Citigroup is staffing up for a new center that will unleash robotics throughout the bank (C)

irobot robot

Citigroup is staffing up for the robotic revolution.

The New York-based financial services giant has plastered online jobs boards advertising roles at a new automation center that will deploy new robotic technology throughout the bank.

Mark Costiglio, a Citi spokesperson, declined to comment on the matter.

The so-called Smart Automation Centre is looking for staff in at least five cities including Tampa, London, Singapore, New York and Budapest.

"The Smart Automation Centre will be responsible for partnering with our businesses and functions across Citi to ensure all the elements are in place for the rapid deployment of Robotics and other related technologies," according to one ad on the firm's talent search engine.

The bank is seeking talent spanning the seniority spectrum from junior engineers to senior vice presidents. The positions require varying levels of tech expertise, but the bank wants the center's employees to fit a very specific cultural mold.

"Must be entrepreneurial, and thrive in environments with a blank canvas that will allow you to flex your intellectual muscle to contribute to building a strategy from the ground up," one job ad said.

The firm is looking for at least two senior program managers to serve as a robotic "catalyst" who will partner with divisions across the bank to identify new technologies and lead their development from the use-case stage to full scale production. The senior program manager would also work with various groups within the bank to familiarize them with robotics and automation.

The bank is also looking for program engineers to support the "catalysts" in identifying automation opportunities.

A recent report by FIS, the global financial technology provider, identified automation as a critical growth lever for Wall Street firms.

"Driven by margin pressures and regulatory changes, institutions across the financial services industry have been working to deepen the automation of the transaction lifecycle for the last few years," the report said.

Business Insider's Oscar Williams-Grut recently visited UBS' London office where they are developing a software program that automates some "boring" aspects of trading.

"These are all tools that belong to 2017 and beyond," Beatriz Matin-Jimenez, chief operating officer of the UBS' investment bank and the UK region, told Business Insider."We believe this is the way banks are going to be more than ever."

JPMorgan, which is spending big on technology as it looks to cut costs and increase efficiency, last year launched a predictive recommendation engine to identify those clients which should issue or sell equity. And now, given the initial success of the engine, it's being rolled out to other areas.

And at an event in January, Goldman Sachs' deputy chief financial officer Marty Chavez said the bank was focused on automating investment banking tasks. He said that the bank has mapped out 146 distinct steps in the initial public offering process, and that many of these are "begging to be automated," according to MIT Technology Review.

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