Santander to Hire 3,000 Techies Worldwide This Year for Digital Transformation

Santander, a Spanish multinational commercial bank and financial services company, based out of Madrid, Spain, plans to make it big by hiring 3,000 techies worldwide this year to drive digital transformation.

The company got candid about its plan and announced that the hiring is a part of the ongoing digital transformation. Santander makes this decision even during the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, where several other banks are freezing the hiring process.

The new hiring pattern is based on the previous job cuts made by the bank last year that witnessed the following downsizing trend of 3,223 job cuts in Spain and 1,400 job cuts in Poland.

The layoff was a result of the financial institution’s cost-cutting target of EUR 1.2 billion. On the brighter side, the bank has committed an investment of EUR 20 billion dedicated to working out its digital transformation until 2022.

On the technology front, back in April 2019, the bank opened up about its plan to move to a multi-cloud environment and integration of machine learning. The Spanish bank explains that the new hiring will support both its commercial and technological aspects along with the digital transformation.

The expert take

Group Executive Chairman of Santander Group Ana Botin says, “having the best technology does not just mean having the best infrastructure, applications and processes,” adding that, “it also means having the best, most innovative talent.”

Dirk Marzluf, Group Head of Technology and Operations at Santander, explains that the bank is on the hunt for talent that has technology profiles with the potential to bring new IT skills. He quotes, “They will be at the heart of our transformation.”

The current employee strength of the bank is 195,000, and this team serves about 146 million customers.

As per plans, new hires at the bank will be deployed on various platforms, including APIs (application programming interfaces), data, network, cloud, DevSecOps (development, security, and operations), AI (artificial intelligence), enterprise architecture, cybersecurity, and software development.