The world of technology is constantly changing, with a growing demand that technology reinvent itself to provide customers with faster and more cost effective products that employ efficient software and applications. With more and more people moving towards the digital space, businesses and enterprises need to have a strong online presence as well.

In the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry, customers expect firms to be a lot more than just a physical place where they can safely transact payments and credit. Customers today have moved on from physical banking to mobile banking. Fintech start-ups and neo banks have replaced many legacy incumbents and are continuously growing, with mobility as their core principle, and directly addressing new needs of customers. At present, there are about 687 million internet users and over 500 million smartphones in India, making it one of the world’s biggest digital economies. So now banks and insurance firms are trying to get in line with this digital transformation, becoming virtual enterprises that help customers transact and thrive. The already established decline of in-branch banking has been further fueled by cashless, virtual transactions enforced by Covid-19.

The entire sector is transitioning towards the online space, with payments and cards, wealth management, retail banking, credit unions all taking the virtual route. Banks are moving their data and infrastructure to cloud and digitising most of their activities for ease of use. They are looking for developers who know how to work on all parts of a site/application, so they can use the best tools for the job irrespective of whether it is at the front end or back end.

In capital markets, where firms take on large or specialised projects in investment banking, asset servicing and cyber security, the need for a full stack developer arises, as they can write specialised code, be familiar with and highly skilled in most aspects of web and application development. As the line between the front end and back end gets blurred, more and more developers are becoming full stack. A full stack developer brings together skills and roles for what we traditionally knew as web designer and web developer. While the web designer worked on design, the web developer worked on code. But as the web grew to be more complex, customers are now seeking more complex solutions for their on-line presence, making the two roles so specialised and technical that they get inter-linked, resulting in the emergence of the full stack developer.

A full stack developer is functional in the following categories:

• Front end development (visible parts of a website or application)
• Back end development (code, databases and infrastructure)
• Full stack development (inclusive of both). Full stack can apply to a web stack, mobile stack, or a native application stack (software programmes for specific devices)

A full stack developer excels in:

• Front end code optimisation in Java, HTML, PHP, JavaScript and more
• Creating, understanding and working on Query database
• Back end code written in Ruby, Java or Python
• Having better working knowledge of system infrastructure
• Understanding hardware and operating systems.

Full stack developers provide an end-to-end service. Their role now extends to working with clients even during the planning phase of projects.

According to a report by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 8,53,000 job roles for full stack developers will open up by 2024. The role will provide individuals with umpteen job opportunities, as companies are extensively focusing on optimising resource costs. The year 2021 is considered the ideal period to build a career as a full stack developer, as it becomes the most sought-after position for all essential skills required to survive in this competitive and dynamic industry. Versatile FSDs are urgently needed in the BFSI sector both qualitatively and quantitatively as they are looking to hire professionals with an overall knowledge of layers of an application, who can contribute towards the planning and execution of a project.

Today, digital finance and banking ensures a promising career in the BFSI industry for technically adept engineers who can single-handedly manage applications. With their extensive domain knowledge and niche skills, they can mobilise new-age technologies to aid the transformation of the BFSI sector, which could turn out to be a win-win solution for both.


The writer is CBO, Manipal Global Education Services, BFSI

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