FinTech recruiting in Quebec is hard because the sector needs hybrid profiles, people who are fluent in both finance and technology, and that fintech talent is rare and almost always already employed. Montreal’s fintech ecosystem is growing fast, competition is intensifying, and classic single-expertise approaches miss the mark. Here’s how to find and attract the profiles everyone wants.
The five-point summary
- The profile in demand: hybrid talent fluent in both finance and technology.
- Why it’s hard: these profiles are rare, heavily courted, and rarely job hunting.
- A market under pressure: Quebec’s fintech ecosystem is growing fast and concentrated in Montreal.
- The key roles: fintech developers, data and AI specialists, product management, compliance and RegTech, technology leadership.
- What works: targeting the right finance-tech balance, selling the mission, and reaching passive talent through headhunting.
Why Quebec became a fintech hub, and why that’s straining the market
To understand why fintech recruiting is difficult, look at how fast the sector is growing. The bigger the ecosystem gets, the more demand piles up for the same kind of talent. Quebec is a clear case in point.
A fintech ecosystem in fast growth
Quebec has established itself as a recognized fintech hub. According to the Rapport Fintech Québec 2024, Finance Montréal, 2025, Quebec-based fintechs employ more than 90,500 people worldwide, including over 20,500 in Canada, up 7.1% year over year. Montreal alone accounts for more than 80% of Quebec’s fintechs.
Demand concentrated on precise skill sets
That growth isn’t spread evenly. Payments, lending technology, artificial intelligence, and data are driving demand. In 2025, funding concentrated on RegTech, ESG criteria, and operational efficiency. The result: everyone is chasing the same skills, at the same time.
Source: Portrait de l’industrie FinTech, Finance Montréal, 2025.
The result: heavier pressure on a narrow pool
Montreal is home to more than 3,000 financial organizations and over 100,000 qualified professionals, including roughly 25,000 financial specialists. But genuinely hybrid profiles remain a minority. Startups, established institutions, and major tech companies all compete for the same talent, driving up salary expectations.
Source: Technologies financières, Montréal International, 2025.
Key stat: Quebec-based fintechs employ more than 90,500 people worldwide, including over 20,500 in Canada, up 7.1% in one year. Montreal alone accounts for more than 80% of the province’s fintechs.
Source: Rapport Fintech Québec 2024, Finance Montréal, 2025.
The real challenge: recruiting hybrid finance-technology profiles
The scarcity isn’t just about numbers. It’s about the nature of the profile itself. Fintech needs people who understand two worlds that are usually kept separate.
Expert insight: “In fintech, you’re not looking for a finance person or a technologist, you’re looking for someone who thinks in both languages at once. These profiles exist, but they’re rare and almost always already employed. Finding them takes understanding both finance and technology yourself.” Maxime Alexandre, Director, IT Recruitment Division, Kenova.
Neither a pure finance person nor a pure technologist
A strong fintech candidate understands financial mechanics, regulation, and client expectations, while also being fluent in development, data, or architecture. Most candidates excel on one side only. True hybrid profiles can translate a business need into a technical solution, and back again.
Why these profiles are so rare
These skills build up over time, often across several roles, and few training paths combine them explicitly. TechnoCompétences notes that the line between technical expertise and business expertise keeps blurring, which makes these profiles even more sought after.
Source: Sector Diagnostic 2025-2028, TechnoCompétences, 2025.
The most in-demand fintech roles
Certain roles concentrate the demand and stay hard-to-fill for months. All of them share the same requirement: combining two areas of expertise. Here are the main ones.
| Role | Mandate | Hybrid dimension |
| FinTech developer / engineer | Builds financial products and platforms | Understanding financial logic and regulation |
| Data and AI specialist | Risk models, fraud detection, personalization | Bridging data science and financial stakes |
| FinTech product manager | Drives the product roadmap | Translating client needs into technical features |
| Compliance and RegTech specialist | Automates regulatory compliance | Combining financial law and technology |
| Technology leadership (CTO, VP) | Aligns technology strategy with business goals | Technology vision paired with financial industry knowledge |
The mistakes that drive fintech talent away
Beyond scarcity, certain employer practices make the problem worse. Here are the most common ones, and how to avoid them.
Chasing the unicorn
Demanding equal, deep expertise in both finance and technology, on top of years of experience and a long list of certifications, is chasing someone who barely exists. You end up screening out excellent candidates who could ramp up quickly.
Pro tip : Decide in advance which dimension matters more for the role: finance-leaning or tech-leaning. Then look for a candidate who’s solid on that side and curious and capable on the other. That widens your pool significantly without lowering the bar.
Recruiting with a finance-only or tech-only lens
A finance-focused team can’t properly evaluate technical skills, and a tech-focused team tends to underrate regulatory issues. Without a read on both worlds, you risk keeping an unbalanced candidate or losing the right one.
Underestimating competition from institutions and startups
Your candidates are courted by major financial institutions, funded startups, and tech companies all at once. A slow or below-market offer doesn’t hold up. Decision speed becomes a real competitive advantage.
How to attract and recruit fintech talent in 2026
The difficulty isn’t insurmountable. Three levers make the difference when it comes to attracting these sought-after profiles.
Define the right finance-tech balance for each role
Before you post anything, clarify the core of the role and its secondary dimension. A RegTech compliance role doesn’t need the same mix as an engineering role. That clarity guides your evaluation and avoids unrealistic expectations.
Sell the mission and the projects, not just the salary
FinTech talent is drawn to impact: modernizing a financial service, building a product used by thousands of clients, working with data at scale. Make your challenges, culture, and growth opportunities visible. At comparable pay, mission is often what tips the scale.
Reach passive talent through headhunting
As with rare IT profiles more broadly, the best fintech candidates are already employed and aren’t browsing job postings. Reaching them takes a direct, targeted approach, headhunting, rather than a listing. We covered this principle in depth in our article on the IT talent shortage.
Recruiting fintech talent alone or with a partner who understands both worlds
Recruiting a hybrid profile takes a double read, financial and technological. That’s where a fintech recruitment agency built around both worlds changes the equation, not generic fintech recruiters working from one side only. Here’s the comparison.
| Criterion | Internal recruiting | Finance and technology partner |
| Reading both worlds | Rarely present in a single team | Cross-evaluation of finance and technology |
| Access to passive profiles | Limited to your network and active candidates | Direct headhunting |
| Timeline | Often long and unpredictable | Shortlist in a matter of weeks |
| Confidentiality | Hard to maintain for a sensitive role | Discreet approach, no public posting |
| Guarantee | None | Replacement guarantee |
The limits of a single-expertise approach
A purely financial or purely technical firm only properly assesses half the profile. For a hybrid role, that partial read lets unbalanced candidates through. Evaluating dual competence is exactly what’s usually missing.
What a partner fluent in both finance and technology brings
A partner who masters both worlds targets candidates more precisely, validates the real balance of skills, and speaks the language of every stakeholder involved. They approach employed talent discreetly and secure the hire with a replacement guarantee.
Kenova’s approach, between finance and technology
Kenova holds a rare position: a long-standing expertise in finance and accounting, paired with an IT division launched in 2026 through the integration of Elitik. That combination makes it possible to assess a fintech profile from both angles, financial and technological, and to validate human and cultural fit. Sharp technical validation remains your team’s territory: Kenova organizes it without stepping in for it.
Source: Internal Kenova data, IT Recruitment page, 2026.
Frequently asked questions about fintech recruiting in Quebec
In fintech, the right talent speaks two languages
FinTech recruiting isn’t a numbers game, it’s a scarcity game. Profiles that combine finance and technology are few, heavily courted, and rarely job hunting. Waiting for them through a simple job posting usually means handing them to a competitor.
In 2026, the employers who win clearly define the balance they need, sell the mission as much as the salary, and actively go after passive talent. The ones who lose keep looking for a perfect, available, and cheap candidate who doesn’t exist.
You have more levers than you think. If you need to fill a fintech role, somewhere between finance and technology, you can submit your position to Kenova’s team to map your context and define the right approach. The right talent exists; it’s a matter of knowing how to spot it and going to find it.
