Fintech Recruiters [15 Top Recruiters in Fintech]
Fintech has been one of the sexiest industries to find work in the past few years; however, it’s become increasingly difficult to find these jobs in the US. One strategy you should employ during a job search is to connect with specialized recruiters who could introduce you to their Fintech clients.
Finding those recruiters is no easy feat. Many recruitment firms build landing pages to appear higher in search results. So while they may have a “Fintech Recruitment” landing page, it’s very plausible that they do little to no business in the fintech space. Often, they’re generalists posing as specialists, saying, “Hey, we specialize in everything”!
Another challenge in the US is that there aren’t as many Fintech recruiters as there are in Europe. Everyone knows that the UK and London are global fintech hubs. The US isn’t.
In this article, you can find:
A framework to identify top fintech recruiters.
A list of 11 US fintech recruiters.
A list of 4 European and UK-based fintech recruiters.
Some tips for working successfully with recruiters.
Identifying Top Fintech Recruiters
Later I’m going to list out some top fintech recruiters that I’ve found over the years. But before I do that, I want to share some vetting criteria that you can use to determine if a particular recruiter is going to be beneficial to your job search.
Industry Expertise
If the recruiter has a deep understanding of the fintech industry they’re worth getting to know. They should be aware of the latest industry pressures, pains, trends, and emerging technologies. If they truly specialize in this industry, then they are speaking with fintech employers and candidates all day, every day. You can’t not know these things if you’re doing that.
Network
You want to work with recruiters who have a robust network of contacts in the fintech industry. If they only have one or two clients, that may not be very helpful for you. One way you can measure this is by how long they have been recruiting in the industry. The longer, the better. Look up the recruiter on LinkedIn and view their background.
Someone with 10 years of specialized recruiting in the same market is going to have a deep network. That means they’re more likely to know someone who can use your skills.
Communication
Let’s face it, not all recruiters are equal. Like any profession, you’ll find great ones and bad ones. Pay attention to their actions over their words. Do they call you back when they say they will? Do they communicate clearly? If you don’t think so, imagine how they sound to a VP who is hiring.
Stability
This isn’t always a good measure of success, but if they’ve been with the same company for a number of years, you can almost always bet that they are making that company money. In the recruiting world, making money means placing candidates with their clients. That’s what you want.
The Recruitment Firm Itself
This is an important point to remember. Not all recruiters at the same firm perform at the same caliber. Think about any job you’ve worked at. Most likely, there were high performers and low performers. There were newer people and more experienced people. Just because the firm has a good reputation doesn’t mean every recruiter there is equal.
The Best Fintech Recruiters in the US
Below are some great firms that you can start with to expand your network with fintech recruiting services in the US.
Hanover
Hanover is a global company with offices in LA, Chicago, New York, and London (all of the fintech hubs). They specialize exclusively in financial services and technology with fintech and insurtech making up the bulk of their business. They are one of the fintech pioneers, placing candidates with fintech organizations before “fintech” was even a word.
If you’re looking for work in start-ups or leading global brands backed by private equity or venture capital investment, this a search firm you should be working with.
Redfish
This is a national recruitment firm. They’ve been around since 1996 and have locations across the US including Boston, Atlanta, Austin, Denver, New York, and San Francisco. They specialize in technology companies and place people in Fintech, Edtech, and DevOps. You can find a variety of fintech and banking services roles that they might be working on including sales and product jobs.
Yoh
Yoh is a true fintech company that works with companies in digital banking, payments, blockchain, wealthtech, BaaS, proptech, insurtech, and a few others. They are based in Philadelphia and the UK. They do contract, direct hire, and executive search, recruiting for many roles from mid-career level to executives. You can find quite a few jobs in banking, finance, and fintech on their company job board.
Storm2
This is an exclusive fintech recruitment company. They’re a newer firm, started in 2019 with some private equity investment, but they have more consistent work than some older, well-established names. Many of the jobs they work on are in Europe, but they also work on remote US jobs. They recruit for risk & compliance, product management, finance, operations, DevOps, sales, and data analytics roles.
Impact Payments Recruiting
This firm has locations in Dallas and Phoenix and specializes in sectors like blockchain, fintech, payments, e-commerce, and risk. They don’t do any contract work, but if you’re looking for direct hire opportunities, they’re worth networking with. Some roles you can find them recruiting on include account managers, compliance, pricing analysts, product managers, risk analysts, and even some VP roles in operations.
Group W Partners
This recruitment firm has specialized in the payments industry since 1999. Today they recruit for account executives, sales directors, and VP roles. They only do direct hires, so if you’re looking for contract roles, you won’t find that here. The company is based in Southern California but also has a presence in Chicago and Dallas.
Visit the Group W Partners website.
AC Lion
This firm is headquartered in New York but also has offices in Austin, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco. They specialize in emerging tech, martech, adtech, fintech, and healthtech. Some of the jobs they’ve recruited for recently include sales executives, directors of marketing, chief financial officers, product management, and business intelligence roles.
Mojo Trek
Mojo Trek is a Chicago-based recruitment agency that does both contract and direct hire placements. Their areas of specialization include fintech, Ecommerce, and healthcare IT. Some of the roles I’ve seen them recruit for recently include product designers, payment solutions engineers, account managers, application architects, and developers. You can find mid-level to senior level jobs with this firm.
Park Avenue Group
Park Avenue recruits in the banking and financial services space. While it’s not fintech directly, it is fintech adjacent, which is why I’m including them here. If you’re looking for work with banks and other lending institutions, you can find underwriting, BSA and AML compliance officers, and sales roles with them.
Visit the Park Avenue Group website.
The Horizon Group
This is one of the oldest financial services recruitment firms I know of. They started back in 1989. They place some consultants on contract work, but they also do direct hire searches. To my knowledge, they mostly operate in the New York area.
Visit The Horizon Group website.
EC1 Partners
This firm has offices in New York and Miami. They are global and the majority of their jobs (not surprisingly) are in Europe, but they do have US clients. Some roles I’ve seen them recruit for recently include product managers, sales marketing, operations, compliance, and customer success. They exclusively serve the fintech industry.
The Best Fintech Recruiters in Europe
I haven’t forgotten about my European friends that read my blog. While there are many more fintech recruitment firms in Europe, here are four that I found.
Fintech Recruitment
This firm has a lot of fintech jobs they recruit for. Most of them are in Europe, but some are also remote in the US with European companies that operate there. This company has the largest diversity of fintech jobs I’ve seen in a while.
Visit the Fintech Recruitment website.
Excelsior Search
Another fintech specialty search firm based out of London, this company has been around since 1999. They primarily work with investment banks, asset managers, hedge funds, private equity and venture capital firms, and exchanges. Some of the roles I’ve seen them recruit for recently include product managers and business analysts. They are global and do have some jobs on the East Coast of the US as well.
Visit the Excelsior Search website.
Selby Jennings
This is another recruitment firm that specializes in the financial services industry. They recruit for many fintech jobs throughout Europe.
Visit the Selby Jennings website.
Harrington Starr
Last, but not least, is a London-based recruitment firm that works exclusively with the fintech industry. They have a small presence in the US and in Belfast, but the majority of their jobs will be in the UK.
Tips for Working with Fintech Recruiters
If you’ve never worked with a fintech recruiter before, I’ll leave you with some advice.
Transparency Matters
You must communicate exactly what you are looking for with the recruiter. They won’t call you unless you tell them what to call you for. If you’re willing to work contract roles, tell them that or they won’t call you when they become available.
Communicate Changes
Things change; that’s a fact of life. When they do, make sure you update the recruiter. If you’ve developed new skills or you want to entertain contract roles because you haven’t found a direct hire job in the past 3 months, communicate those things to the recruiters you are working with.
Make It Mutual
Take the time to build mutual relationships with the recruiters you’ve chosen to network with. That means be helpful when you can. The recruiter will be more likely to help you if you help them. If they call you for openings that aren’t a fit, offer to refer them to someone you know.
Have a Great Resume
This article is about third-party recruiters. They make money when they place you with one of their clients. The easier you make it for them to place you, the more likely they are to market you to their network of clients and contacts. Make sure you’ve got a great resume for them to use. You want to be what many recruiters call a “walking placement.”
Fintech Recruiters Recommended Reading
Cole Sperry has been a recruiter and resume writer since 2015, working with tens of thousands of job seekers, and hundreds of employers. Today Cole runs a boutique advisory firm consulting with dozens of recruiting firms, oversees Optim’s Resume Revision Service and On-Demand Coaching Program, and is the Managing Editor at OptimCareers.com.
Here’s who I recommend for career coaching.