How to Hire FinTech Developers: The Ultimate Guide

FinTech is drastically changing the traditional landscape of the financial industry leaving no stone unturned. According to the Pulse of FinTech H2 2021 by KPMG International, the total investment in FinTech in 2021 reached a record level of $115 billion, which considerably surpassed the previous record of $53.2 billion in 2018.

Organizations and consumers no longer rely on legacy financial systems and are modernizing them or creating new ones from scratch. Real-time payments, automated trading systems, data tokenization and blockchain, cryptocurrencies, NFT, and other trends arise rapidly and demand quick adoption from the market players. To meet the industry requirements, companies need to understand where to look for technical specialists that can implement complete financial solutions.

Prior to hiring FinTech developers

Before diving into the hiring process, companies need to understand what exactly they would like to implement and what kind of specialist can do it for them. In this regard, we recommend considering the following matters:

• years of experience;
• expertise and skills;
• team size and composition.

As a rule, professional FinTech software development companies offer the services of the following experts:

Middle Developers having from two to four years of experience. These specialists know the required technical stack, have experience in projects within the domain, and are able to work both individually and with a team.

Senior Developers having from five to eight years of experience and a strong knowledge of the required technical stack. These experts have several years’ record in projects within the industry and possess solid communication skills.

Team Leads having from eight to ten years of experience with banking and finance projects. These experts possess outstanding communication and time management skills, have a clear understanding of performance metrics, and can head up the team.

Outsourcing vs freelance FinTech developers

When you choose your future team, you should consider the available options, which are hiring in-house specialists, an outsourcing team, or freelancers. Let us not consider the first option in detail, as it implies high expenses for taxes, medical insurance, sick leave, time and effort spent on recruitment and training, and so on.

Hiring freelancers is the least expensive option of all. They don’t need a workspace or benefits and can be located anywhere in the world. However, freelancers can be less motivated and engaged in the project due to the lack of personal contact with the team, which leads to delays. In addition to that, customers often have difficulties evaluating the real experience and qualifications of the freelancers registered on job boards. So, hiring a freelancer may lead to unexpected outcomes.

If you choose to outsource a project, you can cut costs and ensure high-quality work by outsourcing engineers. You will have access to a large talent pool around the world. Apart from concentrating on specific technical tasks, an outsourcing development team handles quality assurance, project and risk management, and maintains close communications with the customer. Engaging outsourcers is a reasonable step for those companies who plan to scale up their financial services business and are interested in having technical support at their disposal.

Why hire FinTech developers?

The right specialists can translate your vision into reality and help you achieve a new standard of financial services. You will get the following benefits:

• Cost efficiency. Cooperating with the proper specialists can be more economically advantageous than hiring in-house developers. Moreover, you may find outstanding specialists who offer reasonable pricing.
• Skilled experts. You have access to a huge talent pool and can choose to work with anyone who meets your professional requirements without being limited to geographical location.
• Scalability. You can trust the development team not only with individual technical tasks but with a complex project. As the scope of your activities expands, you can entrust your technical partner with a growing number of tasks.
• Personalized approach. As a rule, software development companies understand that every project is unique, and compose teams with relevant skills and technical stacks to meet the needs of your business.
• Flexibility. Experienced developers can adapt to requirement changes in the development process, change the size of the team, or engage additional specialists if needed.

FinTech developer hiring process

The process of hiring experts consists of the following steps:

1.Finding a FinTech outsourcing company.

There are plenty of sources where you can look for a suitable company to cooperate with. You may use your own connections, attend professional events, research LinkedIn, or specialized platforms like Clutch. Whatever the source, you should apply certain criteria when selecting your future technical partner from potential candidates:

• Ratings. Reputable software development companies are registered on professional resources and have clients’ ratings on their profile pages. As a customer, you can compare them and select the most successful candidates.
• Portfolio. When you want to evaluate a company’s expertise, pay attention to its portfolio and case studies. You may not find out all the background information of the completed projects. However, it will give you an understanding of a company’s professional direction, methods, and strengths.
• Customer feedback. Companies will hardly publish negative reviews from their clients. However, it’s not a useless idea to take a look at the available feedback. This will give you an understanding of whether you have any common objectives with the former customers, and what the specific details that may occur when dealing with the considered outsourcing company are.
• Rates. Price can be a decisive factor. However, there is no need to chase the lowest rates because there is no guarantee it won’t adversely affect the quality of the provided services.
• Communication. When you are ready to communicate with developers, pay attention to their communication style to find out whether you are on the same page and whether it would be comfortable to collaborate with them. In addition, note whether the developers have a good command of English in case it’s not their native language.

2.Conducting a tech assessment of FinTech engineers.

It goes without saying that a FinTech developer should have excellent programming skills. Depending on the peculiarities of your project, a FinTech developer can use various programming languages and frameworks. Apart from Back-end and Front-end development, FinTech engineers can have expertise in Data Science, cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. In addition to that, a professional must be aware of the latest technology trends of the industry.

3.Conducting a tech assessment of FinTech engineers.

We shouldn’t underestimate the importance of soft skills for technical specialists. Soft skills determine successful cooperation on the project. That’s why we recommend you to pay attention to communication skills and the ability to work in a team. However, it’s also essential for FinTech developers to work individually, and to have critical thinking and time management skills. Besides, a technical specialist should still have a flexible and creative mindset.

How to manage remote FinTech developers?

Apart from hiring a remote team, it’s crucial to nurture a relationship with them to prevent potential problems.

Miscommunication. Due to different time zones, it can be difficult to discuss issues with all the involved specialists at once. To stay on the same page, we recommend planning calls in advance and holding separate online meetings with the specialists to discuss specific issues.
Performance management. It’s important that your remote team has clear technical requirements, instructions, and tasks with understandable results. To stay in contact with your technical partners, arrange a schedule of calls and briefings.
Lack of control over the development process. Remote work may seem invisible to a customer at certain times. If you need to know exactly what tasks your engineers are working on, you should ask them for periodic feedback.

To Sum Up

Hiring a remote team of FinTech developers is a reasonable step for companies who would like to efficiently allocate their resources and adapt to the new rules of financial markets. Outsourcing engineers will contribute fresh opinions and great expertise to your project. If you are ready to start an exciting journey into modern financial services, do not hesitate to contact us.