Tech jobs in finance: The coding languages you’ll need in London and New York

We recently broke down which programming languages are most desired in financial services at large, but things differ from city to city. Using data from workforce intelligence firm Revelio Labs, we’ve now looked harder at London and New York in particular, examining which programming languages appear most frequently appear in job listings for technology roles in finance in each city.

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Although SQL is the most commonly requested language in finance worldwide, the world’s biggest financial centres have a slightly different preference. It’s Python that reigns supreme as the most desired financial services coding language in both London and New York. Revelio says Python is requested in over 23% of jobs in the latter, and well over a quarter of jobs in the former. On eFinancialCareers, we currently have 490 technology job openings in New York, 142 of which (29%) mention Python. 

By comparison, Java seems to be a language out of fashion in finance jobs these days – unless you’re in New York City. Revelio’s data suggests Java jobs are falling globally, both in and outside of finance, but New York appears to be one of the few places where demand is going up. Java was requested in 14.1% of financial technology jobs in New York in 2023, and 14.9% in 2024.

In London, Java is less popular and is becoming even less so. While 10.9% of financial technology jobs in London requested Java in 2023, that number fell to 9.1% this year. 

C++ had a conspicuously low percentage in our global rankings, but is much more prominently featured in the two big financial centers. C++ is the sixth most requested language in New York and the seventh most in London.

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