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Specialized practices

Financial Services

Leadership transforming the future

Talent that drives the future of financial services.

Our Financial Services practice specializes in placing top leaders across functions at financial institutions globally. As a leader in tech recruiting with deep expertise in financial services, Riviera Partners connects organizations with transformative talent to drive growth, innovation, and operational excellence.

Discover how we can help you stay ahead in the fast-paced financial services sector.

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Leading the future of finance with top-tier technical expertise 

We specialize in delivering top-tier technical talent across key sub-sectors, ensuring our clients have the expertise needed to innovate, scale, and stay ahead in a competitive market. 

Asset management

FinTech

Banking

Hedge funds

Prop trading

Cryptocurrency

Asset management

We deliver top-tier technical leadership to firms managing diverse investment portfolios, ensuring they have the expertise to optimize asset allocation, leverage advanced analytics, and drive long-term value for their clients.

FinTech

Our focus is on placing technical leaders in companies at the forefront of financial technology, where innovation in digital finance, mobile banking, and investment platforms is transforming how consumers and businesses manage money.

Banking

We support banking institutions globally by delivering the technical talent needed to develop and maintain cutting-edge payment processing systems, credit services, and digital banking solutions, ensuring operational efficiency and compliance with regulatory standards.

Hedge funds

We work with hedge funds that require sharp, technically adept leaders to drive complex investment strategies across various asset classes, helping these firms harness technology to manage risk and seize market opportunities.

Prop trading

We place highly skilled technical talent in proprietary trading firms that rely on advanced algorithms, data-driven strategies, and innovative technologies to execute trades and maintain a competitive edge in financial markets.

Cryptocurrency

Our expertise within this sub-sector lies in providing technical leadership to companies operating in the fast-paced world of digital currencies, helping them scale operations, enhance security, and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving and volatile market.

Placement highlights

Company: Affirm
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
Stage: Public
Sector: Fintech
Placement: VP Engineering
Company description: Affirm is a publicly traded financial technology company that provides consumers with a more flexible and transparent way to finance purchases.

Company: Redpin
Headquarters: London, England
Stage: Growth
Sector: Real Estate Technology
Placement: Head of Product
Company description: Redpin is a real estate technology company that leverages data-driven insights to empower home buyers and sellers.

Company: NuBank
Headquarters: São Paulo, Brazil
Stage: Public
Sector: Banking/Fintech
Placement: Senior ML Engineer
Company description: NuBank is a leading digital bank in Latin America, revolutionizing the financial services industry with its mobile-first approach to banking.

Company: D.E. Shaw
Headquarters: New York, NY
Stage: Private
Sector: Fintech
Placement: Sr. Software Engineer
Company description: D.E. Shaw is a global investment and technology development firm known for its innovative use of quantitative analysis and computational finance strategies.

Company: Better Mortgage
Headquarters: New York, NY
Stage: Growth
Sector: Real Estate Technology
Placements: VP Product, VP Engineering
Company description: Better Mortgage is a digital-first mortgage lender that simplifies the home financing process.

Company: Coinbase
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
Stage: Public
Sector: Cryptocurrency
Placement: Director of Product
Company description: Coinbase is a leading cryptocurrency exchange platform that allows users to securely buy, sell, and store digital assets.

Company: Pomelo
Headquarters: San Francisco, CA
Stage: Early-Stage
Sector: Fintech
Placement: VP Engineering
Company description: Pomelo is a fintech startup focused on building innovative financial products that enable seamless cross-border payments.

Case Study

Global quant hedge fund

Riviera Partners has successfully delivered technology talent to the quant finance sector. 

Problem

Outperforming competitors

Results

Lessons

Need

A specific business at global quantitative hedge fund needed to hire multiples of Senior IC & Tech Lead Engineers

Problem

The firm’s internal recruiters and other recruiting agencies had struggled to deliver talent that met the standards and fit required

Prior issues to Riviera’s engagement

  • Significant time and resources wasted in interviewing candidates not strong enough, or not the right fit
  • Failure by agencies to manage candidates effectively resulting in dropouts 

Riviera Partners’ methodology for the search: 

1. Hunting and engagement

  • Mapping-driven
  • Educating candidates on why this firm, whilst assessing their fit

2. Screening and candidate delivery

  • Effective candidate screening – assessing, qualifying, alignment
  • Positioning opportunity correctly – educating on synergy & fit
  • Quality control – higher ratio of interviews at every stage
  • Less time wasted – by firm interviewing candidates who fail or pull out 

Client feedback

By producing tech talent from outside of finance, Riviera Partners achieved the “best interview ratios for these searches”:

  • Highest Submission to interview request
  • Highest 1st round Interviews to onsite conversion 
  • Highest number of on-sites (final round) in 2024
  • Most offers relative to lowest number on-site interviews

Solving their problem – “we’ve seen nearly everyone in Finance”

We’ve shown them new & relevant candidates from the Tech sector  

Riviera has increasingly indexed correctly on candidate’s

Aspirations, motivations, value add, persona, mentality 

Riviera’s brand and deep-rooted tech networks bring outcomes 

Our reputation of placing talent at start-ups to Google and Uber – has given us an edge in candidate engagement over their other agencies

Intermediary advantage

  • The right candidates have been more willing to engage in initial open-ended conversations with Riviera compared to their internal recruiters
  • We’ve been able to cover more ground than their internal recruiters

The best results have come from a strategic combined effort

  • Some candidates will respond to internal outreach vs. others to agency
  • This client has seen the merits of us working with them collaboratively  

Mike Flood

Partner & Financial Services Practice Lead

Mike Flood brings over 20 years of Financial Services expertise to Riviera. He is the Founder of Calibration Talent Advisors and a Partner at Connectivity Capital Partners LLC and the Connectivity Ventures Fund. Previously, he co-founded and led Westwood Partners LLC. Mike also serves as the NY Regional Board Chair for Good Sports.

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Insights and news

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