With assets of $2.5 trillion, JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the worlds third largest bank and its 40,000 technologists have made it a force in the tech industry.

At the pinnacle of the bank’s tech-savvy hires is Carnegie Mellon University alumnus David Winig. Recently named a managing director and global head of market data services and electronic trading infrastructure of the financial institution, Winig manages 200 people.

 He and his global team play an integral role in the design, deployment and support of the technological infrastructure that provides real-time market data feeds to internal trading systems.

“We use a combination of software and hardware and business knowledge to solve complex problems,” Winig said.

Noting the electrical and computer engineering (ECE) undergraduate degree he earned in 1993, Winig said CMU prepared him to solve problems under pressure in the nimble financial services world.

“CMU was a great institution for me,” Winig said.

Winig recalled taking a course in advanced microprocessor design in which University Professor Randy Bryant told the class of about 20 they were among the most knowledgeable people on that subject in the world. The class didn’t have a textbook. Bryant taught his students based on his research.

“During the class, we created a prototype for simulating different configurations of a microprocessor design which I learned later was being tested at Intel,” Winig said.

It wasn’t only the professors who were inspiring, Winig added, “I was challenged by my fellow students.”

Jelena Kovačević, CMU’s Hamerschlag University Professor and head of ECE, is not surprised by Winig’s success. She points out that students in electrical and computer engineering receive broad training that makes them ideal hires for tech companies such as Google or Yahoo, as well as career paths including finance.

“Engineers are surprisingly versatile,” Kovačević said. “These students have very good math and analytical skills. You can hire them to be analysts and predict the stock market. … The ECE students are trained in the methodology of solving problems in a very principled way, which is good for banking. They also are good at teamwork.”

Winig’s first job out of college was as a software developer at Motorola, where he stayed for three years. “Working at the onset of the cellular boom was amazing,” he said.

In 1996, he accepted a job as vice president of development at Bloomberg, where he excelled in the complex financial industry managing the technology of Bloomberg TV and Radio. After working for two financial startups, he moved onto large investment banks.

“Even though these are financial firms, they are software companies that are in the financial industry,” he said.

In 2002, he became managing director principal at Bear Stearns working in their complex Mortgage Back Securities group. After serving as the executive director of JPMorgan Chase for one year after the buyout, he became managing director of Deutsche Bank in 2009 where he led the high frequency trading group.

He returned to JPMorgan Chase’s New York headquarters this year to accept what he considers the ultimate banking job for a technologist.

“Technology is at the forefront of the financial industry,” Wining said, “and leading the way is JP Morgan Chase.”