Data Engineer – Market Oversight Data and Systems

Data Engineer – Market Oversight Data and Systems

Salary: National ranging from £51,200 – £65,000 and London from £56,400 – £70,000, depending on skills and experience  

Are you looking for a role where you can help tackle market abuse in secondary markets?

The team/department

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The Market Oversight Directorate is responsible for overseeing the conduct of participants in the primary and secondary markets through the listing, prospectus, and market abuse regimes. The mission of the Division is to promote the conduct that supports trusted, orderly, and efficient primary and secondary markets in the UK which work in the interests of all participants and stakeholders.

Market Oversight Business Intelligence (MOBI) comprises a team of specialists in software engineering, data science, project management and big data. The purpose of MOBI can be summarised as follows:

• Deliver insight to Market Oversight (MO) & the wider FCA through exploitation of MO Datasets

• Continue to be a leading Data Engineering and Science Team

What you will be doing (the role)

As a Senior Associate in the Market Oversight Business Intelligence (MOBI), you will be working with one of the largest, most comprehensive wholesale market datasets in Europe. Using latest cloud and big-data technologies, you will use data engineering and science techniques to deliver insights to market surveillance analysts where you own the process from reshaping the data, all the way to analysis output or dashboard production. Your work will enhance Market Oversight’s (MO) ability to understand and proactively monitor the UK’s Wholesale Markets through the following core activities of this role:

• Develop and maintain MO’s ecosystem so that data is received, processed, and stored to enable innovative solutions to be developed

• Develop investigative tooling to enhance MO’s Market Monitoring capabilities in a range of systemically important asset classes

• Undertaking systematic and ad-hoc investigations to identify prospective cases of market abuse (e.g., insider dealing and market manipulation)

• Working with surveillance analysts to enhance MO’s surveillance and analytics platforms

• Using Data Engineering and Data Science techniques to reveal insights into Market Participants behaviours

• Work flexibility within the directorate to support overall objectives

This is a demanding and varied role in one of the most high-profile and dynamic teams across the FCA. The role will give you the opportunity to develop your technical skills; contribute to forthcoming changes in our approach to market surveillance, transaction reporting and order data cross-market and cross-asset; and develop an in-depth knowledge of financial markets and regulation. You’ll be supported by a team of experienced data practitioners with many years of experience allowing you to upskill within a short period of time. 

What you will get from the role?

• You will have the opportunity work in a supportive team with a proven delivery track record and strong reputation within the FCA

• You’ll be supported by a team of experienced data practitioners with many years of experience

• You will have the opportunity to influence how the FCA uses data engineering and science methods to enhance how it operates and evaluates markets. This will help the organisation be more effective which benefits UK consumers

• You will get to work with Market experts to understand and explore significant market events and supporting ongoing investigations into potential misconduct

• Various training opportunities to upskill in data science and enhance knowledge of financial markets

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.  

• Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:   

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Private healthcare with Bupa  

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)  

• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary  

• Income protection  

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.  

The skills and experience you will have  

Minimum   

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.  

• Experience of financial markets and products (e.g., Equities, Fixed Income, Currencies and Commodities)

• Experience in at least two of the following languages: Scala, Python, SQL

• Demonstrable experience applying data science techniques, or deploying data engineering solutions, in the Financial Services industry especially with trading and market data

Essential

• Organised and have experience in coordinating several workstreams at once ensuring issues are effectively prioritised and progressed on a timely basis

• A willingness to learn and apply new tools and techniques quickly

• Ability to work flexibility on a horizontal basis across teams

• Ability to present highly technical information and conclusions through straightforward sensible stories

• Ability to think critically and autonomously as well as self-teach

• Able to work in a collaborative way with all members of the MOBI team and more broadly across MO and provide effective and clear communications and guidance as needed

• Able to present new ideas and outcomes in a clear and concise manner to all internal and external stakeholders and across all levels of seniority

• Experience with big-data technologies (e.g., AWS Redshift, Apache SPARK, Elastic Map Reduce etc.) and visualization and dashboard tools e.g., Tableau, Spotfire

About the FCA   

The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here.  

The FCA’s Values & Diversity

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.  

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our Senior Associate role.   

Flexible working

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking. 

Multi-location

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices.  This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.   

Useful information

• Applications for this role close at 23.59 on 6th November 2024

• This role is graded as Senior Associate – Regulatory​

Got a question?    

If you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact:  

For internal applicants, please contact Louise Nash at [email protected]​

For external applicants, please contact Asha Gladis at [email protected]

What to expect from our interview process  

If your application is successful, you will be invited to complete an assessment and competency-based interview.​

Application support  

We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.

If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible. 

Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal, applications sent via email will not be accepted.