'Finding data scientists with financial services experience is very unlikely' - Credit Suisse CIO

Nigel Faulkner believes it is even harder for the likes of Credit Suisse to hire data scientists

Finding data scientists is hard enough, but to find somebody with data science skills and experience in the financial services field is near impossible, according to the CIO of Credit Suisse investment bank, Nigel Faulkner.

Faulkner told Computing that the risk management and big data areas have the biggest shortage of senior technologists with financial services experience.

Faulkner said Credit Suisse was looking for candidates who could interpret big data graphs on risk or other financial services areas.

The role, which is in huge demand, commands an average salary in the UK of about £60,000 and requires a number of key skills.

"When you look at the skills data scientists have - some parts [of the role] are computer scientists, some part statistician and mathematician, some part economist and some part of domain experience as well - so the idea that you can encapsulate that all in one person seems pretty unlikely when you look at the breadth of the field of our investment bank, let alone the broader remit of Credit Suisse," he says.

To solve this issue the firm looks at the big data space as a "team sport", says Faulkner, and has recruited accordingly - suggesting that it has hired several people with some of the data scientists skills to work together, as opposed to hiring specialists.

Credit Suisse is also working with an unnamed external partner to put on an educational course online that focuses on big data.

Despite many, including Faulkner, believing that the data scientist role is rare - some experts believe that the role, like many other roles and buzzwords in IT, could just be a new description for something that already exists.

"In financial services - either within market research or risk - they typically had those people, but the role is becoming more important now, and therefore [there is a lot of] hype, because the data is more available," Stephen Brobst, CTO of Teradata, told Computing at Teradata Universe EMEA last month.