Fintech, or financial technology, applies technological innovation to the finance industry and impacts a wide range of everyday life. Fintech also includes companies and organizations that use technology to enhance social change, income equity and access, workforce development, currencies and financial literacy.  The field has also proved remarkably resilient through the pandemic and, according to recent activity, continues to thrive as attractive workplaces.

For PhDs and graduate students, the field of fintech is being driven by well-funded start-ups and more established banks and companies with exciting career growth opportunities and ample capital to hire.  And demand for skilled talent is sky high.  For background, you can read this quick explainer which also includes some examples of start-ups across the US. In the last two weeks alone, nearly $1.7 billion was raised by fintech companies in the US alone.

Here are some of the top fintech companies (source: CB Insights), and areas of focus, for reference.

Notably, fintech jobs are not just for “finance” people.

As a rapidly moving career area with significant demand for highly-skilled talent, we would recommend that you take a pro-active approach to search for specific companies as they do not all appear on the pages of Indeed or other job aggregators.  There are also global networking events that can enhance your understanding and put you in touch with these decision-makers.

• VPhD’s own search on SmartJobs has yielded a large number of available jobs as well, including companies working to improve homeownership, student loan repayment, catching financial crimes through analytics (!) and scores of other areas.   These are only examples. You can many more live jobs on our SmartJobs site.

HSS

Senior Associate, Credit Ninja

Analytics Manager, Chime Remote

User Research, Better

Compliance Officer and Government Affairs, Sofi

Summer Internship, Research, Financial Technology Partners

STEM

UX Researcher, Prosper

Head of Data Architecture and Analytics, ThinkMarkets

Senior Quantitative Developer, Financial Crimes Analytics, Interactive Brokers

Staff Data Engineer, Venmo

Financial Modeling Associate, BlackRock

If there are areas of work you would like us to explore in more depth, please contact at social@versatilephd.com. 

We want to hear from you.

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page. Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.

We recently participated in a forum at Columbia University that discussed the versatility of economics PhD’s in the job market.  The topic we introduced was “Unbundling Your PhD” as a way to visualize and understand the vast applications of an economics PhD (or any social science, for that matter) to the job market.

You can listen to the event recording, including a Q&A session, here:

Note: This event was hosted by the Graduate School at Columbia University as part of its PER Series and included the participation of Versatile PhD.

Will the future CEO of Coca Cola be a trained anthropologist?

Consider a story a few years ago by Gillian Tett (herself an anthropologist turned journalist at the Financial Times) on how anthropological and ethnographic research was used at Coca Cola to expand its products into China and other new markets.  Now apply this story across every company in the world that focuses on consumer data, behavior and psychology–which is to say, every modern company.

Then take a glance at any job board and search under “anthropology” or related social science fields.  What this quick exercise may tell you is that public and private sector enterprises, from start-ups to not-for-profits to multinational enterprises, are demanding behavioral and social scientists in significant numbers.  And with a PhD, you will likely have a greater chance of getting in the door.

One subset of this, User Research, is a discipline which exists in virtually every enterprise that works with data and consumers.  If you’re unfamiliar with this career area–which draws heavily on qualitative and quantitative research methods, as a well as domains such as psychology, anthropology and sociology–you can learn more here.

Or check our SmartJobs feed this week.

Of course, there are many other examples and applications within social media companies such as Facebook and Tik Tok, music platforms, “behavioral labs” and practically every start-up emerging today.

Behold the variety of jobs available–and take a deeper look.  You might be surprised at the scope of career diversity available.

HSS

User Experience Researcher, Blend Labs

Usability Analyst, Clovity

UX Researcher, Facebook Reality Labs

Senior User Researcher, Tik Tok

Researcher, Nextdoor

STEM

Senior Data Scientist

Neurology Physician, Cognitive Health and the NFL, Mount Sinai Medical 

Data Scientist, Directorate of Digital Innovation, CIA

Academic Partnership Manager, Noom

Behavioral Scientist, Symend

If there are areas of work you would like us to explore in more depth, please contact at smartjobs@versatilephd.com. 

We want to hear from you.

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page. Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.

There is often a fine line between for-profit and non-profit work. In fact the non-profit sector draws on some of the same skills as the for-profit sector, with the difference often being that taxation is paid by one entity but not the other.  Job titles also have a wide range: business development lead, program manager, national director, project manager, and many others.

This week’s upload includes hundreds of available positions across such varied industries as artificial intelligence, healthcare consulting, international legal advocacy, student services, childhood diseases and financial services, to name only a few.

Every enterprise requires development: what skills and expertise might you bring to their development mission?  Have you opened your mind to the opportunities available?

Here are a few examples to get you started.

HSS

National Director, Student Data Services, WorkMonger

Business Development Manager, Unlearn.AI

Senior Program Officer, Asia, American Bar Association

Senior Program Manager, Population Services International 

Director, Center for the Future of Aging, Milken Institute

STEM

Director of Development, Red Cross

Senior Associate, Edera LC3

Director, HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, Save the Children

Senior Programs Manager, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Project Manager, Research to Action Lab, The Urban Institute

If there are areas of work you would like us to explore in more depth, please contact at smartjobs@versatilephd.com. 

We want to hear from you.

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page. Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.

Photo by Seb Mooze on Unsplash

The seemingly non-stop launches of rockets from SpaceX, the venerable US start-up, reminds us that we are in new era for space exploration.  Importantly, this is accelerating the volume, level and types of employment available.  Whether in deep space research, travel, interstellar mining, space services (3D printing in space?), autonomous aerospace vehicles, or dozens of other applications, existing and imagined, the depth and breadth of opportunities in the private sector are unprecedented.

And we are only at the beginning.

For a more technical view of our space future, consider this presentation by NASA to understand the emerging spectrum of space activities.  Or to find out news on the start-up market for space ventures, and research potential employers, check out CB Insights to start tracking market participants.

Then look up our space jobs this week with specialities ranging from engineering and planning to communications, post-doctoral research and national security positions.  Open positions are mostly in STEM–but as companies are formed to pursue these challenges there will be more opportunities for all areas of domain expertise.

Happy travels.

HSS

Operations Research Analyst, US Space Force

STEM

Senior Software Engineer, Collins Aerospace

Postdoctoral Research, Planetary Atmospheres

Spacecraft Systems Integration Engineer, Gryphon Technologies

Computer Vision, Satellite Imaging, Department of Defense

Research Geophysicist, NASA

Aerospace Systems Engineer, XWing

If there are areas of work you would like us to explore in more depth, please contact at smartjobs@versatilephd.com. 

We want to hear from you.

For access to more jobs as well as archived and searchable opportunities, visit our SmartJobs page. Note: SmartJobs access requires a university affiliation. User-generated jobs are open to all members and can be accessed here.

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash