Citigroup is switching up its innovation strategy in an effort to supercharge its markets tech

• Citi is currently in search of a global head of its innovation labs, a newly created role by the bank. 
• The goal of the position is to create better collaboration between the the firm’s multiple innovation labs, which exist around the world. 
• Previously, Citi’s innovation labs were assigned specific parts of the banks to develop solutions for. 

Citi is taking a unified approach to an area of its technology development that has long remained separated. 

The bank is looking to hire a global head of its markets and banking technology’s innovation labs, a newly created role that could help it see where technology built for specific areas of the bank are applicable elsewhere. 

The main priority for the position, according to a job posting, will be to combine Citi’s various innovation labs so they work together as a “single coherent unit.” Traditionally, Citi’s innovation labs focused on specific parts of the bank, such as markets and securities services or treasury and trade solutions, with little overlap. 

In doing so, the bank hopes to increase collaboration across the different labs. Specifically, expertise in hot areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing developed for a one part of the bank could be leveraged across other areas. 

“We continuously look for ways to improve client service, and increased collaboration across our labs allows us to utilize our new technologies across more business lines,” a Citi spokesperson said. “We believe better information to our clients and faster response times to meet their needs is key to our client-focused strategy.”

Read more: We spoke with Citi’s innovation chief about which fintechs it wants to invest in, how its internal ‘Shark Tank’ judges know when to kill an idea, and why red tape helps some startups flourish

The job posting also specifically cites candidates have hands-on experience with public cloud offerings. Banks have shown increased interest in using the public cloud more, but plenty of uncertainty remains around how best to do it. 

In addition to working with the various labs, the position also requires interaction with Citi Ventures, the banks internal venture arm. In February, Vanessa Colella, Citi’s chief innovation officer and head of Citi Ventures, spoke to Business Insider about how the bank approaches working with startups. 

Sign up herefor our weekly newsletter Wall Street Insider, a behind-the-scenes look at the stories dominating banking, business, and big deals.

NOW WATCH: Warren Buffett, the third-richest person in the world, is also one of the most frugal billionaires. Here’s how he makes and spends his fortune.