ex-JPMorgan fintech head demanding in-office at new crypto firm
Of all the top investment banks, JPMorgan seems the most active in contributing to the fintech startup space. They've launched the funding platform capital connect and have begun fleshing out their digital innovation team to rival HSBCs revamped (and rebranded) SVB UK. Now, a man once at the heart of that fintech push has unveiled a new(ish) crypto trading platform at $4.1bn fintech Bitpanda with a working culture breaking from the norm.
Joshua Barraclough began at JPMorgan as a VP in the fintech division of JPMorgan's corporate and investment bank. By 2018 he was its head of fintech, and was promoted to executive director within four months. In 2021, he then became co-head of digital innovation and left JPMorgan for investment platform BitPanda that year and became CEO of its regulated digital asset exchange, BitPanda Pro.
Today, BitPanda Pro has been replaced by One Trading, which Barraclough has proclaimed himself as the founder and CEO of.
One Trading is looking to hire across a number of divisions, predominantly engineering. There are multiple listings for senior java developers and frontend engineers. Non-technical teams are also looking to grow there. One Trading is hiring for a marketing lead to supplement the revamp, and within the job duties is the task of hiring a team to support them.
Interestingly, the fintech demands employees work in the office "at least" three days per week. It doesn't shy away from calling itself a "challenging environment" and declares in a product owner job listing that it "is not a 9-5 role."
Could this indicate a shift towards crypto jobs prioritizing the office? On the trading side, this shift has already occurred. A high frequency trading firm in London is already asking engineers to come into the office five days per week, while fellow HFT firm Wintermute says it is "unable to accept fully remote candidates" in a quantitative developer job listing.
Merej Bahram, managing partner of recruitment firm Durlston Partners, says some crypto firms have begun to adopt a mentality of "come in and prove yourself before we give you flexibility." He says traders and front office staff are usually in the office at minimum four days per week.
It's not true for all firms, however, especially some of the largest ones. Coinbase, for example, has 86 open roles and 75 of them are available for remote candidates. Outside of crypto specifically, Scott Dawson, head of sales and strategic partnerships at payments fintech Decta says "Monday to Friday nine to five in the office as the only option is dead."
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