I am the Head of Platform at Efficient Frontiers International (EFI), Europe’s leading specialist in financial crime prevention. That means I am responsible for the technology that we both develop and partner with to deliver our services to our clients. I am also responsible for the core infrastructure that supports our daily business operations.
I am truly fortunate to be able to work very closely with our CEO to deliver his technology vision, in a role that is incredibly broad and at times challenging. I have spent the last 3 years building EFI’s client facing technology capabilities from the ground up.
How, I got into the FinTech space?
I was seconded into a technology function in the very early stages of my career, and I have never looked back! I’d spent a couple of years working in an operational line management role for a tier 1 bank and had been amazed at the inefficiencies and under-utilised skilled resources in very manually intensive operational roles.
Then an opportunity arose to work on an industry wide, technological initiative that would completely transform the way the structured derivative market confirmed trades.
The market-changing impact of this technology was incredibly exciting. I knew that this was where I wanted to focus the next stages of my career.
I talk about those changes when I speak with EFI’s Academy intake because I see that we are at a similar point in the Financial Crime and KYC (Know Your Customer) market where we are on the brink of some transformative industry wide new technology standards
At EFI we work the challenges facing these Ops teams daily, so our tech delivers solutions to real-life business problems of which our EFI analysts have deep understanding.
The biggest challenge in my career
Aside from the day-to-day challenges of a FinTech role in a young business, I think the biggest challenge in my career currently is where to focus my learning and continued personal development next.
The continuous evolution of technology, not only directly in the FinTech space but also world changing technology that we are all impacted by whether we like it or not, means there is always the next new thing to learn.
Sometimes that can be overwhelming. It is important for me to keep up to date with contemporary trends to understand how they may impact my role at EFI. This way I can determine where to focus my efforts. This of course, is an ongoing pursuit.
There is strength in support systems
Since joining EFI, Europe’s leading experts in financial crime prevention, I have been exposed to a brilliant network of FinTech professionals who are always willing to talk and share knowledge – we are lucky that this is also facilitated by some fantastic industry events.
On a more personal note, I have of course built my own network over my career that I regularly lean on for advice and this has been hugely important to me particularly in recent years as I take on increased responsibility. I am a big advocate of investing in your personal network. I am also currently working with some exceptionally talented technologists, many of whom are women and who offer me continued support.
The advice would you give other women who want to work in FinTech?
Never under-estimate the power of building a solid network. Of course, this is relevant in any industry, but in FinTech as we work to find equality for women, as we drive to increase the numbers of women in technology roles across financial services it’s incredibly powerful to have people who back you, who can support you, mentor and advise you and who want to see you succeed, whether male or female.
We can achieve wonderful things with collaboration and teamwork- the same applies to your career.
Secondly, understand that the pursuit of gaining credibility does not mean behaving in a way that you would not in a role or industry that was less male dominated. It is important that women entering careers in FinTech know that it is possible to be successful, gain respect and simply get things done without compromising behaviours that are intrinsic to themselves.
