JPMorgan Chase has kicked off Devup, its first software enegineering conference that will bring together 500 tech boffins from nearly 30 major cities globally to share experiences and ideas for boosting the bank's technology programme.
The three-day programme at the bank's technology hub in Dallas will involve discussions of a wide range of research topics, breakout sessions, and hands-on experiences to encourage the firm’s engineers to generate ideas that solve common challenges and assess technology priorities.
Lori Beer, global chief information officer, JPMorgan Chase, says: “This is a great opportunity for our software engineers to collaborate in person and think into the future. We hope that with this first Devup, our engineers are further empowered, energized and challenged to deliver the best capabilities for one of the world’s largest financial services organisations as we continue to execute on our forward-thinking technology strategy.”
Attendees will discuss ways of accelerating JPMorgan Chase’s continued public cloud migration, building upon the firm’s widespread AI/ML adoption, developing code, and programming to create new products and applications.
The initiative comes as JPMorgan commits to recruiting a further 2000 technology staff before the year is out. The bank is already home to over 55,000 technologists globally, overseeing an annual tech spend of $14 billion.
It has faced criticisim from investors over lack of transparency in its mammoth technology budget. JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon is unabashed, linking his determination to spend big on technology to the threat he sees coming from Big Tech and fintech. Last year he said the industry should be "scared shitless".