Merchant services, the systems that let shops, cafes and online sellers accept card and digital payments, are growing fast. That growth is changing who payments firms need to hire. The clearest signal comes from how demand is tilting towards more senior, more qualified people. In the financial services sector, recruitment was generally for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) level 6 and above roles, rather than levels 3 to 5 GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report. RQF level 6 sits at degree level, so this is a pull towards experience and formal qualifications.
For employers, that's both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is obvious: higher-level talent is harder to find and quicker to move. The opportunity is that firms willing to hire well, and fast, can build the teams that carry merchant services growth forward.
As merchant services scale, the work moves up the skills ladder. More transactions mean more regulatory oversight, more risk and compliance checks, and more engineering behind the scenes. That matches what the data shows: demand in financial services concentrated on RQF level 6 and above rather than levels 3 to 5 GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report. In practice, that points to roles such as payments engineers, risk and fraud analysts, compliance specialists and regulatory leads.
The dynamic for employers is competition. When every firm chases the same senior, qualified people, the ones who move quickest and describe the role most clearly tend to win. Speed and clarity matter as much as the salary on the table.
Start with the qualification and skill level the role genuinely needs. If the work calls for RQF level 6 and above, as the sector data suggests it increasingly does GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report, be precise about that in the brief. Vague adverts attract the wrong applicants and slow everything down.
Do these four things and you shorten your time to hire without lowering the bar. The firms that get this right turn a tight market into a genuine edge.
We built Reed.ai to help you hire these roles well. We search a database of 15 million candidates to surface people who match your brief, including specialists who aren't actively applying. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. If you're building a payments team today, tell us what you need and we'll get started.
