The talent paradox reshaping the financial services sector

Australian financial services organisations are at a crossroads, writes Sara Kahlau.

On one hand, businesses are under pressure to cut costs, streamline teams, and deliver clear efficiency gains as AI and automation reshape how work gets done. On the other hand, many are struggling to find the senior specialists needed to deliver the transformation programs driving those changes.

Permanent roles are being streamlined in many organisations, even as demand grows for highly specialised capability across product, engineering, architecture, and transformation delivery.

As banks, insurers, and payments companies push further into AI, platform modernisation, and digital transformation, the shape of demand is shifting. Some roles are becoming less central, while others are becoming harder to find and harder to replace.

Demand is rising faster than the system can respond

The 2026 Deloitte Impact of fintech in Australia report highlights that most fintechs experiencing growth barriers still intend to expand their workforce. In fact, 67 per cent of those facing talent shortages plan to increase their employee numbers. This tension says a lot about what is happening in the market. Even as organisations streamline in some areas, demand for specialist transformation capability continues to grow.

We are seeing a similar pattern from Outsized’s 2026 Financial Services Independent Talent Report. Senior independent specialists in product, engineering, project management, and business analysis within the financial services sector are now earning between $1,600 and $2,200 per day in Australia. These are experienced professionals brought in to lead and stabilise complex transformation programs, not simply fill short-term gaps.

Part of what is driving this shift is timing. Hiring for a permanent role can take four to six months in Australia on average. That is a long time when transformation programs are already under pressure to deliver, and delays have a direct impact on the bottom line. As a result, organisations are recognising the value in more flexible ways of accessing specialist capability when critical programs need to keep moving, and when they need specific capabilities they either cannot hire permanently, or don’t want to.

Many of these engagements are also lasting longer than originally planned, with average tenure now sitting close to nine months. Transformation programs rarely stay fixed in scope, and as priorities evolve, organisations often need experienced capability that can evolve alongside them.

It is also becoming clear that the nature of these roles is changing. Product leaders are now expected to balance customer experience, regulatory requirements, and technology change simultaneously. Engineers and architects are modernising legacy systems while integrating AI into live environments. Business analysts are increasingly acting as the bridge between technology and business.

These roles are no longer sitting at the edges of transformation. They are central to how it gets done.

Workforce planning is becoming more fluid

Workforce planning itself is also becoming more complex for financial services organisations.

Traditionally, capability planning has been built around relatively stable organisational structures and long-term hiring cycles. However, with digital transformation programs, particularly those tied to AI and digital modernisation, we are seeing traditional workforce models that were designed to accommodate, changing much faster.

Many businesses must solve skills that are still evolving in real time. Roles across product, data, engineering, and transformation are shifting rapidly as businesses rethink customer experience, compliance, automation, and technology delivery simultaneously.

This, in turn, makes workforce planning less predictable. Capability gaps are appearing faster, specialist skillsets are becoming more interconnected, and the distinction between permanent and flexible talent is becoming less clear-cut than it once was.

For leaders navigating this transformation, this creates a different kind of challenge. The question is no longer simply how to hire for the future, but how to build organisations that can adapt as capability needs continue to shift. They need to plan to acquire skills that don’t exist yet. This means the method of continuously acquiring these skills is more important than the skills themselves.

Building capability in a more flexible way

What is emerging in financial services is not a replacement of permanent teams, but a gradual shift towards a more blended approach to capability.

Permanent employees remain the foundation of long-term capability and culture. Alongside this, organisations are increasingly drawing on independent specialists to access highly specific expertise at moments when timing, delivery pressure, and complexity converge.

As AI continues to reshape operating models, this balance is likely to keep evolving. Businesses that can navigate this shift will be able to treat this capability as something more flexible than fixed and are willing to rethink how expertise is assembled in order to keep the transformation moving.

Sara Kahlau is managing director for ANZ and chief product officer at Outsized.

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