Lloyds Banking Group has published plans to create 500 highly-skilled software roles at a brand-new technology hub in Edinburgh.
The new facility will be based at the Scottish Widows’ headquarters in Morrison Street, and is part of a £3 billion investment programme announced last year to upgrade the bank’s digital services.
Like many high street banks, a recent surge in online banking use has led Lloyds to have to cut costs in traditional branches, making some branch closures and cutting jobs across its Lloyds Bank, Bank of Scotland, Halifax and Scottish Widows brands. Last year the group earmarked over 60 branches for closure.
The new digital hub will “transform the digital experience” for the bank’s customers, said the group, and will boost Scotland’s tech scene, providing as many as 500 software engineering roles in the Scottish capital as part of a wider drive to promote technology jobs in financial services.
The bank has already started to hire software engineers and data scientists for the hub and more roles will be phased in over the next 18 months.
This process will substantially increase contractors business in Scotland’s private sector. The recruitment of these software engineers by a single employer will offer more jobs to an independent contractor working as a software engineer in Scotland. It will also significantly alter the company formation and process of Lloyds and its affiliate companies.
Philip Grant, chair of Lloyds Banking Group’s Scottish executive committee, said: “We’re working with the industry to strengthen our tech-based talent pool in Scotland, which will not only benefit customers of Lloyds Banking Group, but support the development of technology, skills and talent in the fastest growing digital economy outside London.
“People’s expectations are rising rapidly as they want the same experience they’re used to with established digital brands. In our tech labs, we are designing what customers will need in the future, making products and services that can adapt to their lives and making it easier for them to connect with their finances.”
Derek Mackay, Scotland’s Finance Secretary, added: “Edinburgh is fast becoming one of the UK’s most competitive tech hubs, with growth in agile start-ups, offerings from its world-leading universities and new digital academies providing greater scale and choice for careers in the industry.
“Lloyds’ investment will be a major boost towards growing the workforce of the future in Scotland, helping create a more dynamic and innovative side to its thriving financial sector.”
Lloyds is already an active member of the Edinburgh tech scene, regularly hosting digital academies and meet-ups including CodeClan and CodeBar, and has partnerships with Fintech Scotland and HackerX.
A freelance software engineer in Scotland will now be able to apply as a staff member for a large corporation, leave their freelance status behind, and cut down the typically high expenses incurred from their current independent contractor status.
4th June 2019.
