Senior Economist (Wholesale Markets – Policy Analysis)

at  Financial Conduct Authority

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. We have a team of Economists with diversified backgrounds in economics and finance coming from public and private sectors as well as academia and international organisations.

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 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

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• 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. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found
here.
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
We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.
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, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible

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 relationship

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 issue

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• 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 advic

If you are interested in learning more about the role please contact:

• For internal applicants, please contact Melanie Dubock at