Fintech sits where financial services meets technology, and both halves are reshaping who gets hired. On the financial services side, recruitment is now weighted towards higher-skilled roles: in the Financial Services sector, recruitment was generally for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) 6+ roles, rather than RQF 3-5 a 2026 GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List report. That points to demand for people who can do judgement-heavy, degree-level work, not routine processing.
On the technology side, the pull is just as strong. For the total of AI-related occupations, the net change ranges from approximately 696,000 jobs in the Automation Scenario to 1,072,000 in the Technological Opportunities Scenario, with replacement demand rising from 3,077,000 to 3,193,000 jobs across these scenarios GOV.UK's AI skills labour market projections. For fintech lenders, that means the market for data and analytics talent is both growing and competitive.
When agents score loans, the human work moves up a level. Instead of manually approving files, analysts set the risk rules, test the model's decisions, spot bias and explain outcomes to regulators. That blends two scarce skill sets: credit and underwriting judgement, which maps to the higher RQF 6+ roles lenders are recruiting for the 2026 GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List report, and AI-literate analytics, where demand keeps rising across AI-related occupations GOV.UK's AI skills projections.
The way firms build these skills is changing too. Apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 the GOV.UK AI Labour Market Survey 2025. So lenders aren't only competing for ready-made analysts; they're growing underwriting analytics talent in-house, often alongside experienced hires who can mentor them.
Start with the decision, not the job title. Ask what the model does today, what it can't do, and where a person needs to intervene. The strongest candidates can read a scorecard, challenge a feature and explain a decline in plain language. Hire for that combination rather than for a single tool on a CV.
Then build for the future. With apprenticeships now making up 19% of AI hires the GOV.UK AI Labour Market Survey 2025, pairing one or two senior analysts with trained-up juniors is a practical way to cover a growing workload. And because recruitment skews to RQF 6+ roles the 2026 GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List report, move quickly: the people who can govern loan-scoring models rarely stay on the market for long.
We help lenders find these people fast. Reed.ai searches 15 million candidates to shortlist the underwriting and analytics talent that matches your brief, and we manage recruitment end to end so you can focus on the role, not the admin. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell us what you're hiring for and we'll build your shortlist.
