Renewed investment in hedge fund IT spells both more permanent and contract technologist hiring.

Data provider Datamonitor predicts in a new report that hedge funds will spend $3.3bn on IT by 2009 as the alternative asset class turns more mainstream and regulated. All that capital will need IT experts to implement the build-out.

“We will definitely see more hiring,” says Nii Barnor, financial services technology analyst at Datamonitor and author of the report.

“Depending on the size of the hedge fund, firms will be looking for permanent hires in front-office support, such as execution and algorithms, as well as ops – an entire solution,” he says. “Smaller firms will outsource their tech to IT vendors but their back-office operations to specialist providers.”

Alistair Singleton, managing director of specialist IT recruitment firm 7 Fifty Two Solutions, says hedge funds with less than 2bn to 3bn in assets under management will typically continue to outsource their IT. “IT is very often considered an overhead so for most firms a packaged solution will suffice, and present the best lower, if not fixed, cost, but yes, the trend of larger hedge funds to build in-house IT teams should continue.”

Typically the larger the firm, the more reliant on IT, and the more likely to invest in bespoke, or heavily tailored package solutions, Singleton says. Infrastructure is the most common area to be outsourced both short and medium term, removing a significant headache of both hardware and support issues combined with highest possible availability.

Pay as you go up

More investment could mean more earning potential as well. Even junior developers with some trading experience can command in the neighborhood of 100k plus bonus. Below are some sample salaries:

Technical

Desktop support engineer: 25k to 35k

Desktop support manager: 40k+

Network support engineer (fully hands on): 45k+

Server support engineer (fully hands on): 45k+

Infrastructure manager (50/50 hands on/management): 55k+

Infrastructure manager (ex-technical, now purely management and strategy): 60k+

C++ developers without prior business experience: 40k to 45k+

C++ developers with business experience: 55k+

Quant developers: 80k + basics, business-side bonuses, total comp up to 200k

Business

Source: 7 Fifty Two Solutions

A skills shortage, however, may yet hamper firms’ ability to hire quickly, according to the Guardian. IT services group LogicaCMG warns that the lack of skilled IT workers in the UK could force IT service providers to relocate offshore. The firm has increased its own recruitment drive but chief executive Martin Read says the attempt is proving difficult in the UK.

If you do have the skills to work with a hedge fund, Barnor says the role at the top of the IT hiring hitlist is quantitative programmer. Hedge funds are also on the lookout for chief compliance officers and general compliance staff, while fund administrators and prime brokers will be seeing a similar ramping up in IT investment, he says.