solutions/systems

Desired Profile

• Degree level education (preferably with a focus on business administration or computer science
• Previous banking experience whereby knowledge of equities or treasury work-flows/products etc would be particularly relevant
• Strong conceptual and analytical skills and abilities
• Excellent facility with MS Office products and the ability to communicate with persons of all levels and backgrounds
• English and German( written and verbal) preferred
• Any knowledge of Unix, object oriented design, programming skills with Java and/or scripting languages would be an advantage
• Practical skills and experience in the area of IT project management would be greatly appreciated
To express interest in this challenging and very interesting role working in an international trading and securities brokerage environment kindly send your complete dossier to us at
applications@sandraschmid.com

Web Application
Designer & Developer

Job Description

Working in a young international team comprised of IT experts and multimedia business specialist, you'll work in cross-functional teams to design, develop, deliver, maintain and enhance next generation rich media applications for a wide range of platforms and devices including Web, iPhone, iPad and more....


Desired Profile

To be successful in this role, you will need to have significant strengths, either in (web application development || website and GUI design).
The following is an example of the kinds of skills we're looking for:
• Experience in the development of scalable web applications using both front-end and server-side web development technologies
• GUI design experience - Graphic design know-how
  
• Experience with Adobe Flash and ActionScript related tools and techniquies
  
• Scirpting skills such as SQL, Python, Javascript, (JQuery), HTML and CSS
• Perhaps a LAMP Stack background  … being able to go from Client to Linux to Apache to MySQL and back again would be a huge advantage
• Any OSX development skills/experience would be highly appreciated - as would development skills with Ruby/RoR.