We’re pleased to present Sanderson’s brand-new Hiring Trends Report focusing on Digital, Technology, Change and Transformation hiring in the Financial Services sector in H1 2025.

This much anticipated report provides an overview of how hiring during the first half of 2025 compared to the previous year, how demand was distributed across the UK, and which roles were most sought after across banking, insurance, life & pensions, and investment management.

The first half of 2025 has seen many businesses proceed with caution in their permanent and contract hiring thanks to persistent inflation, concerns over US tariffs, ongoing geopolitical instability and the impact of National Insurance Contributions changing.

However despite this climate, strategic priorities across the financial services sector are sustaining demand for high-quality digital, technology, change, and transformation professionals. We’re also seeing businesses increase their investment in digital and artificial intelligence platforms to modernise legacy infrastructure, meet evolving regulatory requirements and enhance their customer experience.

As we approach the latter half of the year, now may be the time to reassess your hiring strategies, enhance your understanding of emerging technologies and then address your skills gaps with the right blend of permanent or contractor talent.

This report, using data from VacancySoft and LinkedIn and reviewed by Sanderson’s market-leading experts, reflects on how these trends have shaped hiring throughout the Financial Services sector in H1 2025, as well as providing predictions on how it may evolve throughout the remainder of the year.

The last few months have been anything but quiet for the Financial Services market in London. From vacancies on the rise, investment in AI accelerating and actuarial booming, it can seem hard to keep track of the latest market activity.

But at Sanderson, we always have our finger on the pulse of the latest changes in the market so that we can help you better understand how any changes might impact your hiring plans and then support you to turn these market trends into opportunities when it comes to your recruitment.

So, with that in mind, we’ve teamed up with VacancySoft to sum up the latest trends we’ve been seeing in the London Financial Services market over the last few months in a handy Report.

Take a look at the sneak peek below and scroll down to grab your copy!

Vacancies

The finance sector in London is showing signs of life with vacancies rising by 17% since January, marking the busiest period since early 2023.

Insurance and Fintech

Insurance vacancies are easing with broking down so far in 2025. But will underwriting activity surpass last year’s volumes?

Artificial Intelligence

We’re seeing Allianz and lots of other insurance firms across the sector accelerating their investment into AI and transformation and working hard to automate their processes. And the impact this increased use of AI appears to be having on recruitment is that whilst there’s been a slowdown in hiring in many departments this year in the Insurance industry, IT vacancies are continuing to rise, with activity on track to be 15% higher than 2024 in London, and this is a trend we expect to continue.

Actuarial

London has recorded its fourth consecutive monthly increase in actuarial roles, so alongside our Report we sat down with Sanderson Senior Consultant and Actuarial specialist George Mohan for his views on what the state of play is looking like:

“Actuarial recruitment in life insurance has remained steady through 2025, underpinned by a busy market for bulk purchase annuities (BPA) and continuing regulatory developments. Solvency UK reforms have been shaping capital and risk management strategies, prompting insurers to strengthen their actuarial teams in areas such as reporting, balance sheet optimisation and capital modelling. Activity in BPA and reinsurance deals is also keeping demand stable for pricing and transaction specialists, while ongoing product innovation in retirement and protection markets supports a baseline level of hiring.

The profile of demand, however, is evolving. Employers are increasingly seeking actuaries who not only bring deep technical knowledge of life insurance liabilities and regulatory frameworks but can also apply data science, machine learning and advanced analytics. Skills in longevity risk modelling, asset-liability management and capital optimisation are in high demand, especially where firms are competing to execute on BPA opportunities at scale. Time-to-hire has lengthened for hybrid profiles, with firms prepared to pay salary premiums to secure candidates who can bridge traditional actuarial expertise with digital capability.

Flexibility remains another defining feature of the market. Hybrid and remote working are now standard expectations, particularly in technical and project-based roles. While graduate and trainee recruitment remains selective, fully qualified actuaries with strong transaction, modelling and regulatory skills are well positioned.

The overall picture is one of stability with sharper edges. Life insurers are maintaining headcount and investing in areas tied to Solvency UK, BPA transactions and longevity risk, while shifting their focus towards talent that can combine actuarial rigour with technology and data. The message is clear the market is steady, but the profile of demand is changing and those who adapt fastest will capture the best opportunities.”

Fintech

Fintech vacancies in London reached their highest monthly total in more than two years in July – will this trigger a war on talent?

Fixed term contracts

Have volatile markets and uncertainty over the upcoming employment bill meant that many employers are reluctant to expand their permanent headcount causing an incline in the number of FTCs in the market?

All in all, with banking vacancies rising, fintech attracting record funding, and insurers pivoting towards automation, a unifying trend has become clear.

Talent, particularly in technology and data, has become the currency of competition, dictating which firms will lead in the next phase of growth.

When you look at how your organisation manages your permanent hiring, would you rather your process had more flexibility, especially if you want to react to a surge in demand or quickly expand capacity as you launch new projects?

Perhaps your goals are to reduce the administrative burden on your internal resources by getting assistance with your candidate selection and onboarding and access industry-leading sector expertise whilst using the latest recruitment tech?

Or maybe you’d simply like to boost your employer brand, improve the quality of your hires and set up better processes for your workforce succession planning?

An Enterprise RPO could be the talent solution you’re looking for.

In this blog we’ll explain how an Enterprise RPO can optimise how you approach permanent hiring, lay out exactly what it is, what the benefits are and how you can get started with a solution of your own.

What is an Enterprise RPO?

This is a full-service recruitment solution that takes complete responsibility for all your permanent hiring. In a nutshell, anything you can think of when it comes to talent management, an Enterprise RPO can take care of it for you.

What are the benefits of an Enterprise RPO?

This is a solution that comes with a range of benefits that you and your organisation can benefit from. Other than getting an extension of your business that gives you total peace of mind that your recruitment is being taken care of (and giving time back to your Hiring Mangers to focus on BAU), an Enterprise RPO will also give you:

Access to the best external talent

With an Enterprise RPO partner, you’ll be given access to expertise in employer branding, talent analytics, candidate attraction and candidate sourcing capability. This means you’ll be better positioned to access the best network of local and national talent to help you set up the team of your dreams.

Internal Mobility

Enterprise RPO will advise your business on best practices to enhance your internal mobility. Design & development of internal careers sites, pathway programmes and even managing your internal recruitment processes all of which reduce attrition rates, retain knowledge and experience within your business, improve EVP and reduce external recruitment costs.

Flexibility and scalability

Looking for something that can seamlessly adapt to your strategic initiatives or that can respond to fluctuations in your hiring demand? An Enterprise RPO gives you complete flexibility allowing you to scale at pace or slow down your recruitment plans as you need to. If you’re a global or multi-office location, with an Enterprise RPO, you also have the flexibility to deploy this model to a specific region or even just one department.

Brand ambassador

This model will make sure you’re positioned as an employer of choice in your market. With an Enterprise RPO in place, you’ll be helped to not only define your candidate proposition, but then to amplify this across the market to ultimately build you a quality talent pipeline full of candidates who not only see you as the most desirable place to work, but that also align to your company values.

Better candidate experience

An Enterprise RPO will also work to help improve your candidate experience. Providing smoother processes, personalised touch points and regular check-ins with your perspective permanent employees to enhance their experience of communicating with you and ultimately improving offer acceptance rates.

Legal compliance

Keeping up with the latest compliance standards or legal requirements can be extremely time consuming for busy Hiring Managers. With an Enterprise RPO your talent partner takes total responsibility for things like pre-employment screening and is well versed in the necessary legislation to mitigate your risk and ensure you’re meeting relevant standards.

Access to technology

The HR technology landscape constantly changing, but with an Enterprise RPO you’ll be benefiting from access to innovative tools and new technology stacks, without having to commit to them in-house. You can even use this data to plan for the future and support your workforce planning.

Is an Enterprise RPO right for you?

When considering whether an Enterprise RPO is the right solution for you and your business, you just need to ask yourself, one question: Do you hire regularly?

If the answer is yes than an Enterprise RPO is absolutely for you.

No matter the size of your business, an Enterprise RPO can drastically improve the performance of your permanent hiring. If you look at a Sanderson Enterprise RPO solution for example, we’ve deployed these in global organisations with over 6000 employees and multiple offices, as well as to much smaller businesses with only around 1-200 employees.

Speaking to one of our clients, Head of Resourcing at a leading provider of business process services for the life and pensions industry after they embedded a Sanderson Enterprise RPO solution, they said:

“We commenced work with Sanderson to embed a new digital Total Talent Solution to manage our complex and varied resourcing and recruitment needs. The partnership approach, their knowledge of the market, insights and relationships have been critical in enabling us to concentrate on the business with the knowledge that we were in very safe hands.”

How to get started with an Enterprise RPO solution

As you begin the process of launching an Enterprise RPO solution, we’d recommend starting with 3 simple steps to ensure you set yourself up for success:

Set clear goals and objectives

Make sure you’ve properly laid out what you want to get out of your Enterprise RPO solution and how far into your business you want to embed it. Do you think you want to deploy across your entire organisation, or just a specific region or team? Is it improvements in candidate quality you’re after, or just reduced overheads and time to hire?

Gain stakeholder buy-in

Your Enterprise RPO partner will want to get stuck in and help you from the get-go, so make sure everyone in your team from your hiring managers to your directors are fully invested in the programme early on and know the benefits it will deliver so you can avoid any implementation resistance.

Do your research

This is a long-term recruitment solution, so selecting the right Enterprise RPO partner for you is vital. Have a think about whether they have experience in your industry, if they have the tech stacks you’re hoping to have access to and whether their culture and values align with your own.

Ready to get going?

At Sanderson, we look to partner with you long-term and relish taking on the responsibility for all your permanent hiring needs.

Whether you’re a business with complex talent acquisition requirements, have high volumes of recruitment or would simply rather avoid the fixed costs of managing recruitment internally, we can help create a tailored solution fit for your needs.

Get in touch with us today and let’s start your Enterprise RPO journey together.

The contingent hiring world is constantly changing, but during our work in this space recently we’ve spotted some trends.

In this blog we’ve summarised three trends that we’ve noticed in the contingent workforce world, giving you an overview of what the market is currently looking like so you can not only better understand it, but feel more prepared as you navigate your own contingent hiring plans.

So, what are the three trends we’ve noticed?

Trend 1: Total Talent Management

Increasingly, businesses are moving towards unified workforce strategies where all talent, regardless of contract type, is managed with equal importance and under one strategy or total talent solution.

Recent SIA (Staffing Industry Authority) data shows that 24% of companies with contingent workforce programmes already operate this way, and another 50% aim to follow in the next two years.

This approach can bring practical benefits like giving a clearer picture of skills across the board, better alignment between people and business goals, and the agility to flex resources as business needs change.

Ultimately, treating every member of the workforce as part of the core strategy isn’t a passing trend, it seems like it’s becoming essential for organisations that want to stay ahead.

Trend 2: Direct Sourcing

Direct sourcing is becoming a key strategy for organisations hiring contingent workers.

Rather than relying solely on third-party agencies, many companies are building and nurturing internal talent pools of contingent workers or working with partners to help facilitate this. According to the SIA, over one-third of businesses with established contingent workforce programmes are already using such direct sourcing, and another third plan to implement it soon.

The main advantages are quicker access to qualified workers, reduced costs by avoiding agency fees, and stronger employer branding through consistent engagement with talent pools and offering wider access to talent.

Trend 3: Recruit, Train & Deploy

The rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence in business operations has had a significant impact on entry-level hiring. In fact, recent data from Indeed indicates a 33% decrease in graduate job postings for 2025 compared to 2024, with experts noting that graduates are now facing the most challenging early-career job market since 2018.

In response to these trends, businesses are increasingly considering upskilling and reskilling initiatives. ‘Recruit, Train & Deploy’ workforce solutions are expected to become more prevalent, as they directly address skills gaps by preparing candidates for specific positions and accelerating time-to-productivity.

This recruitment model can also support long-term early careers workforce planning through early investment in emerging talent and help enhance diversity and inclusion by focusing on potential and aptitude.

Conclusion

If you’re interested in learning more about these trends or having a chat to learn more about our own Total Talent solutions and Direct Sourcing capabilities, then please do get in touch.

We’ve also put together some advice on best practices for managing your contingent workforce and steps you can take to better manage this talent pool, you can check this out here: Unlocking Success: 5 steps to better manage your contingent workforce.

If you’re working in the Financial Services industry, then it will have been hard to ignore the latest changes set to take shape across the UK pensions market.

And the changes are big. The entire UK pension landscape is now on the cusp of a transformation that will have far-reaching implications, not just for savers, but for the entire financial services sector.

In this blog we’ll lay out exactly what the proposed changes are and what they might mean for talent and hiring across the financial services sector.

Let’s go.

What is the UK Pension Reform?

Well, the 2025 Pension Investment Review and the Mansion House Accord have recently set ambitious targets designed to turbocharge investment in the UK economy and reshape how retirement savings are managed. This is set to have implications across many businesses and how they run and manage their employee pension pots.

What impact will the Pension Reform have?

Under the current system, by 2030 all multi-employer defined contribution schemes and Local Government Pension Scheme pools are expected to hit £25 billion in assets under management, which will create what’s known in the industry as “megafunds.”

However, the new Mansion House Accord (which has been signed by 17 of the UK’s largest pension providers), will commit these providers to invest 10% of default fund assets into private markets, with 5% earmarked for UK-based opportunities.

Collectively, this could unlock up to £50 billion for infrastructure, private equity, venture capital, and other “productive finance” in the UK by the end of the decade.

This change represents a fundamental shift in how UK pensions are managed, how capital flows through the UK economy and what skills the sector will need.

What changes might the UK see after the Pension Reform comes into effect?

Today, only a handful of UK pension providers manage default funds above the £25bn threshold. But by 2030, that number is set to double. We’ll see smaller schemes merge or wind down, and the defined contribution market will consolidate into a small number of heavyweight “megafunds” instead.

At the same time, pension portfolios are set to pivot.

Currently, only about 2% of defined contribution pension assets are invested in private markets and that figure is expected to quintuple to 10% by 2030 which is a dramatic shift into asset classes such as unlisted companies, infrastructure projects, and renewable energy.

Will the Reform cause demand for specific job roles and skills?

So, what exactly does this Pension Reform mean for talent and hiring?

Well, according to our data we’re predicting an increased demand for the following skills:

Change and Transformation

The drive to merge dozens of smaller schemes into megafunds will create a demand for specialist skills to manage this transformation. Providers will need Project Managers, Business Analysts, Actuaries, and Integration specialists who can navigate bulk transfers, align systems, and manage cultural integration across merged schemes.

Investments

Megafunds will need to manage increasingly complex portfolios. This will drive a surge in demand for Investment Managers to source, evaluate, and structure deals in private equity, venture capital, infrastructure, and private debt and Project Finance Specialists to analyse and fund major UK projects in transport, energy, and housing.

Governance, Risk & Compliance

Higher allocations to different asset classes will bring increased scrutiny. Pension funds will bolster their risk management and compliance functions, seeking professionals who can manage stress testing, oversee charge-cap compliance, and ensure investments stay aligned with fiduciary duties.

What challenges might there be for hiring?

While an increasing demand for certain skill sets might be a good thing for the market, these changes and surges do present additional challenges.

Mainly that these skills are already in high demand. Private markets analysts, actuaries, infrastructure finance specialists, and risk experts are among the most sought-after profiles in the financial services workforce today.

For HR and Talent teams, this comes at a time when they are already juggling business-as-usual hiring, driving internal mobility programmes, and spearheading reskilling initiatives to futureproof their organisations. Layer on top the ongoing need to assess how AI will reshape roles and processes, and it’s clear that talent strategies will need to be sharper, more creative, and more competitive than ever to secure the expertise required for this pensions-driven shift.

How we can help

At Sanderson, our team are well versed in navigating the often-murky waters of the UK financial services hiring market. Not only do we have access to some of the best talent pools in the UK to get you the skills you need and fast, but we understand the complexities of future-proofing your hiring strategies while trying to manage day-to-day talent management tasks.

If you’re looking for support, or would just like to chat to us about what the Pension Reform might mean for you and your business, then reach out to us today and let’s chat about how we can help.

If you and your organisation are wanting to grow your headcount and enhance your permanent capability, you might be looking for a bit of a helping hand to get you started.

Perhaps you’ve gone through a rapid growth spike or an M&A and need to rapidly integrate new teams into your business structure?

Or maybe hiring niche skill sets for a brand new service line is making you want to pull your hair out?

Whatever challenge you’re facing, if you’re not looking to outsource everything and just want a bit of support or an extension of your team, then a Project RPO could be the key you’re looking for to unlock the start of a more streamlined recruitment process…

In our BRAND-NEW GUIDE we lay out the ins and outs of Project RPO. From what is does, the benefits to how to get started – it’s like having us in your back pocket whenever you have a Project RPO question!

Is momentum finally starting to build across the Change & Transformation market?

You might have seen that we recently launched our latest Change & Transformation Insights Report where we dipped into data suggesting that 2025 is showing signs of increased activity as more and more businesses are re-engaging with their transformation agendas thanks to budget approvals and team mobilisations.

In this blog we’ll explore the noticeable uptick in M&A activity within financial services and lay out the key insights you need to know on what this means for hiring in the Change & Transformation sector.

What does the M&A market currently look like?

Looking at our data as well as sources such as KPMG’s 2025 M&A Outlook, 2024 was somewhat of a turnaround year for M&A markets. By the back end of 2024 the value of domestic M&A reached a whopping £8.6 billion and thanks to this we are seeing a huge surge in M&A activity this year.

For example, in the financial services space we’ve seen the likes of Nationwide acquire Virgin Money, Coventry Building Society acquire Co-Op Bank, Barclays acquire Tesco Bank to name just a few. And it’s looking like this growth in activity is set to continue through the rest of 2025.

What is driving this high rate of M&A activity in the financial services sector?

It largely comes down to economies of scale. Smaller financial services firms are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with regulatory requirements, the increased need for digitalisation and wider competitive pressures.

M&A offers them the opportunity to become part of something larger and more resilient. We’re seeing strong evidence of the industry gravitating towards consolidation and a “safety in numbers” mentality as they prioritise stability over disruption.

What does all this M&A activity mean from a hiring perspective?

Well, when an M&A is initiated at a business, we usually then tend to see a significant spike in contract hiring at the beginning of this process.

Permanent roles are still important, but in our experience, we often see companies feel hesitant in committing to permanent positions while they navigate the start of such a fluid situation. Instead, hiring activity is initially focused on contractual positions and often there’s a preference for candidates who have a familiarity with “Part VII” of the Financial Services and Markets Act i.e. the legal framework for transferring assets and liabilities from one company to another. Businesses find themselves needing contractors who can fill positions like Business Analysts, Project Managers and HR professionals who can help guide them through the integration process.

With an initial focus on internal systems, as this stabilises resourcing then starts to look to permanent hires or consultancy services as they put their energy into filling customer facing roles.

What skills and attributes do employers look for when hiring for large transformation programmes like M&A?

In our experience, the skills employers look to hire for during a transformation project vary depending on the specific phase of the transformation project they’re at.

For example, if a business comes to us with a hard deadline such as getting their acquired company onto their payroll system, then delivery-focused candidates are a must.

But on the other hand, if their focus is on people and organisational change then soft skills like empathy, communication and stakeholder management become crucial.

What is the Top 5 industries for M&A talent right now?

According to data, we’re seeing a lot of activity in sectors like:

• Asset Management
• Banking
• Payments
• Fintech
• Insurance

How can you attract M&A talent to your organisation?

Looking at our data sources, while things like excellent compensation and benefits packages are still important, candidates are also favouring added benefits like flexible work arrangements, the opportunity to get stuck into impactful work and even things like collaboration in the company culture.

Are you looking to find out more?

If this blog has whetted your appetite to find out even more about the Change & Transformation market, then why not take a look at the full Report? Chockers full of industry-leading data (including salary benchmarking stats), it’s like having our expertise in your back pocket to set you up for hiring success.

And if you have any questions or would like to dig a little deeper into anything discussed in this blog, feel free to reach out to me on [email protected]

So, you’re looking to grow your headcount?

Maybe you’re looking to hire a team of specialist job roles? For example, your company is being impacted by new regulatory changes, and you’re in need of an expert team of finance and actuarial experts, but nailing down these niche skill set is starting to feel like searching for a needle in a haystack?

Perhaps you’re going through a huge transformation programme, and you need to scale your project and change teams pretty quickly?

Or maybe you’ve recently seen a rapid spike in the growth of your business or have undergone a merger or acquisition and need to rapidly integrate new teams into your existing business structure?

Whatever your challenge, if your People team are stretched already with BAU and need a helping hand or an extension of their team that comes with a large network of resources that’s yours to use flexibly, then a Project RPO could be the key you’re looking for to unlock the start of a more streamlined recruitment process.

In this blog we’ll walk you through the ins and outs of a Project RPO. We’ll get stuck into what it is, the main benefits, how this solution can help get you set up for the future and how you can get started.

Let’s go!

What is a Project RPO?

First things first, what exactly is a Project RPO?

Well, a Project RPO is a flexible recruitment solution that offers many of the benefits of outsourcing all your recruitment to a resourcing partner, but without the long-term commitment.

This is a solution that can take the form of a “one off” engagement, working as an extension of your in-house talent acquisition team to source, screen and deliver the right candidates or teams as and when you need them. Basically, acting as a helping hand, saving time for you to navigate your people strategies and day to day BAU.

Benefits of a Project RPO

It’s sounding pretty good right? Let’s dive into exactly what some of the benefits are that you get when working with a recruitment partner via a Project RPO:

Flexibility & Scalability

With this model you can deploy talent quickly and scale rapidly to meet peaks in hiring demand or as your services evolve in line with your strategic goals. You’ll also get a dedicated team always at the end of the phone if you’ve got any questions or ever want to make any changes.

Improved Quality of Hire

By using the services of a recruitment partner via a Project RPO, you’re getting access to an incredible network of talent. Using the RPOs candidate attraction process and assessment tools, you’ll have access to the best active and passive talent available. We’re talking psychometric testing and technical assessments – really getting into the details to ensure the perfect candidate fit.

Employer Brand Amplification

With a Project RPO your employer brand will be actively promoted to help you stand out in a competitive market. Your Project RPO partner will amplify your company values and brand and use marketing expertise to put together a proposition that ensures candidates see you as a desirable place to work.

Enhanced Candidate Experience

Your delivery team will take the reins to provide an enhanced candidate experience. When you’re up to your ears in admin, sometimes those key candidate touch points can slip through the cracks but with a Project RPO solution, you’ll get a personalised experience for each candidate throughout the entire recruitment process – ultimately helping to keep them engaged.

Reporting & Talent Intelligence

You’ll have access to enhanced reporting capabilities and talent intelligence platforms, empowering you to make data-drive recruitment decisions. This could be for anything from the best location to open a new office, what salaries competitors are offering to where your chosen talent demographic is based.

Reduce Costs

By streamlining the recruitment process, a Project RPO will provide you with huge cost savings. Thanks to direct sourcing and a more targeted approach to your recruitment, you’ll have more control over your budget than you would with a traditional recruitment model.

Time Saving

As well as the rapid deployment of talent, don’t forget that one of the main benefits of this model is the huge savings in time your talent acquisition team will receive. With a Project RPO you’ll be getting an extension to your team to help share the load and take some admin tasks off your desk. Imagine having someone else to sift through applications and find candidates for you PLUS getting into the nitty gritty like dealing with video interviews and all that logistical admin you’d rather not do.

Support Future Workforce Planning

A Project RPO can help enhance and shape the future of your talent acquisition strategy. Taking what you’ve learnt at the start of the project, you can use this knowledge to facilitate future workforce planning and even support your planned DE&I initiatives, remote working strategies or career pathways.

What can a Project RPO be used for?

So, there’s obviously lots of benefits. But are you wondering whether it’s the right solution for you? Here’s just a few examples of how you could use a Project RPO to smash your business goals:

Deliver project-based recruitment campaigns

Maybe you’re launching a new product or service or going through transformation and need a project team to get this off the ground? Enter: The Project RPO.

Support spikes in recruitment activity or the needs of a specific department

Do you experience seasonal fluxes of business activity and need some extra hands-on deck? Whatever reason you have a spike in hiring for, a Project RPO can help.

Support diversity and inclusion programmes

A Project RPO can be used in a variety of ways to support your DE&I initiatives. Maybe you’re pushing your early careers programme or want to make sure you’re attracting the next generation of talent? This solution can really help you break through the noise.

How to get started with a Project RPO

If you’ve got to the end of this blog and a Project RPO is sounding like the answer to your prayers and you just want to get started, we’d recommend thinking about 3 key things:

1. Determine your hiring needs and goals. Have a think about how quickly you need this talent hired. Do you want to outsource everything or just need a few extra hands on deck? Laying out your requirements early on will help you make informed decisions when it comes to selecting a partner.
2. Decide which metrics you want to track. Are you wanting to dramatically reduce time to hire? More focused on the quality of the candidates? Or maybe you’re keen to tap into the market intelligence extras you’ll get from a Project RPO partner.
3. Choose your provider. Do your research into the providers out there, making sure they have experience in your field and industry, and can even offer the sort of technology you’re looking to take advantage of.

Are you ready to get started?

If you’d like to get the ball rolling with a Project RPO solution of your own, get in touch with our team today and let’s have a chat about your requirements and how we can help you reach your goals.

In case you missed it, we recently launched a Spotlight Report focussing in on the world of Product Owners.

And with this role surging in popularity, can we take this to mean there is a growing demand for more Agile skill sets in general?

In this blog we get stuck into why our data is demonstrating a broader openness to Agile methodologies and job functions across the UK, as well as highlighting how Scotland in particular is becoming a hotspot for this talent pool.

Are you ready to take advantage of this surging demand? Let’s find out…

The rising demand for Agile skill sets

We’re now seeing that a lot of these skills are required for Product Owners (which we discussed in this blog), a job function that’s had undeniable growth. To put this into perspective, LinkedIn has reported a 2% nationwide increase in headcount for Product Owners, and as a role it’s now ranking in the Top 5 in VacancySoft’s 2024 Financial Services Review – a 30% year-on-year increase. Plus, Sanderson’s own data has shown that our hiring volume for Product Owners has gone up by a whopping 50%! This is clearly a hot market right now.

But it’s not just product focused roles that are surging. In Scotland (especially in tech hubs like Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen) we have found that Agile roles in general are picking up pace, particularly across the development, software engineering and testing space.

A distinct trend here is also how the candidates themselves are seeing the value of agile skills for their own self-development. We’re talking to candidates who want to be able to move seamlessly into different roles, “hit the ground running” and be an effective conduit between different business units and teams thanks to amassing an arsenal of agile skills.

Which industries are leading the way?

The Banking industry is leading the charge here with a 60% surge in demand for Agile roles like Product Owner, followed closely behind by the Information and Media industry where demand has risen by 52% and a 36% rise in demand in the Insurance sector.

This can be seen as a clear reflection of highly regulated industries showing a significant shift from favouring traditional project management skills and attributes to looking for more agile focused and diverse skill sets as they hope to become more efficient and capable in their future business operations.

Where is this agile talent based?

So, looking across the UK market, are there any hotspots for this Agile talent, and in particular Product Owners?

In a nutshell, yes.

London has a significant chunk boasting 33% of the total talent pool. A huge proportion as this is followed up by Manchester with 5%, then Edinburgh with 4%, Glasgow and Bristol with 3%, and Cardiff having just 2% of the total talent pool.

Changing trends in agile talent location

But while London does have the largest share of this agile talent, is there better hiring opportunity elsewhere in the UK?

We think so!

Other UK hubs, and especially in Scotland, are worth exploring for agile talent thanks to the high competition you’ll face in the capital making hiring extremely costly, not to mention the fight for talent amongst your competitors.

But which hubs in particular?

Data from LinkedIn Talent Insights identifies Northern hotspots such as Edinburgh and Leeds as the strongest opportunity markets for this talent pool.

While London has high demand for agile talent, both Edinburgh and Leeds are currently only experiencing medium to low demand. These cities have also experienced a recent growth in their agile talent populations by at least 4%, whereas our data has shown that growth in London is starting to stagnate. This means lots of candidates for you to choose from and little competition from other companies – good news for businesses wanting to expand their agile capabilities with their pick of the talent!

Combine this with the fact that there’s been an obvious push for growing agile skills across the Scottish digital and tech sectors shown by meet ups like Agile Scotland and Product Tank Edinburgh, we believe that Scotland isn’t just “adopting” agile as a fad, but have fully embraced it for now and the future – a positive sign for hiring for these skills here in 2025 and beyond.

Looking to find out more?

If you’re interested in ramping up the agile skillsets in your team, and want to dive a little deeper into these trends to make sure your offer stands out in the crowd, then why not check out our full Report which is chockers full of market-leading salary data and industry trends. Just fill out the short form below.

If you have any further questions on this topic, want to find out more about agile skillsets and their prevalence in the Scottish market, or are looking for a bit of help in expanding your team then please do get in touch with me on [email protected]

We recently launched our Product Owner Spotlight Report which took a deep-dive into the world of Product Owners to provide you with insight into everything from candidate location through to salary data.

But when it comes to career progression and benefits, what is it exactly that really makes this candidate pool tick?

In this blog we’ll walk you through the necessary skills you should look for in a Product Owner, the typical career path these candidates take as well as the work styles this talent pool utilises so you can make sure your offer remains competitive in the market.

Let’s get tucked in…

What skills should Product Owners have?

For candidates to succeed in the Product Owner role (and to stand out in the market), they need to be pragmatic, possess strong communication skills and ideally be well versed in agile methodologies and prioritisation techniques. They may also have obtained relevant certifications such as CSPO and PSPO.

This is important because the fundamental aspect of Product Ownership is being the conduit between business units and teams. Whether that is between UX and Software engineering or business stakeholders and technology functions, they are the central point of engagement. These are candidates who have chosen to move from development teams to Product Ownership and so will often have excellent soft skills and enjoy stakeholder management responsibilities.

What does a career path look like for a Product Owner?

So, what does a typical Product Owner career path look like?

Generally speaking, there seems to be two core starting points for a Product Owner to take the first steps in their career:

• Business Analyst
• Software Development

As they gain experience, they often undertake increased strategic responsibility and can evolve into a Senior Product Owner role, this typical means working more closely with senior stakeholders or owning multiple products.

In our experience, it’s at this point that many candidates want to continue to progress up the ladder, and so we begin to see them move into Product Management roles and Senior Product Management roles which have far broader scope and allows the candidate to be more strategic in nature. In these roles there will be more of focus on shaping and influencing the Product roadmap but also what that means for the wider business as well as technical or product strategies.

After this, the career path can evolve, but we find the job title can be subjective to the scale and size of the organisation, product or software engineering teams and the business teams in the organisation.

But is the opportunity to widen their scope of work and skill sets all that’s important to these candidates?

How to make your offer stand out

In our experience, while opportunities to work on exciting projects or products and getting stuck into cutting-edge tech stacks are still important to candidates, now more than ever we’re seeing these candidates care more about the nature of the work they’re doing, and the type of company they’re working for.

We’ve seen high-quality professionals prioritising important social or ethically impactful Products within domains such HealthTech, FinTech, MedTech and even tending to shy away from potentially controversial industries like gambling or tobacco.

It’s also interesting to note the working style Product Owners are tending to favour. According to our data from 400+ job boards in this market, we’re seeing 6.8% of these roles advertised as fully remote, 26.8% as hybrid and 66.4% as fully in the office. From conversations with candidates and clients alike, there seems to be a real preference towards Hybrid approach.

In our experience, almost all of the high-quality Product specialists we’ve placed in the last 18 months from junior to CPO level, have a preference for some time on site. Due to the sheer nature of the role, they are the middle person between various people and teams. These sought after candidates find they can perform their role better with some face time and a human touch, so make sure that’s an option for them.

Looking to find out more?

If you want to tap into the Product Owner, we’d love to hear from you. Our data is showing a 2% nationwide increase in Product Owner headcount PLUS Sanderson hiring volume for this role has gone up by a whopping 50%, so now is more important than ever to get a solid grasp on this market so you’re ready to make your next move.

Please do reach out to Khalid Razouki on [email protected] to carry on the conversation, and why not dive a little deeper into the Product Owner market by downloading a copy of the full report in the short form below.