SQL Junior Developer recruitment

Towers Watson is a leading global professional services company that helps organisations improve performance through effective people, risk and financial management. With 14,000 associates around the world, we offer solutions in areas of employee benefits, talent management, rewards and risk and capital management.

The Investment line of business helps clients manage investment complexity, establish their risk tolerance and improve governance. Our business is focused on creating financial value for institutional investors through independent, best-in-class advice. We consult on investment strategy, risk assessment, strategic asset allocation and investment manager selection.

Investment has a dedicated software development team called the Quant Systems Group. The team consists of over 20 professionals developing investment software full time. It has a mix of investment and IT professionals with many having consulting experience and actuarial/ASIP/CFA qualifications. The Group is divided into 3 sub teams Systems, Analytics and Modelling. The Systems team represents about half of the group.

Systems, primarily, provides data storage and interfaces to it for the global Investment group. The framework is built on Microsoft technologies with a SQL server foundation. We use ASP, ASP.Net, Office applications and C# console/desktop applications to interact with the SQL server.

The team builds, supports and enhances applications in the following broad areas:

• Web-based knowledge management solution – used by internal and external clients

• Platform for financial modelling and the user interfaces to it

• Data hub for financial market data taking in external data feeds and distributing them throughout Towers Watson

• Reporting tools

Most of our clients are internal and the systems team is fully integrated with the rest of the Investment group.

The development philosophy is based around an agile approach with flexible delivery that is driven by business needs. To achieve this, the group works in close collaboration with the investment consultants and has a modular approach to development.

Our team approach is to be very inclusive. You will have the opportunity to contribute to the full development lifecycle: gathering requirements from clients; collaborating on the design of new functionality; working on the build; releasing to the client; providing training and support; and gathering feedback. You will have the opportunity to take ownership of tools from an early stage.

As a Junior Developer in the Investment Systems team, you will:

• Help with the programming, maintenance and user support of the database and software tools written by the team.

• Develop knowledge of existing framework to provide maintainable solutions.

• Develop an understanding of client’s needs/processes and data stored in our databases.

• Work with lead developers or autonomously where appropriate in order to iteratively provide a suitable software solution, presented to a high standard and within delivery timelines.

Build strong relationships internally and collaborate effectively on cross-functional teams. Deal professionally, incisively and in a timely manner with internal and external clients and manage their expectations effectively.

• Strong analytical, numerical and problem solving skills, most likely demonstrated by a 2:1 (or better) BSc or MSc degree in mathematics, statistics, computing, science, engineering or economics/finance

• Advanced Excel and general IT skills

• 1-3 years of SQL development experience (2005/2008)

• Creating editing stored procedures / functions / triggers

• Query optimisation

• Data schema design

• Desire to work in the investment industry

• Aptitude for learning quickly, picking up both business domain knowledge and details about the existing complex codebase

• Ability to handle multiple projects, plan and organise work efficiently

• Must be able to use own initiative and work with minimum supervision

• Excellent verbal/written communication skills

• Flexibility: willing to contribute to all aspects of the work, from design to fixing bugs, supporting users and maintaining the documentation of new features

• A team player who thrives in a collegiate atmosphere

Level will depend on

• Previous experience of working in the investment industry or developing software

• Progress in Microsoft developer certifications or CFA/FIA qualifications (studying for at least the Microsoft developer certification will be a requirement once employed)

• Experience of working with databases

• Depth of knowledge in SQL ,VBA, C#, Matlab or ASP.Net