FinTech & Financial Services sector
Financial services is the second-largest professional sector in the North of England and one of the fastest-growing FinTech regions in the UK. Leeds is the second-largest financial centre in the country by employment, anchored by First Direct (HSBC), Yorkshire Building Society, Lowell, Provident Financial and a deep wider mutual and challenger-bank base. Manchester adds a heavy FinTech and payments cluster, and York anchors the insurance market via Aviva and Hiscox.
FinTech commercial hiring blends regulated-sector experience, deep enterprise sales cycles and increasingly product-led GTM. Evara's partners have placed across challenger banks, payments, lending, wealth-tech and insurance. We understand the specific compliance, risk-and-controls, and regulator-friendly hiring profile required for senior FinTech commercial seats.
First Direct (HSBC)
FinTech / Banking
Long-standing Leeds FinTech employer with deep digital talent.
Yorkshire Building Society
Mutual finance
Bradford-headquartered, one of the largest commercial employers in West Yorkshire.
Lowell
Credit management
Leeds-headquartered FinTech-adjacent business with a substantial commercial team.
Provident Financial
Consumer finance
Bradford-rooted consumer finance employer.
Aviva
Insurance
UK headquarters in York; the city's largest single commercial employer.
Hiscox
Specialty insurance
Substantial York-based commercial team.
AccessPay
Payments / FinTech
Manchester-headquartered B2B payments scale-up.
AJ Bell
Wealth / Investments
Manchester-headquartered platform.
FinTech and financial services commercial supply is one of the deepest in the Northern professional market. Leeds in particular has a large pool of mid-career commercial leaders with regulated-sector experience. Senior leadership talent is heavily passive and embedded in long equity packages, especially in PE and VC-backed FinTech.
FinTech commercial salaries in the North run close to or above mainstream SaaS for equivalent seats. A FinTech CCO in Leeds or Manchester typically earns £130k-£190k base with OTE of £200k-£320k plus equity. Insurance commercial salaries in York and Leeds run slightly below FinTech for equivalent seniority.
Yorkshire
Leeds is the unambiguous FinTech and financial services capital of the North, with York adding the insurance specialism (Aviva, Hiscox) and Bradford the mutual and consumer-finance base (YBS, Provident).
North West
Manchester anchors the North West FinTech base, with AccessPay, AJ Bell and a growing community of payments and wealth-tech scale-ups. Liverpool adds a consumer-finance and payments layer.
Services
Retained search for senior FinTech and financial services commercial leaders. Engagements typically include a regulator-friendly profile design step before approach.
RevOps, partnerships and enablement hires for FinTech scale-ups, with a focus on enterprise GTM motions and partnership-led growth.
Strategic Revenue Audit and fractional CRO support for FinTech and InsurTech scale-ups, including investor-readiness work pre-Series B / PE.
Locations
FAQs
Yes. Our partners have placed senior commercial leaders into FCA-regulated FinTech, payments, lending and wealth-tech businesses. Regulator-friendly hiring profiles are a standard part of our brief design.
Leeds is the largest single FinTech commercial market in the North, followed by Manchester. York is the natural home for senior insurance commercial talent.
Operator playbooks
8 to 10 weeks
How to hire a Head of Sales in the North of England
Read playbook →
Three to five weeks per shortlisted candidate
How to run a CRO interview loop
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One working week
How to build a commercial scorecard in week one
Read playbook →
Decision guides
Email Rachel Lunn and the Evara team. We will reply within one working day with a sector-specific market read for the role you have in mind.
Email Rachel Lunn/industries/fintech
Sales recruitment, GTM recruitment and revenue advisory for SMEs UK-wide. We reply within one working day.
Email Rachel Lunn