The financial services market in Australia is evolving, with organisations placing greater emphasis on strategic hiring and specialised skills. As technology, regulation and customer expectations continue to evolve, employers across banking, insurance, and superannuation are focusing on recruiting professionals who can deliver transformation outcomes.
At Paxus, we’re seeing targeted recruitment for roles in cloud migration, payments integration, automation, and applied AI — positions that require a combination of technical expertise and deep financial systems knowledge. While overall occupation shortages have eased slightly,
demand remains strong for digital and cyber specialists, reflecting ongoing needs for technology and governance expertise in the financial services sector.
To better understand these trends and what they mean for employers, candidates, and contractors alike, we sat down with
Corin Leckie, Paxus’ Financial Services Sector Head.
Q: The finance job market has shifted significantly in 2024–25. From your perspective, what’s changed most in hiring trends right now?
What we’ve been witnessing for a while now across banking, insurance and superannuation is a market evolving from large-scale recruitment drives to more targeted, outcome-focused hiring. Rather than hiring broadly, institutions are investing in talent that can deliver specific transformation outcomes, particularly in areas such as cloud migration, core system replacement, payments integration, automation, and applied AI.
Overall, the recruitment market has entered a phase of strategic precision. Organisations are hiring fewer people, but expecting greater impact, seeking those rare professionals who can combine technical excellence, financial understanding and deliver measurable transformation.
This shift from volume hiring to transformation hiring has increased demand for professionals who combine technical expertise and financial domain knowledge. Roles such as cloud migration leads, ERP and core banking engineers, MLOps specialists, and integration architects are among those most in demand.
As digital programs move from design into delivery, we’re seeing increased use of contractors and specialist consultants. These professionals are not simply filling gaps; they act as capability accelerators to deliver high-impact work across short projects. Contractors are playing a key role in time-critical initiatives such as AI pilots, platform modernisation and vendor-led core replacements. This allows organisations to move faster, access niche expertise and maintain flexibility in workforce planning.
Hiring processes have also become longer and more rigorous. With a limited pool of hybrid domain-plus-technology talent, employers are conducting deeper technical assessments. They are prepared to pay a premium for individuals who can deliver measurable outcomes, especially in data engineering, MLOps, and cloud architecture. There’s also growing emphasis on governance and security as financial institutions bring more data and AI models into production, driving strong demand for cybersecurity, data governance, and risk-aligned engineering talent. These roles are now among some of the most difficult to fill.
Q: Where are the biggest skill shortages appearing, and what’s driving them?
Skill shortages are emerging most acutely in transformation-critical roles where financial systems knowledge intersects with advanced technology capability. Demand continues to outpace supply in areas such as cloud engineering, data analytics, AI operations, cybersecurity, and large-scale system integration.
Cloud and platform engineers experienced in financial systems are particularly hard to find, particularly those skilled in migrating or modernising core banking, payments, or fund accounting platforms. These projects require both deep platform engineering skills and an understanding of transactional finance workflows – a combination that remains relatively rare.
Similarly, there is a pronounced shortage of data engineers and analytics specialists focused on finance data domains. Institutions need professionals who can design auditable data pipelines, model complex ledger and transactional data, and connect analytics and machine learning tools to front-office and risk applications. As data becomes central to decision-making, technically proficient, compliance-aware data talent is increasingly valuable.
We’re also seeing strong demand for AI and MLOps practitioners who can operationalise models for risk, credit scoring, and customer analytics while maintaining explainability and governance controls. It’s not just about data science anymore, employers are looking for engineers who can safely and ethically embed models into production environments.
Cybersecurity specialists remain among the scarcest professionals in the market, particularly those working across cloud and open API environments. As financial institutions expand digital operations, they need talent who understand both security architecture and regulatory resilience requirements. Likewise, experienced integration and change leads who have overseen ledger conversions, payments integrations or fund accounting system replacements are increasingly scarce, with expertise that can only be built through years of complex delivery.
Ultimately, the pace of technology adoption has outstripped industry reskilling efforts. At the same time, consulting firms and offshore markets are competing for the same hybrid capabilities, leaving a national shortage of professionals who can combine financial expertise with next-generation technology skills. These professionals are now some of the most valuable – and hardest to secure – in the market.
Q: Many skilled finance professionals are exploring opportunities outside of traditional banking roles. What’s driving this and what does it mean for clients and hiring managers?
True, and I think this is driven in part by the search for broader exposure, faster skill development, and greater commercial flexibility. This isn’t a large-scale shift, but rather a reflection of professionals wanting to broaden their skills and stay close to innovation as the industry evolves.
For example, project-based and advisory roles can provide the chance to work across multiple programs, vendors, and technologies — experience that can be harder to access within large institutions. At the same time, recent organisational restructures, offshoring and the push toward automation and cloud modernisation are prompting some professionals to look for roles with more variety and impact.
For hiring managers, this highlights a competitive talent landscape. Candidates with both financial domain knowledge and transformation experience remain in high demand across banks, superannuation funds, and professional services alike. While recent restructures in the finance sector have increased candidate availability, hybrid finance-technology talent remains in short supply and high demand. In my view, employers who can offer flexibility, clear career development, and involvement in meaningful transformation work are best placed to attract and retain this talent.
Q: How is technology influencing the types of roles and skills in demand?
Automation, AI, and digital transformation continue to reshape the roles and skills demanded. Routine, transactional work that once dominated finance operations is rapidly disappearing, replaced by higher-value roles focused on engineering, observability, and governance.
Functions that traditionally processed data are now responsible for designing pipelines, ensuring data integrity, and maintaining the reliability and traceability of financial systems.
AI adoption is creating a dual impact: automating certain front-line and operational tasks while generating new demand for advanced technical and governance capabilities. As major banks and superannuation funds invest in AI-driven efficiency and customer insights, they are also building teams around MLOps, model governance, and explainability to ensure systems operate safely and transparently.
This shift has increased demand for professionals who can both implement and oversee AI models within highly regulated environments. Security and auditability have become non-negotiable skill requirements, with employers prioritising hires who understand cloud security, compliance, and data lineage.
The integration of governance frameworks into technology delivery means financial technologists must now think like both engineers and risk managers.
Overall, the talent map of the sector is being redrawn: fewer pure operators, more engineers and analysts capable of building auditable, secure, high-performance data and AI platforms. The future of banking and superannuation work lies not in repetitive processing, but in the intelligent design, governance and optimisation of technology itself.
Q: What’s your advice to employers and job seekers navigating these shifts right now?
For hiring managers, focus should be on hiring for outcomes, not titles. Role briefs should define deliverables clearly and evaluate candidates based on proven results rather than tool familiarity. Use contractors strategically for migration or MLOps sprints, then retain capability by pairing them with internal teams to ensure knowledge transfer. Given the high external cost of niche skills, investing in structured reskilling programs across cloud, data and security will yield stronger long-term ROI and improve retention. Offer flexible work and meaningful ownership to attract top hybrid talent.
For candidates, highlight measurable domain–technology achievements on your CV. Develop skills in cloud, data engineering, observability, and MLOps, as even moderate proficiency significantly enhances employability.
And for contractors, market yourself through tangible delivery outcomes and governance capability. Clients pay premiums for specialists who can deliver secure, auditable migrations or production-ready AI environments. Maintain current expertise in compliance, data lineage and explainability as these are the differentiators that win repeat engagements.
Key Takeaway
The financial services job market is evolving, with organisations focusing on strategic hiring and building teams with the right mix of finance and technology expertise. For professionals, this creates opportunities to develop hybrid skills and take on roles that drive transformation and innovation.
Learn More & Connect
Discover how Paxus can support your finance recruitment strategy and connect with the right talent. Explore our
Financial Recruitment Services to learn more about how we can assist you with your next hire.
For personalised advice or to discuss your organisation’s hiring needs,
reach out to our Finance Sector Head, Corin Leckie
