The Importance of Cybersecurity Talent in Payments & FinTech Hiring

The Cybersecurity Skills You Need Are Evolving - Fast

Cyber threats in the payments and FinTech space are no longer just about phishing emails and basic malware attacks. We’re talking about complex fraud schemes, cloud misconfigurations, API vulnerabilities, and increasingly sophisticated ransomware. As innovation accelerates across AI, blockchain, and embedded finance, attackers are moving just as fast to exploit new gaps.

This creates a constant pressure to evolve your defences - and that means your hiring strategy needs to evolve too.

The challenge? Cybersecurity talent is in short supply and high demand. You’re competing not just with other FinTechs, but with banks, big tech, crypto platforms, and consultancies. And these aren’t skills you can afford to compromise on. One wrong hire - or one empty seat - can put your customers, your revenue, and your reputation at risk.

So, how do you get the right people in place, fast - and keep them?

Here’s what we’re advising clients to focus on right now:

1. Continuously Assess Your Requirements

Don’t wait for a resignation or an incident to realise you’ve got a gap. Build cybersecurity capability into your workforce planning cycle. That means:

• Mapping current coverage across threat detection, cloud security, incident response, compliance and risk.
• Identifying areas where the business is exposed - especially if you’re scaling fast or launching new products.
• Aligning your cyber strategy with talent needs before the pressure is on.
  

Cyberattacks aren’t static - your requirements shouldn’t be either.

2. Build a Talent Pipeline, Not Just a Job Spec

If you wait until you need a cybersecurity hire to start looking, you’re already behind. We help clients develop ongoing talent pipelines by:

• Identifying mid-to-senior level cyber talent with relevant domain experience.
• Engaging passive candidates early.
• Maintaining a warm bench for priority skill sets like cloud security architecture, compliance automation, and application security.
  

Relationships matter here. The best candidates often aren’t looking - they’re waiting for the right opportunity.

3. Retain the Talent You Already Have

Hiring is only half the battle. Once you’ve got strong cyber talent, you need to keep them engaged:

• Provide opportunities to lead strategic initiatives - not just respond to tickets.
• Invest in ongoing learning - from new certifications to emerging threat training.
• Make sure they’re part of decision-making, not just brought in after the fact.
  

The moment a cybersecurity lead starts feeling siloed or sidelined, they’ll start picking up the phone to recruiters.

4. Develop from Within

Not every cyber role needs to be hired externally. Often, your next great security hire is already in your infrastructure, DevOps, or compliance team - they just need the right training and career path. Internal development shows your people that you’re invested in their growth and helps future-proof your workforce from the inside.

5. Think Beyond Traditional Hiring Models

When you need niche talent fast - especially for short-term projects, audits, or incident response - traditional hiring cycles can be too slow. That’s where more flexible models come in:

• Augmented Teams: Rapidly deploy cyber experts with Payments or FinTech-specific experience to fill gaps or support internal teams.
• RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing): If you’re scaling fast, this lets you outsource the whole cyber hiring function to specialists who understand the space and can move at pace.
• Fractional & Interim Experts: Bring in senior expertise (think CISOs, threat consultants) on a project basis to drive change without a full-time commitment.
  
  

It’s about finding the right blend of capability and capacity - when you need it.

Prioritise Cyber Talent Like You Prioritise Growth

It’s easy to think of cybersecurity as an overhead - something to manage rather than drive. But in this industry, security is growth. It’s what lets you move fast without eroding trust. It’s what reassures regulators and partners. And it’s what keeps your customers loyal when the stakes are high.

That’s why we work closely with clients to build cybersecurity capability into their hiring strategy, from entry-level analysts to executive leadership. If you’re looking to strengthen your team - or rethink how you approach cybersecurity talent altogether - let’s talk.

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