Read the fintech headlines this year and you could be forgiven for thinking the party is over.

Some of the best-known digital banks are slowing down their hiring, and investment is nowhere near the highs of a few years ago. But look a little closer at the numbers and a different picture appears. UK fintech is still hiring. It is just hiring for different people, in different places, than it was during the boom.

If you’re thinking about a move into fintech, that shift matters a lot more than the headlines.

The money is careful, not gone

According to Innovate Finance, UK fintech companies raised £2.6bn in 2025. That was enough to keep the UK second in the world behind the US, and first in Europe. It was also almost exactly the same as 2024, and still about 37% below 2023.

In plain terms, investors haven’t walked away, but they are choosy. Companies are spending on the things that keep them running and growing, not on big teams built for growth at any cost.

That explains almost everything about who is getting hired.

Hiring is up, but it has moved

A labour market report by Morgan McKinley and Vacancysoft, published in May 2026, expects UK fintech vacancies to rise by close to 14% this year, after 28% growth in 2025. The interesting part is where that growth is coming from.

Payments and infrastructure firms are leading. Companies such as Wise, Ebury and SumUp are expected to keep adding staff, while Starling and Monzo are expected to hire less. The age of the consumer neobank adding hundreds of people a quarter has given way to the less glamorous businesses that move money behind the scenes.

The roles tell the same story. The report forecasts:

• IT infrastructure vacancies up by nearly 31%, the fastest-growing technology function
• Development and engineering roles up by nearly 19%
• AML and risk and compliance roles up by 28%
• Credit analyst roles up by nearly 46%

Meanwhile, IT support has shrunk from 17% to 9% of tech vacancies in two years, as automation and cloud tools take over routine work.

Many fintech jobs are finance jobs

This is the part people often miss. You don’t have to be a software engineer to work in fintech.

Credit analysts, anti-money laundering specialists and compliance officers are some of the fastest-growing roles in the sector. If you already work in banking, audit or accountancy, your experience is worth more than you might think.

The FCA’s Consumer Duty, which has applied since July 2023, has also pushed firms to show that their products deliver good outcomes for customers. That keeps demand steady for people who understand both the rules and the products. If you come from a traditional finance background, browsing the finance and accounting roles on GetUKJobs is a good way to see how many of those skills carry straight across.

London still dominates, but watch the regions

There is no getting around it. The same report expects London to account for about 71% of all UK fintech hiring in 2026. IT vacancies in the capital are forecast to rise by 18%, compared with less than 1% in the rest of Britain. If you’re open to the capital, a look at current jobs in London will show you how wide the choice is.

That said, the picture outside London is slowly improving. Tracxn data reported by Computer Weekly in July 2026 shows London’s share of UK fintech funding slipping from 99% to 94% between late 2025 and the first half of 2026, with Edinburgh and Belfast among the hubs gaining ground. It’s a small shift, but it is worth keeping an eye on if you’d rather not move south.

How to position yourself

If you’re aiming for UK fintech in the year ahead, a few things will put you in a stronger position:

1. Target the growing firms. Payments, infrastructure and B2B platforms are hiring more than consumer apps right now.
2. Learn the language of risk. Even technical candidates stand out when they understand AML checks, fraud and Consumer Duty.
3. Build cloud and reliability skills. Firms are investing in systems that stay up and scale, which is why infrastructure roles are growing fastest.
4. Use your finance background. Credit, compliance and finance operations are some of the easiest routes in for people who already work in finance.

Fintech in the UK hasn’t stopped growing. It has grown up. The people getting hired now are the ones who help firms run safely and reliably, and that opens the door to far more people than the boom years ever did.