AI leaders who know what a basis point costs.
Leadership and specialist hires for firms building AI into trading, risk, data and market infrastructure.
Every firm is hiring for AI. Few candidates have shipped it where the stakes are real.
The people who have put models into production where latency, auditability and regulation all matter are rare, heavily courted and mostly invisible on public platforms.
We map them one conversation at a time, and test domain fluency as hard as technical depth. Regulated clients will test both.
Senior mandates across AI Infrastructure for Financial Markets.
Leadership
Engineering & Data
Commercial
Three things decide whether a hire here works.
Shipped to production
Models that run in live environments with monitoring, rollback and an owner who answers for them.
Financial domain fluency
Comfort with market data, execution, risk and the controls a regulated client will ask about.
Governance by design
Leaders who build explainability and audit trails in from the first release.
We are not incentivised to place. We are incentivised to be right.
Relationship depth. No noise.
We work from relationships built over years in these markets. Our shortlists come from people we know personally.
Private signal. No public data.
Market intelligence drawn from confidential conversations with the people doing the work.
Senior-led. No delegation.
The person who takes your brief runs your search, makes every approach and sits in every key conversation.
The search firm that says no.
If the role is mis-scoped, the compensation is off or the candidate is wrong for you, we say so. This costs us fees. It is also why people call us back.
What clients and candidates say about working with us.
“Spearpoint has been a trusted partner on some of our most critical leadership searches. Their market knowledge, professionalism and access to hard-to-reach talent have consistently delivered exceptional results.”
“Without a shadow of a doubt, Sam is one of the most connected people in the market. Every candidate he brought us was exactly who he said they would be.”
“Sam and the team were instrumental in facilitating a board appointment I was a part of. Throughout the process they demonstrated professionalism, discretion, and a strong network across both the public and private sectors.”
Three ways we work with AI Infrastructure firms.
Leadership Search
Retained search for the hires that set direction. Board, C-suite and senior leadership.
Specialist Search
Staff and principal engineers, senior researchers and principal product leaders.
Market Intelligence
Compensation benchmarks, talent maps and competitor insight from confidential conversations.
Questions clients ask about AI hiring in financial markets.
What AI roles do you hire for in financial markets?
Chief AI Officers, CTOs, VPs of Engineering, Heads of AI, principal and staff AI engineers, ML engineers, data and MLOps leads, and product, GTM and partnerships leaders.
What makes AI hiring in financial markets different?
Few candidates have shipped models into production where latency, auditability and regulation all matter. We test domain fluency as hard as technical depth, because regulated clients will test both.
Do you hire commercial roles as well as engineers?
Yes. We hire Heads of Product, GTM and partnerships leaders, and solutions and sales engineers who can sell AI to banks and venues.
How do you assess AI candidates?
We look for models shipped to production with monitoring and a named owner, comfort with market data, execution and risk, and a record of building explainability and audit trails from the first release.
Can you benchmark compensation for AI roles in finance?
Yes. AI infrastructure for finance is covered in our compensation guide at spearpointsearch.com/resources/salary-guide.
What is retained executive search?
A retained search is an exclusive mandate. We work only on your role, map the whole market, approach candidates directly and stay on the search until the hire starts. A contingent recruiter is paid only on placement, which rewards speed over fit.
How long does a search take?
Our standard timeline is 8 working weeks from signature to offer. Approaches go live in week 1, you receive a written shortlist in week 4, and your interviews run in weeks 5 to 7. Notice periods then set the start date.
How are your fees structured?
The fee is a percentage of first-year total compensation, paid in two parts. A retainer is due on signature and covers the market map and shortlist. The balance is due when the candidate starts. If we miss the agreed shortlist date, the retainer is refunded in full.
What happens if a hire does not work out?
If no shortlisted candidate reaches second interview, we restart the search once at no further fee. If the hire leaves within the guarantee period agreed in the mandate, we replace them at no fee.
Where do you run searches?
We work from offices in London and Dubai and run searches globally. Every approach is made in confidence, by the person running your search.
The most important hires in AI for financial markets happen in private. We handle those.
Or call +44 (0)20 3873 9433
London · Dubai