A Viewpoint from Michael Sansbury, Head of H&P’s Private Capital US Desk
Hiring across private capital as we move into Q4 2025 has not stopped. It has become more selective. Funds are looking more closely at what skills actually drive outcomes in a market where exits are slower, fundraising takes longer, and value creation is harder to manufacture. The shift is not simply about caution – it is about what constitutes credibility and capability now.
The core question has changed from “Who has worked on the most transactions?” to “Who truly understands how businesses create value?”
That distinction is reshaping who gets hired, at what level, and why.
1. Moving Beyond the Banking Default
It’s well known that for decades, private equity firms largely hired from investment banking. The logic was sound: banking talent had deal exposure, technical training, and a familiarity with transaction flow. That background remains valuable, but it no longer guarantees readiness for today’s investment environment.
The issue shows up in interviews. Candidates can talk fluently about the mechanics of a deal, but when asked how the underlying business actually works – what drives margins, where pricing power comes from, how scalable the model truly is – the depth is often lacking.
M: “Candidates can describe the deal. But when you ask how that business actually makes money, the answers often fall apart.”
This is why we are now seeing firms actively consider:
- Corporate development professionals who have worked inside relevant sectors
- Strategy or commercial finance roles where decision-making impacts the P&L
- Operators who have touched the real levers of growth, not just the modelling of it
Banking remains part of the pipeline. It is simply no longer treated as the only reliable one.
2. Junior Hiring Continues, But It’s Not Where Strategic Value Sits
Associate hiring remains steady because the associate lifecycle is self-renewing. Most funds cycle analysts and associates every two or three years, often before an MBA or a move into another investment role. That creates predictable turnover and a need to continuously refill the junior bench.
However, this is not where firms differentiate. This is the part of the market that moves no matter what is happening in private capital more broadly. It is necessary, but it is not strategic.
3. Senior Hiring Has Slowed
At the senior end, hiring has slowed significantly. This is not about caution for its own sake – it is about track records, compensation expectations, and risk.
Many senior investors’ strongest return years came either during the pre-COVID low-rate period or the 2021 liquidity boom. This makes it harder to isolate individual skill from favourable market conditions. Senior professionals also expect meaningful economics – a higher base salary, carry, and strategic influence. In the current environment, funds are reluctant to dilute their upside unless the hire is unquestionably additive.
As a result, there are fewer senior candidates who can demonstrate recent, attributable impact, and fewer firms willing to restructure for them. The senior market is quiet for rational reasons.
4. The Mid-Level Carousel is Where the Real Market Moves
The most active hiring band is VP and Principal level. These individuals already know how to run a transaction – they lead diligence, coordinate advisors, work closely with management teams, and influence outcomes without needing formal authority. They bring meaningful leverage without the economic weight or organisational disruption of a senior hire.
They are also the group most sensitive to momentum. Their progression depends on deployment, exits, and fundraising. When these stall, promotions stall. And when promotions stall, they move.
This creates a steady, quiet carousel of mid-level hiring:
- A VP leaves
- A seat opens
- Another VP becomes replaceable
- The movement continues
Most of these moves are replacements rather than expansions. It is less about growing headcount and more about keeping the engine running.
5. Fundraising and Investor Relations Have Become Central to Strategy
Investor relations and capital formation used to sit primarily with partners. Today, it is a specialist function because the job has fundamentally changed. LPs are more selective, track records are interrogated more intensely, and firms that cannot articulate their differentiation clearly struggle to raise.
M: “In this environment, credibility is currency. Relationships move faster than track records do.”
Strong capital formation professionals are being hired to:
- Maintain allocator confidence
- Communicate investment strategy with clarity and conviction
- Protect momentum during slower liquidity cycles
This is one of the few areas where firms are actively adding headcount rather than replacing it.
6. Credit and Secondaries Are No Longer the ‘Alternative Path’
The prestige hierarchy has shifted. Investors who once viewed traditional buyout as the destination are now choosing private credit and secondaries intentionally.
Why?
Because returns have been stronger and more consistent in the current environment, and value creation is less dependent on operational intervention. Credit and secondaries offer more predictable economics and clearer carry timelines and require fewer structural changes in portfolio companies.
This shift has created:
- More talent flowing toward credit and secondaries
- Higher hiring demand
- A noticeable gap in the number of search firms equipped to cover the space well
This is one of the clearest hiring opportunity areas in the market right now.
7. AI Is Not a Job Title, But a Differentiator
No one is hiring “AI leaders” into private equity. But funds are noticing which investors are using tools that compress time in sourcing and diligence.
The differentiator is mindset rather than technical strength:
- Who experiments?
- Who refines their workflow?
- Who is still operating like it’s 2017?
AI will not replace investor judgment, but it will reshape analyst-level work. Those who adapt early will simply be faster.
8. What Firms Should Be Hiring For Now
Across levels, the investors who consistently perform in this market are those who can think beyond the transaction itself. They:
- Understand business models at a commercial and operational level
- Can articulate where value is created or destroyed post-close
- Have worked inside real companies or closely alongside them
- Are willing to evolve their approach rather than defend old habits
M: “The strongest investors now are the ones who know what has to happen after the deal closes.”
This is not about replacing the traditional pipeline; it’s about widening it with intent.
Precision over volume. That is where the market is.
About Michael Sansbury
Michael leads H&P’s Private Capital US desk, partnering with private equity, growth capital, private credit, and secondaries funds across North America to appoint investors and capital formation leaders across the investment lifecycle.
To discuss hiring trends or benchmark your talent strategy for 2025, get in touch with Michael and the H&P Private Capital team.
