How to Find and Hire Fintech Developers: 3 common options

You’ve got a brilliant fintech idea for a startup, what’s next? When it comes to a startup, you need to act like making iron and strike it while it’s hot. And this is exactly where experienced fintech developers come in handy. Currently, fintech application developers are in high demand due to the increasing role of fintech innovations. By 2022, the global fintech market is expected to reach $309.98 billion. 

So you’re looking for great specialists who will bring your idea into a quality product. What should you do to find highly skilled fintech developers? Actually, there’s no silver bullet to help you immediately hire ideal specialists. However, there are some essential things that should be borne in mind when hiring fintech developers. Let’s consider all these factors in detail below.

Important things to check when hiring fintech developers

Before starting a fintech developers recruiting, answer the following questions:

• What level of seniority do you need? Middle or senior developers?
• What skills and experience should your specialists have?
• Have you decided on a budget for hiring a team of fintech specialists?

Having answers to all these questions will help you have a clear understanding of the ideal programmer in the fintech sector that you need. Here is an example of what your potential team of fintech specialists might look like.

By creating such a portrait, you can easily make the right choice and hire a team of fintech specialists that ideally meet your expectations and the project’s goals.

Now, let’s dive into the most vital points you should bear in mind when hiring fintech developers.

Define the required technical knowledge

The first thing you should identify is what languages, frameworks, and libraries your fintech team should know. However, it’s important to note that your tech stack directly depends on your app type. Will it be mobile development or do you want to create a crypto wallet? Below you can see the most prominent types of fintech apps based on the area of finance they deal with.

So, after you have precisely defined the type of your application, you can determine what knowledge your future developers should master. Usually, product development is divided into two parts: backend and frontend. Below we discuss the developmental process in more detail and consider what technologies are used.

Frontend development

The frontend is a client-side fintech app development that deals with everything users interact with. To put it simply, visual elements that users see in the app and click on are a frontend. Frontend developers are responsible for turning design into code that will display visual and interactive elements in the fintech app and deliver a great user experience. 

Today, there are many different technologies for frontend development. You should pay attention to professionals who have knowledge in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Bootstrap, AngularJS, Python, jQuery, React.js, Vue.

Backend development

Backend is a server-side fintech app development that isn’t visible to users. However, it plays an essential role in storing and arranging data on the server. In a nutshell, users send requests to the server, which contains the logic to send users the information they need. The frontend can’t operate without the backend technologies; they work in collaboration. Backend developers have responsibility for creating and maintaining the core app logic, servers, API, databases.

The most popular backend languages include Java, PHP, C++, Node.js, Scala. To store data, developers use a database. Here are the most popular: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB. To process users’ requests, developers create servers. Usually, it comes as a cloud server that provides you with an opportunity to run computing operations. You can get these services from a cloud provider like Microsoft  Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), IBM Cloud.

As you can see, there is a wide variety of technologies available to help you create any type of fintech application safely and efficiently.

Find fintech software development experts who know how to create the product you need

Once you’ve decided on your fintech sector, you can understand what kind of software you need to create. Let’s take a look at the most popular solutions fintech professionals to offer to build: 

• Digital banking solutions enable your customers to use your banking services in a more convenient way. Banking apps provide users with such essential features as managing bank accounts through desktop and mobile apps, carrying out financial transactions, making payments, and many more.

• Billing and invoice software allows you to securely automate the billing and invoice scope, track payments and generate reports to always be aware of your business.

• Advanced financial analytics empowers you to extract useful insights from your data to analyze market outcomes and accurately predict profit and loss. Financial analytics offers great risk management capacity to invest in areas that really make a profit.

• Insurance apps provide access to easy-to-use policy management system automation, make it easier for customers to apply for or renew policies, reduce the likelihood of insurance fraud, and process many other needs.

• Consumer finance apps allow users to plan and manage their personal finance in a more intelligent way. This solution provides users with a clearer picture of their spending history, automated reports, and tracking bills.

• Lending apps make the process of loan requests more efficient and faster. This software usually includes such features as billing, loan application forms, credit scores, payments, etc.

When choosing fintech specialists, be sure to pay attention to whether your fintech specialists have the experience and the necessary expertise with the type of application you want to build. For example, you need a digital banking application, but as it turns out, your fintech experts have no banking experience. You run the risk of getting a poor-quality solution. It’s better to immediately find out all the details like expertise and services provided to ultimately get a quality product.

Determine relevant experience

You’re looking for a fintech team that will work with certain tasks on a certain project, and with specific tools. To find an ideal development team that meets your expectations and project’s goals, it’s better to define the required experience beforehand. Let’s see some examples of expertise your fintech team can have:

• Experience in finance/banking
• Practical experience of development based on relational DB (SQL)
• Experience with AWS Data technologies
• Extensive experience using JS frameworks

Select appropriate soft skills

In addition to hard skills, another important aspect of successful cooperation is the well-developed soft skills of your fintech team. Soft skills are essential criteria when hiring talents since they influence how well your team will interact with you and each other. When hiring a fintech app developers, you can assess not only their hard skills and experience, but also problem-solving skills, teamwork, and so on. Let’s consider the key soft skills to pay attention to when hiring specialists.

• Communication. Effective communication is the key to project success. To effectively interact with other team members, fintech specialists should be comfortable with expressing their thoughts and listening to colleagues. These skills will help to avoid miscommunication and build harmonious team relationships.

• Empathy. Showing empathy is crucial to a project’s overall success. This soft skill allows employees to focus on resolving issues without arguing. This leads to more productive work and a respectful atmosphere in the team.

• Proactivity. A fintech team with this skill always acts without waiting for directions. Thanks to proactive people things get finished faster, they act promptly to solve issues before they have actually occurred.

• Problem-solving. This skill comes in handy when issues occur. Fintech developers with problem-solving skills can easily and objectively determine the sources of the problem and ways to resolve it.

• Adaptability and flexibility. Given the fact that the fintech industry is changing at a dynamic rate, developers must be prepared for this. They will have to react flexibly to all changes and quickly adapt to unpredictable situations in order to provide effective solutions.

How to find fintech developers: 3 common options

When hiring a fintech developer, there are three common ways you can choose a team for your cooperation: find in-house software developers, hire a dedicated development team or find a fintech freelancer. Let’s compare these options and consider their key pros and cons so you can choose the most suitable option for you.

Employ in-house fintech developers

This option involves having fintech developers in your office who work on a daily basis. In-house employees are usually highly motivated and directly engaged in your project’s long-term goals. 

Now, let’s look at the benefits and drawbacks of this approach and where to look for an in-house fintech app developer.

Advantages of hiring in-house fintech developers:

• You get full control over your employees and development costs. You can manage each task and totally control the whole development process.

• In-house developers quickly delve into your company’s values and project scope, their onboarding is usually faster, and they have an opportunity to exchange knowledge with each other.

• You have easy communication since there are no time zone differences. And personal interaction allows you to solve issues faster without spending much time scheduling a call.

• A high level of dedication since your in-house developers work only on your project.

Drawbacks of hiring in-house fintech developers:

• It can be quite an expensive approach because you will need a budget for the recruitment process, salaries, accounting, equipment, and other administrative activities. 

• You are limited to a certain geographic location, so it can be difficult for you to find a local specialist with a specific set of skills and experience.

Where to look for an in-house fintech developer

There are various job platforms, social networking sites, and other channels where developers post their CVs. For example, you can use such popular professional job websites as LinkedIn, Glassdoor, CareerBuilder, and GitHub Jobs.

So when should you hire an in-house fintech app developer? Let’s consider some key signs that this is the right choice for you.

Find a fintech freelancer

Another popular option for finding fintech specialists is freelancing. Employers around the world are eager to hire freelancers because they are cheaper than in-house employees and there’s an opportunity for cooperating with a developer from anywhere in the world. However, as with any option, there are pros and cons. Let’s take a closer look at them.

Pros of hiring a fintech freelancer

• It’s a cost-effective option. You don’t have to manage vacations, equipment, sick leaves, etc. You pay only for hours worked.

• You have a wide variety of fintech developers with diverse knowledge and experience around the world. You have every chance of finding a specialist who totally fits you.

Cons of hiring a fintech freelancer

• There may be a problem with management due to time zone differences and a lack of personal interaction. It’s sometimes hard to control how much time a developer spent working on your tasks, and delays are common in cooperating with freelancers. 

• Though freelancers can do their work well, as a rule, they are less engaged and not as motivated. They may be focused on completing specific tasks, but not necessarily on the success of the project as a whole.

• You should be prepared for the fact that their declared experience and skills might be overestimated or, in some cases, even false. CVs will need to be checked and confirmed thoroughly to avoid hiring a freelancer that will eventually fail in their tasks.

Where to look for a freelance fintech developer

To find freelance fintech specialists, you can use such popular and trustful websites as Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer, and Toptal. These platforms provide employee profiles, convenient search features, and reviews from past clients.

If you are thinking about hiring a freelance fintech developer, pay attention to whom this approach suits best:

Hire a dedicated fintech development team

This option presupposes that you choose to outsource and hire a dedicated development team to fully curate your project development process. You don’t have to deal with all administrative activities, your development team will take care of everything.

Now let’s consider the advantages and disadvantages of this approach and look at the most popular ways where to find a dedicated team.

Advantages of cooperating with a dedicated fintech development team

• This option implies great flexibility and scalability. This means when your project starts scaling and you’ll need more specialists, the dedicated team will be able to provide you with this.

• You don’t have to take care of the management process. A professional dedicated development team knows how to establish effective workflows to deliver high-quality products. Moreover, your outsourcing company provides you with a project manager who will control the development process and directly report you on project progress.

• A dedicated team has deep technical expertise and due to the rapid technology development, the opening of new opportunities, and high competition in the market, they tend to use proven and up-to-date technologies. 

• A dedicated team is more than just a partner for product development. Usually, such a team can assist you at every product development stage: from validating your business idea to the very launch.

Disadvantages of cooperating with a dedicated fintech development team

•  If you have a small scope of work to be done, this approach can be costly.

• You may face communication issues due to your team’s location in a country with a substantial time difference. Or, some misunderstandings might occur if a team has poor knowledge of your language.

Where to look for a dedicated fintech team

The most popular way to find a dedicated development team is to go to reliable platforms like Clutch, IT Firms, GoodFirms, or TopDevelopers where IT vendors post info about their services. On these platforms, you can see the development company’s tech stack, rates, reviews, etc, and find your ideal tech partner.

Before going with a dedicated development team, make sure this is exactly the approach you need.

Summing up

Finding a fintech developer with the tech stack your project requires might seem a challenging task. However, well-defined requirements and reliable platforms can simplify your recruiting process. When hiring fintech specialists, the most important thing is to remember your project’s goals, the scope of work, deadlines, and budget. Knowing this will help you choose the most rational approach for you and your business.

If you’re looking for a competent fintech developer partner, we are at your service. At Alternative-spaces, we will help you build the dedicated team of your dreams to make your fintech idea real. We have expertise in delivering fintech products of different types: from crypto projects to micro-investing apps.

So, if you don’t want to spend much time on the hiring process, get in touch with Alternative-spaces, and we’ll help you find your ideal fintech specialists who deliver your product on time and within budget!

Content created by our partner, Onix-systems.