Hiring across FinTech and regulated financial services is not simply accelerating or slowing down. It is changing direction.

One of the clearest signals comes from 2026 UK FinTech labour-market data from Morgan McKinley and Vacancysoft. FinTech vacancies are forecast to increase by close to 14% during 2026, but the growth is increasingly concentrated in payments, infrastructure, engineering and specialist compliance rather than broad headcount expansion.

For Forex/CFD brokers, FinTechs, payments businesses and other regulated financial-services firms, this points towards a more disciplined hiring environment: companies still need talent, but they need the right talent in functions that directly support scalability, resilience, regulation and revenue.

1. Payments and Infrastructure Are Moving Towards the Centre of Hiring

The most interesting development is not the overall 14% forecast increase. It is where those vacancies are appearing.

IT infrastructure vacancies are projected to grow by approximately 31%, while development and engineering roles are forecast to increase by nearly 19%. At the same time, traditional IT support is losing share as cloud infrastructure, automation and outsourcing change the composition of technology teams.

Payments businesses are also outperforming many consumer-focused FinTechs in recruitment activity.

For Forex and CFD firms, this trend should be familiar. Payments infrastructure is not simply an operational function anymore. The ability to maintain relationships with PSPs, EMIs, acquirers and banks; manage payment routes; monitor acceptance rates; control costs; manage fraud and chargebacks; and build redundancy across jurisdictions can have a direct commercial impact.

Employer implication: when recruiting senior payments or technology professionals, employers should assess more than years of experience. Candidates should be tested on the infrastructure they have actually built, providers they have managed, problems they have solved and measurable improvements they have delivered.

2. Compliance Hiring Is Becoming More Specialised

The headline numbers contain another important lesson.

Overall Legal, Risk & Compliance vacancies are forecast to decline slightly in 2026 after strong expansion in 2025. However, AML Risk & Compliance vacancies are projected to increase by approximately 28%.

That distinction matters.

Regulated companies may increasingly find that recruiting another general Compliance Officer is relatively straightforward, while finding someone with deep experience in AML, payments risk, regulatory reporting, operational resilience or a particular jurisdiction remains difficult.

DORA illustrates the same phenomenon. PCN’s 2026 DORA Talent Outlook identified a shortage of specialists covering Operational Resilience, ICT Risk, Incident Response and Third-Party Risk in the German market examined.

Employer implication: define the actual regulatory problem before opening the vacancy. A broad Compliance Manager specification may attract many applicants while still failing to identify the specialist capability the organisation really needs.

3. AI Is Changing the Value of Skills – Not Eliminating the Need for Talent

The AI recruitment story is becoming more nuanced.

PwC’s 2026 analysis found that financial-services jobs requiring AI-related skills carried an average 53% wage premium in 2025 compared with non-AI roles in the sector. PwC interprets this as evidence that employers are placing substantial value on specific AI capabilities even while overall job postings have been under pressure.

This does not mean every brokerage needs to recruit AI engineers.

It means employers should increasingly ask how existing functions can combine domain expertise with technology.

A Compliance professional who understands automation and data analysis may become more valuable. A Head of Dealing who can evaluate quantitative tools may outperform someone with purely traditional dealing experience. A Finance leader who understands BI, automation and AI-assisted reporting may improve an entire department.

Employer implication: avoid creating unrealistic job descriptions requiring every candidate to be an AI expert. Identify where AI or automation genuinely improves the role and recruit for the combination of sector expertise + technological adaptability.

4. The Best Hiring Process Will Test Evidence, Not Job Titles

As hiring becomes more specialised, CV titles become less useful.

Two candidates may both have been called Head of Payments, Compliance Manager or CTO while having performed completely different jobs.

For senior appointments, employers should increasingly structure interviews around evidence: What did the candidate personally build or change? What was the size and complexity of the operation? Which jurisdictions, regulators, PSPs, banks, platforms or systems were involved? What measurable result did the candidate achieve? What went wrong during their tenure and how did they respond? Could they reproduce that success in your organisation?

This becomes even more important for C-suite and executive recruitment, where an impressive title can hide significant differences in strategic responsibility, leadership capability and actual decision-making authority.

5. Employers Should Recruit for the Business They Will Have in Two Years

One of the easiest recruitment mistakes is replacing the person who left with someone who looks exactly like them.

The current data suggests that financial-services organisations are reallocating talent towards infrastructure, engineering, payments, AML and resilience.

Before approving a replacement hire, management should therefore ask: If we were designing this department from scratch for 2027-2028, would we still create this exact role?

Sometimes the answer will be yes. In other cases, a conventional operational position may need to become more analytical, technical or commercially focused. A general compliance position may need deeper AML expertise. A traditional finance role may require stronger data capabilities. A payments manager may need to become a strategic Head of Payments capable of building a multi-jurisdictional infrastructure.

That is where workforce planning and recruitment strategy increasingly meet.

Conclusion

The 2026 hiring market is rewarding specialisation rather than indiscriminate expansion.

Payments infrastructure, technology, AML, operational resilience and AI-enabled capabilities are becoming increasingly important, while employers are scrutinising more carefully where each additional hire creates value.

For Forex, CFD and FinTech companies, the competitive advantage may therefore come not from having the largest team – but from having the right combination of specialist and leadership talent in the functions that matter most.

Building Your Forex or FinTech Team?

FXCareer specialises in recruitment across Forex, CFD, FinTech and regulated financial services, including C-suite & executive leadership, Compliance, Dealing, Payments, Finance, Risk, Technology, Operations, Legal and Marketing.

Whether you are strengthening an existing department or recruiting a senior leader to build a new function, FXCareer.eu can help identify professionals with relevant sector experience.

Sources

Morgan McKinley – UK Fintech Hiring Set to Rise 14% as Payments and Infrastructure Lead Shift Away From Neobanks (21 May 2026)
https://www.morganmckinley.com/uk/article/uk-fintech-hiring-set-rise-14-payments-and-infrastructure-lead-shift-away-neobanks

Vacancysoft – Fintech – UK Finance Labour Market Trends
https://vacancysoft.com/fintech-uk-finance-market-labout-trends/

PwC – 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer: Financial Services
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/artificial-intelligence/job-barometer/2026/pwc-aijb-2026-financial-services-report.pdf

PCN – DORA Talent Outlook: Supply, Demand, and Skills for Digital Operational Resilience (5 February 2026)
https://teampcn.com/market-insights/dora-talent-outlook-supply-demand-and-skills-for-digital-operational-resilience/