Amazon’s new Singapore hiring spree is a big worry for banks

Covid-19 does not appear to have dented Amazon’s enthusiasm for hiring in Singapore, which is welcome news if you’re a technology professional who wants to quit the banking sector. Increased competition for talent from Amazon is not so good, however, for banks in the Republic, which are trying to bolster their tech teams as usage of their digital platforms surges.

In technology, Amazon’s local recruitment drive is largely focused on solutions architects (SAs) – there are 63 of these roles on its careers site, all within its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud unit.

Most notably, if you work in banking, AWS is looking for a Singapore-based head SA for the financial services industry. The successful applicant will be a technologist with “significant financial services experience” who has led digital transformation initiatives across a bank or insurance firm. Banks in Asia are moving some of their systems to cloud providers, and AWS is looking to win market share.

There are other SA positions where finance sector experience may be advantageous, such as a vacancy for a cloud infrastructure architect, global financial services. You’ll need experience implementing primary AWS services (EC2, ELB, RDS, Route53 and S3) to land this Singapore-based AWS job. Amazon is also after a payments and insurance principle solutions architect.

Meanwhile, some solutions architects jobs focus on emerging technologies, such as a specialist SA for machine learning. As well as having knowledge of deep learning frameworks like Apache MXNet and TensorFlow, you must enjoy interacting with AWS clients. You’ll be developing “white papers, blogs, reference implementations, and presentations to enable customers to fully leverage ML/AI on AWS”, according to Amazon’s careers site.

No matter their industry or technology focus, SA vacancies at AWS are not aimed at juniors. Several are at senior management level and come with recruitment responsibilities. As head of partner solutions architecture (for independent software vendors), for example, you must be able to “build teams quickly” and “recognise and coach top technical talent”.

AWS is also taking on migration solution architects in Singapore, whose job is to work with C-level executives as their companies move more of their platforms to the cloud. IT consulting experience and the “ability to close deals” are a must.

The scale of AWS’s technology hiring pits it against Singapore’s three local banks – DBS, OCBC and UOB – whose hiring in technology is also continuing apace despite the pandemic. DBS said yesterday that it plans to add 360 tech professionals to its headcount by the end of this year.

Worryingly for banks, Amazon has a track record of hiring from the finance sector in Singapore and has several ex-banking architects within its ranks, including Myles Hosford, ASEAN head of security architecture, who used to work for JP Morgan. Michael Braendle, AWS’s global solutions architect lead for ASEAN, was previously the APAC CTO for wealth management at UBS.

Photo by Nicolas J Leclercq on Unsplash

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