Despite a backdrop of market volatility, an impending global recession and cuts, the FinTech sector continues to thrive. Here are five key hiring trends which we have seen shape the FinTech recruitment world in recent months.
More leadership roles are on offer
Demand for core FinTech roles such as back-end app developers, analysts and crypto specialists remains high. However, it’s interesting to see that the breadth of FinTech jobs is also growing. Teams are hiring more junior staff to support their core IT team and crucially, outside of IT, we’re seeing far more tech centricity in all roles that traditionally wouldn’t have an IT element to them. This includes having big data or AI centricity on back and middle office positions that would orthodoxly require solely finance, legal or business backgrounds.
Chief Technology Officer positions are on the rise and more companies are seeking out candidates who can demonstrate both excellent tech and leadership skills, as the marketplace gets more competitive and technological innovation pushes the sector to develop better solutions.
Additionally, with transitions in the global economy and the geo-political situation in the EU and UK especially, the regulatory environment is shifting constantly – we’re seeing FinTechs hiring in legal, compliance and risk as they attempt to evolve in existing markets and seek to broaden their customer bases in the regulatory environments.
Time-to-hire is speeding up
The FinTech world works at high speed and with agility – and the recruitment process should be no different. Not least of all because you need to move fast to secure the talent you want: slow processes mean you run the risk of losing your preferred candidates, especially in such a competitive market. Mixed in with remote / hybrid working, creating independence to new employees, it’s crucial that businesses are pushing for an efficient but also transparent process for potential candidates. At Leonid, we restrict the number of mandates we work on to three per consultant, so that we can guarantee to move things along efficiently. We also keep strong relations with a segmented FinTech talent pool, so we know exactly who to call upon, when the right role comes up.
Increased demand for non-tech skills
Keeping on the theme of speed, FinTech’s are driven by getting their products finalised as quickly as possible. This is leading hiring companies to seek out clear evidence of ‘softer’ skills, such as lateral thinking, innovation and creativity, to enable them to beat their competitors to market. What’s more, more than ever, the product focus is on the end user. It’s no longer enough to be brilliant at technology – it’s much more about problem-solving – and the hiring strategy needs to reflect this by making sure companies assess for the right skills in their recruitment process.
Purpose matters
It is well documented that job-seekers are increasingly looking to an organisation’s values and ethics before making a decision on whether to join them. Offering a larger salary is no longer enough. People want to be part of something meaningful. We’re seeing more FinTech candidates enquiring about a business’ ESG and sustainability record or even just wanting to know how they handled the Covid pandemic. As such, getting the employer branding right is absolutely essential. Previously, the FinTech buzz and progressive working culture would have been enough to coax candidates form more traditional backgrounds across, but in a more competitive sector, just being a FinTech isn’t enough. Companies need a compelling story around their purpose, if they are to secure the best talent.
Going global
In a post-Covid world, more people are adopting the ‘work from anywhere’ mantra. But this isn’t the only reason that FinTech is increasingly adopting an international, rather than localised hiring strategy. FinTech is expanding to historically under-served areas of the world, such as Mexico, Poland and the Baltics. As such, it helps to work with a recruiter which has a global footprint and is able to effectively source talent from around the world.
To conclude, FinTech is an area which is going to continue growing - mostly probably at an exponential rate - considering the waves of new regulation encouraging API centric open banking which is pushing innovation and giving start-ups more platforms to stand out against existing finance giants.
Against this backdrop of innovation, job-seekers who can demonstrate those in-demand creative skills and a global mindset, will be in a really strong position to go after some really interesting opportunities with genuine leadership potential.
Companies who are looking to build their FinTech teams need to ensure an efficient recruitment process, while ensuring they have the right strategy in place to seek out those candidates with the optimal combination of technical and business skills.