Senior Economist ( Wholesale Markets – Policy Analysis )
Salary: National – ranging from £51,200 – £70,000 and London from £56,400 – £75,000 per annum
Do you want to join a high performing, diverse team which will give you the opportunity to apply your economic expertise to meaningful work that makes a real difference?
The team/department
Economics is at the heart of what the FCA does. Economic thinking and analysis inform our regulatory decisions and shape how we tackle some of the biggest issues in financial services.
We are currently recruiting for a Senior Economist to join our Wholesale Markets – Policy Analysis team in the Economics Division. As a Senior Economist, you will provide analysis and economic advice on wholesale financial markets in such areas as capital markets, investment management, trading venues and crypto assets. The prime focus of the team is to undertake cost benefit analysis of policy interventions. You will have the opportunity to conduct market analyses and applied research to support evidence-based decision making in wholesale financial markets.
What you will be doing (the role)
Contribute with analysis and economic advice on a range of issues relevant to the FCA with a large focus on topics in wholesale markets
Developing robust cost benefit analyses for wholesale market interventions, ensuring this can stand up to the rigours of the new CBA panel, as well as intense external scrutiny
Using quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate and assess the efficiency of previous interventions and inform the design of new interventions
Contribute to analytical projects in collaboration with other FCA areas. The projects may involve tight deadlines and various degrees of depth and rigour. In addition, you will contribute to wholesale market horizon scanning, analysis, and research
Besides providing robust, evidence-based analysis, you will be skilled in communicating your findings to a range of internal and external audiences (including non-technical senior stakeholders) and managing multiple relationships
What you will get from the role
You will have the opportunity to learn about, understand and shape the workings of the financial sector at a time of considerable change. You will have the opportunity to influence policy and deliver meaningful work that makes a real difference to consumers and markets.
You will be part of a thriving economics profession, with links to the Government Economic Service and other professional organisations.
You will be joining a multicultural community of economists, econometricians, behavioural scientists and data scientists, with opportunities to attend academic and industry conferences. We provide a stimulating, collaborative environment with a range of opportunities for professional and personal development. This includes the opportunity to develop new skills (for instance coding or causal inference techniques) and build up knowledge of different wholesale or retail financial markets.
We also provide opportunities to work on other economics projects outside your core role, depending on the skills and interest of the job holder. This provides variety to your work and allows you to develop or make use of existing skills through working with colleagues in other teams.
Examples of opportunities outside of your core role include:
Undertake training to develop and/or enhance coding experience (usually in R), with opportunity to work on smaller data analysis projects
Undertaking more complex data analysis, including having access to large datasets where you can use econometric methods to answer policy questions
Using quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate and assess the effectiveness of previous interventions, including the use of cutting edge causal inference methods
Using first principles economic thinking to provide thinking for our strategy and regulatory approach
Using a blend of tools and techniques to help the FCA to proactively understand how future trends affect the markets it regulates, providing insights and research to inform the FCA’s approach to new and emerging issues
Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifestyle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option to top up your base salary by taking this as cash.
Core benefits that you will receive as standard are:
25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays
Private healthcare with Bupa
A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35)
Life assurance of eight times your basic salary
Income protection
We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.
The skills and experience you will have
Minimum
A degree in economics (or related discipline) with relevant professional experience
Proven analytical and quantitative skills to conduct analysis in financial markets
Experience of providing high-quality economic and/or analytical advice
Essential
Experience in delivering analytical projects, including identifying and analysing different sources of information to inform analysis
Knowledge of wholesale markets gained through professional experience or academic studies
Experience in communicating and explaining complex issues with clarity, simplicity and precision to both specialist and non-specialist audiences both verbally and in writing
Working collaboratively and effectively with internal and external stakeholders, developing and maintaining positive working relationships
Ability to handle uncertainty and deliver to tight deadlines, being flexible in adjusting your approach to changing demands
Ability to make a strong personal impact, persuading with well-reasoned arguments and challenging where appropriate
Willingness to be flexible and understand that role responsibilities might evolve over time according to business needs
About the FCA
The FCA regulates the conduct of nearly 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole.
The FCA’s Values & Diversity
Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.
The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our role.
Flexible working
We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements. Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.
Multi-location
As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices. This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.
Useful information
Applications for this role close at 23:59 on Thursday 10th October 2024.
This role is graded as Senior Associate – Regulatory.
To support your application, kindly submit a brief cover letter along with your CV (no more than 500 words) highlighting your interest in the role and your motivations for applying. We encourage you to include any relevant information you would like us to consider as part of your application.
Got a question?
If you are interested in learning more about the role please contact:
For internal applicants, please contact Melanie Dubock at Melanie.Dubock@fca.org.uk
For external applicants, please contact Ifrah Azam at Ifrah.Azam@fca.org.uk
What to expect from our interview process
The interview process is likely to be one stage incorporating a practical case study exercise and an interview to assess technical skills and core competencies.
Application support
If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible.
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