Spotlight On: Steve Leivent, Co-General Manager, SS&C Technologies
December 2024 — Jacksonville is becoming an attractive ecosystem for the growing financial services and fintech industry. As the remote and hybrid work model consolidates, “Jacksonville is a great option for companies looking to expand or relocate roles from high-cost places like New York or other Southern cities with a financial services reputation like Charlotte,” Steve Leivent, co-general manager at SS&C Technologies, told Invest:
What have been the overall contributions or impact of SS&C Technologies in the Jacksonville region and North Florida in the past year?
SS&C is a global business with 27,000 employees operating in 50 cities worldwide, focusing on software and services for the financial services industry. Our operation in Jacksonville employs about 600 people, often in software development, client service, and sales roles. We have grown into a sizable employer in the city and earned recognition as a premier workplace.
What is the landscape of the fintech sector in Jacksonville?
Like many industries, including financial services, companies are diversifying or shifting out of their historical, high-cost location centers. In Jacksonville, a healthy software development community continues to be built, along with a healthy financial services community and economy. Over the last decade, we’ve become a go-to location for banks and financial organizations looking for great talent in customer service or operational roles and software development. There has been an influx of companies setting up operations in Jacksonville, and entities like Deutsche Bank and FIS continue to expand here. Additionally, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) recently acquired a business in Jacksonville and has seemingly shifted many new hires to the area. These organizations and many others recognize the value of an operation in the city, and the combination of these things makes Jacksonville a perfect place for fintech.
What is the motivation for Jacksonville to be an ideal relocation spot?
It’s a combination of the learnings that occurred through the pandemic and the fact that companies can be efficient in a hybrid model but still want people to collaborate in person some of the time. As a result, Jacksonville is an excellent option for companies looking to expand or relocate roles from high-cost places like New York or other Southern cities with a financial services reputation like Charlotte.
The first part is simply resource availability. The large and growing ecosystem in fintech and financial services allows firms to come in and add experienced talent to their teams relatively inexpensively compared to other markets.
The second is that the region can support a solid work-life balance. Cities like Charlotte are now starting to struggle with the growth they’ve experienced, and things like the cost of housing, traffic, commute times, and the sprawl that has occurred to support their growth are making it less attractive. Jacksonville is still one of the few cities where Downtown and The South Side (the primary business hubs) are in the center of the town. Work-life balance coupled with the job Jacksonville has done to the city’s infrastructure to stay ahead, the growth in the area is starting to show. Most people living here have a 30-minute or less commute, making the increase in office work much more attractive to prospective talent.
Lastly, the weather (220+ days of sunshine and no snow) is pretty great. As a transplant from the Northeast, I can confirm that weather impacts team happiness and disposition.
All those things – the availability of labor, the cost of living, and the quality of life you can provide to your team have been major contributors to the city’s growth.
How does this environment help achieve your company mission and goals?
The nice part is that the Technology and Financial Services ecosystem is already here. In addition to the companies already mentioned, several other scaled operations are in town, such as SoFi, Bank of America, and Fidelity. When we look at their capabilities combined with what we do, we realize that there is a very large and growing talent pool in town. Additionally, over the last couple of years, we’ve seen several local schools help to drive that talent. For example, we frequently talk with the University of North Florida to ensure they focus on building the skills we will need to power our organizations in the future. They recently launched a Fintech program, and we’re starting to see the first wave of graduates pursuing that degree.
What are the greatest challenges for the fintech industry?
Skilled talent is an ongoing challenge – particularly software engineers and product managers – who are in demand. The pandemic temporarily removed the need to be in a specific region, significantly impacting smaller, low-cost markets like Jacksonville. However, few companies are offering fully remote jobs today, and we’ve primarily settled where some in-person collaboration is ideal – so we’re back to the office – at least some of the time. This flexibility has become an advantage for Jacksonville, where commutes are easy. Going forward, the ability to attract talent is more than just a competitive compensation package. Prospective team members are looking for an organization whose goals and objectives they align with, a culture they want to be part of, and a healthy work-life balance.
What is the outlook in terms of priorities and plans for SS&C in the coming two to three years?
In short, we plan to be a lot bigger. There is a growing need for our services across the financial services landscape, and we are one of the few providers that can support the most complex business.
We are also highly focused on optimizing efficiencies. If we can get there through technology enhancements that ultimately allow our team members to do more fulfilling work, that will be great.
Lastly, Jacksonville has been a bright spot for the company. In our last earnings call, our CEO cited the success of having an operation in this market and the benefits related to getting great team members and tax benefits for both the company and the employees.
As we grow organically or make acquisitions and need to fuel this growth with talent, Jacksonville will certainly be at the top of the list of locations given our success to date and what looks like a positive future for the city.
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