S4 Launches Market Data Recruitment Unit

Miami-based consultancy and outsourced market data management service provider S4 Market Data has set up a recruitment business line aimed at trading firms and vendors to help fill vacancies at those companies with full-time staff.

S4 began preparations during the third quarter of this year, identifying candidates, as well as licensing- and applicant-tracking systems, so it could be ready to actively offer placement services before the end of this year. The purpose of the new offering is to be able to fill clients’ market data vacancies quickly with full-time employees, where S4 may previously have placed its own team members—such as CEO Bernardo Santiago—on-site at clients to fill roles on an outsourced-contract basis.

“Our primary offering is to act as a market data team for firms that don’t have enough resources,” Santiago says. “And as part of that, we’re constantly looking at who is posting vacancies that we could fill ourselves [on an outsourced basis]. So it’s a natural progression that, if firms trust us with their data, why not also trust us with placements, because we already know the firm, its needs, and the people there.”

Richard Stephens, who joined the company in June as operations manager, and will run the recruitment efforts until the business grows enough to require hiring dedicated staff, says the teams experience specifically in the market data space will provide the firm with an advantage over a standard recruiter. Stephens, for example, has managed trading floor IT for more than 30 years, including at TP Icap, where he set up the broker’s Philippines support office and recruited that office’s entire staff.

“Whether it’s for a short- or long-term contract, you need a knowledge base behind it. And we document processes for the clients we work with, so we understand how their processes work, what systems they are using, and so who they would need in that role,” he says.

It’s this kind of experience, Stephens says, that allows S4 to understand a firm’s needs sometimes better than the firm itself. “It’s about understanding the client’s needs … and also, if they are working on a specific project, understanding what resources they need at each stage,” he adds.

“If someone comes to us to fill a specific role,” Santiago adds, “it’s likely we would have enough candidates and resumes on file to fill that. It starts with fulfilling their initial needs [and] then having a conversation that gives us the opportunity to say, ‘Based on our experience, we think you actually need something else,’ and to work with in-house recruiters who may not know what specific requirements to look for in a CV.”

Santiago is also hopeful that S4 will be better positioned to help firms navigate current market conditions.

“We’re probably seeing fewer market data openings now than we have in a long time,” as a result of existing streamlining efforts exacerbated by current economic conditions, Santiago says. “So it’s important to fill those openings with the right people right away.”