Barclays Capital IT’s focus on competing through technology – and our strategy to build in-house solutions – means we attract some of the brightest talent in the market. Career development is very important to us; we encourage internal mobility and have many good examples of people who have moved and developed within the organisation.

Below are examples of typical roles we recruit for, why we need them and what knowledge and skills are required.

Application / Software Developers
Developers design and build systems that support all areas of the firm’s activities including Front Office, Quantitative Analytics, Credit Risk, Market Risk, Product Control and Operations. These systems are of critical importance as they enable us to
react quickly to changing conditions, manage risk and trade seamlessly in global markets. Responsibilities in this role include interaction with business users, requirements capture, analysis, design, development and release to production. We recognise the importance of application development and provide first-rate technical infrastructure and training to ensure technical skills remain finely honed.

Knowledge and skills required:
Experience of Rapid Application Development on-the-desk solutions through to object-oriented middle tiers into scalable enterprise database environments.

Business Analysts
The role of the Business Analyst at Barclays Capital is critical to ensure that all projects are delivered on schedule, on budget and with the required functionality. This function is essential to the business solutions we create. Business Analysts are empowered to work directly with the business and liaise with stakeholders in order to define, analyse, communicate and validate requirements for changes to business processes and information systems. Responsibilities include understanding business problems and opportunities in the context of business requirements and for recommending appropriate solutions. This gives Business Analysts opportunities to work with Front Office, Middle Office, Operations, Legal, Compliance and HR in various locations, including New York, Singapore and London.

Knowledge and skills required:
An understanding of the business, its goals and rules, and the ability to:

• Facilitate meetings, interviews and workshops to gather and analyse information and resolve issue
• Document current business processes and determine the requirements for new processes
• Design new processes and ensure they support business goals
• Conduct impact analysis of proposed business changes
• Document business-oriented data models, business rules and state charts
• Document IT and business requirement specifications
• Ensure traceability between IT requirements, business processes, data and rules

Project Managers
Project Managers enable managers and teams to work within time, quality, cost and technical performance constraints, while focusing on clients’ real needs. They are embedded in all areas of IT and have ownership of projects, resulting in responsibility for the project team’s delivery and accountability for the results. We need Project Managers to help us meet today’s market demands for faster turn-around, smarter solutions, lower prices and higher value. We provide a world-class training programme, including the opportunity to continue or begin a professional certification in Project Management.

Knowledge and skills required:
Technical knowledge of systems in the areas of governance, financial control and client focus are mandatory as are management skills, such as communications, teamwork and leadership and knowledge of our industry.

Technical Architects

Application Architects
Application Architects are responsible for defining the strategic direction of technology platforms and ensuring they can keep up with rapidly evolving business requirements and increasing trade volumes. Responsibilities include communicating strategy to all levels of management and development staff across the organisation, interacting with project teams, promoting strategic programmes of work and keeping abreast of new technology to provide pragmatic advice on its uptake.

Technical skills and experience required:

• Working experience of at least two and expertise in at least one of the following:
  • .Net
  • C++
• Java
• In-depth knowledge of at least one of the following:
  • Oracle
  • SQLServer
• Capital markets experience, with up-to-date knowledge of at least one business area
• Good knowledge of SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture), integration and middleware/messaging
• Well-developed UML (Unified Modeling Language) and data modelling skills

Infrastructure Architects
Flexible and reliable infrastructure is fundamental for operating in the marketplace and essential for helping us price and manage developing products such as complex derivatives. Working within IT Production, Infrastructure Architects develop strategies for technical infrastructure products and services such as grid servers or high performance messaging – to enable IT to support the firm’s rapid ongoing growth. They also assist the implementation of new infrastructure components by identifying, scoping, reviewing and supporting major architectural change projects.
The broad scope of this work – and its significance in supporting the whole range of the firm’s activities – leads to a challenging and varied role, working with leading experts throughout IT. Responsibilities include interaction with applications development teams, requirements capture, strategy development, architecture design, business analysis and vendor management. We are unusual among top-tier banks in having a function dedicated to this role so this is a unique opportunity to develop broad skills and a wide understanding of the IT organisation, while adding significant value to IT Production. We provide training to ensure that technical skills and business awareness are developed side-by-side.

Experience and skills required:
Experience of hardware and operating systems, storage networks, database management and messaging technologies.

Engineering
The Engineering function is responsible for the strategy, architecture and standards for all infrastructure technology used to support the business. Engineering is at the forefront of technology, working closely with industry-leading vendors and technologies to develop, maintain and deliver the architecture blueprints and roadmaps for IT Production’s products, services and toolsets. Defining, developing and maintaining architecture blueprints and documenting standards is critical for delivering solutions that strike the right balance between innovation, risk and cost as well as providing a competitive edge. Barclays Capital recognises the need to underpin delivery of high quality service with a diverse team of highly skilled engineers.

Experience and skills required:
The Engineering discipline requires in-depth product knowledge of infrastructure components such as Windows, Unix, Storage, Email, Market Data, Network and Voice. In addition to this, analytical and problem solving skills are key, as is the ability to articulate solutions and business benefits.

Production Support
IT Production Support provides deployment and support for all technology platforms within the Barclays Capital environment. The stability of these platforms is vital to the smooth running of the business. High quality deployment, coupled with quick issue
resolution and excellent communication, are all essential parts of ensuring our technology platforms can support business activity and the bottom line. Individuals are expected to own problems, to take responsibility for systems and to share in the commitment to deliver an excellent service to the business. Production Support is a function that has a significant level of business exposure and requires rapid, structured and creative thinking to keep the business up and running.

Experience and skills required:
The Production Support discipline requires in-depth product knowledge of infrastructure components such as Windows, Unix, Storage, Email, Market Data, Network and Voice. Analytical and problem solving skills are key, as is the ability to troubleshoot and drive issues to resolution.