Ventures (Innovation & Financial Tech) Graduate

SC Ventures – Graduate Programme

Today’s technology enables customers to connect directly, without the need for financial intermediaries. Disruption today is about finding innovative, technological solutions to problems, and to reimagine the future. In our case, we’re experimenting with paths and business models, even ones we’ve never ventured in before. We’re investing now, to create optionality for the future. That’s why disrupting through digital is one of our strategic priorities.

SC Ventures aims to enable and accelerate innovation, by providing a safe space for different parts of our Bank, and external partners, to collaborate, explore and test solutions, to solve today’s real business problems and the challenges of tomorrow.

 Graduate Training Programme - What you’ll do over 18 months

• Induction – these are classroom sessions, case studies, and tailored technical training split by business functions.
• 12-month training rotation – you’ll rotate across the four out of the five pillars of SC Ventures; each rotation is for a duration of three months
• 6-month business rotation – Your last rotation will be six months in your focus area of SC Ventures pillar. It’s your chance to find the team you fit into best and begin your Standard Chartered career.

Business Ventures (Mandatory)

• This team oversees portfolio of business ventures across their lifecycle. Graduates will assist the team in the process of sourcing, incubating, and governing these ventures. The sourcing journey starts with getting the right venture idea through the banks business units, employees and clients leveraging challenges, problem statements and market trends to build a robust portfolio of Ventures.
• Once the ideas have been shortlisted the ventures enter our incubation operating system where they’re supported through various stages of development across Pre-Seed, Seed, Pre-A and commercial launch.
• There are currently 20+ ventures in the pipeline across various stages with themes such as crypto assets, wealth and health, payments and blockchain etc.

Technology and Cyber

• Gain experience with the Technology Team on tech ops, cyber controls, emerging technologies and novel vendor solutions. The team is primarily focused on enabling Ventures to accelerate in their Minimum Viable Product build to rapidly launch new platforms and solutions to the public. The tech team is also an early-stage entry point for all Ventures to define architecture, tech stack, required cyber protection, and integration with 3rd party SaaS solutions.
• Graduates will learn the agile methodologies applied in venture building and solution architecture to build robust, scalable Cloud native internet platforms. You’ll also be hands-on in the technical configuration, provisioning, operations and troubleshooting of various technologies including AWS, Azure Cloud, SaaS services, and support processes.
• Graduates will be required to assist in engaging with Ventures, liaising with various stakeholders on the new initiatives, exchange with vendors and 3rd parties, and gain exposure to modern engineering principles of SDLC, DevOps, SRE, Secure-By-Design, Security-In-The-Cloud, and various threat modelling techniques.

Funds and Fund Raising 

• The team is primarily focused on deploying capital from their $100mn fund into early-stage companies that Standard Chartered partner with. It’s also the first point of call for the investment efforts at SC Ventures across other workstreams, including fundraising and Mergers & Acquisitions.
• Graduates will learn how the bank’s strategic agenda comes together with the objective to achieve market returns for the fund. You'll also gain a good understanding of how teams from various functions collaborate in times of (i) making a new investment, and (ii) key portfolio management decisions.
• Graduates will be required to assist in evaluating teasers/ Investment memo of new investment opportunities, building financial models, develop portfolio management reports assimilating data from various portfolio companies.

Client Engagement and Partnerships

• The Client Engagement and Partnerships team is a focal point of engagement with corporate clients of the Bank as well as participants in the wider Ventures and Innovation ecosystem to develop strategic partnerships opportunities and co-create new joint ventures beyond traditional banking verticals. (e.g., gaming/lending, Quantum computing, Environmental, social and governance /Carbon credits etc.)
• Graduates will learn to conduct research on potential partners ongoing innovation opportunities, establish engagement plans, manage stakeholder relationships both within the bank and with external parties to achieve win-win collaborations.
• Graduates are required to assist in coordination work with stakeholders such as clients, institutional meetings, partners, Relationship teams, legal advisers and internal SCV colleagues. They will also learn to review and structure Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), Memorandum of understanding, Term sheets and Joint Development Agreements as the case may be.
• The Client Engagement team co-leads the Bank’s initiatives in the Metaverse and Graduates will be given opportunities to develop their knowledge in the Web3/Metaverse space.

Intrapreneurs

• Human centred Design (HCD): Graduates will learn about HCD and experience how teams within the Bank, as well as the Bank’s clients, use it to solve real business problems. Graduates will have the opportunity to attain externally recognised HCD Practitioner Certification.
• Innovation / intrapreneurship: Graduates can apply their HCD skills by assisting our Innovation Coaches in the refinement and development of intrapreneur ideas or new ventures.
• FinTech Engagement: Graduates will take part in various aspects of the fintech engagement process, such as meeting potential start-ups as well as onboarded ones with the objectives to scout solutions that could solve some of our Bank’s business problems and Client’s ones. They will be able to make some start-up research/overview for our Corporate Clients, to meet other community builders of the ecosystem to build the SCV community and potentially get involved with running a proof-of-concept. 

Chief Operating Office (COO)

The SCV COO team is principally responsible for ensuring that both the SCV Platform and our Digital Ventures are run and launched as efficiently, effectively, and commercially as possible. As such, it covers everything from Venture launch, Portfolio Management, Data Management, First Line Risk Management, and many other aspects of commercialising and monetising the activities undertaken in SC Ventures

• Graduates can expect to be exposed to the day-to-day requirements involved in successfully launching new Ventures and getting them through all their key milestones towards commercialisation
• Graduates will also be able to see how SC Ventures as a Platform manages and oversees its portfolio of Ventures and approaches funding and monetisation strategies
• Graduates will gain first-hand experience in stakeholder management, teamwork and collaboration given the wide network of teams and issues that COO manages and engages with
• Graduates will be expected to run small, outcome orientated projects to help the SCV
• COO team deliver its OKRs and wider goals
• Your career progression

At the end of your 18-month programme, you can progress onto a permanent role in one of the core pillars or to a commercial venture within SCV portfolio of businesses.

Eligibility 

• We welcome students from all degree disciplines and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds.
• We’re looking for team players with excellent academic achievements and extracurricular activities, agile multi-taskers who can handle pressure, analytical minds with numeracy and attention to detail, and those who are adept at building relationships and striving towards goals.
• Final year students, able to start July 2024
• Permanent legal right to work in the country you’re applying to 

Exceptions 

• UK and UAE, we consider candidates requiring visa sponsorship. In the UAE, priority is given to UAE nationals
• US Graduate roles, we will not consider applicants seeking Optional Practical Training (OPT) or Curricular Practical Training (CPT) employment.
• Recruitment assessments - some of our roles use assessments to help us understand how suitable you are for the role you've applied to. If you are invited to take an assessment, this is great news. It means your application has progressed to an important stage of our recruitment process.