If that is true, then Phorgy's law of "conservation of opportunity" implies that opportunties are opening up elsewhere. Where would those places be?

in picking off the algorithmic traders?

Sounds like they are looking for an extra pair of hands in an already well established business (if they are a #1 or 2 player that is)? If that's the case you'll struggle to attract anyone mildly senior who is half decent unless there is an outlandish pay cheque on offer (which I doubt as after all the role sits in I.T and does not report direct to the business?) - Are you just looking for a junior guy (which I suspect you are from the "no financial experience necessary" comment), in which case it would be a good role.

Here though is where the cynical bit kicks in - if it is a junior role it's unlikely to be as described "DEVELOPING a CORE TRADING ENGINE and set of EQUITY TRADING STRATEGIES that interface...." My experience is that junior guys are lucky if they get to do this, especially if they are coming in with "no prior financial industry experience" (as per spec permits) - they more likely end up doing some of the $hitty work around the key people who are doing what you have described and take on more of the main responsibilities as their experience levels grow and they show understanding, competency and originality.

I know this market very well in Europe and could help you significantly in terms of experienced level candidates if that is where you are looking. In terms of US, I only know the business sponsors and heads of sales for execution services, may be able to get you some referrals from these people however they would not have any contact with the juniors.

The other thing that is not completely clear from your advert, which is a common confusion in the area of "Algorithmic Trading" so this is not a criticism but something you might wish to clarify is whether you're talking about developing a trading engine for "pure alpha" in a proprietary sense (eg Prop Stat Arb Trading) or extracting alpha from client flow (Program/Block trading for client portfolio's) or gaining additional alpha from increased efficiency of electronic execution and are thus talking about implementing execution algorithms ("real" algorithmic trading). Given that there is the mention of the phrase "client demand" - i'm guessing it's one of the latter and from the first sentance in the second paragraph i'm assuming you're talking really about execution algorithms only?