18 Talent Trends for London’s VC and PE Digital Sector in 2026

With AI driving the agenda and causing "job chaos" as it creates jobs, while eliminating others.

Here are the 18 Talent Trends for London’s VC/PE digital sector, shaping the job market in 2026.

1️⃣ OpenAI and Anthropic are setting the talent strategy playbook everyone else is trying to replicate.

2️⃣ Forward Deployment Engineers are emerging as the new customer-facing software power role.

3️⃣ The fight for AI/ML/Data talent is intensifying, with the best-backed scaleups taking the best people early and cherry picking the top 1% (by offering sky high salaries).

4️⃣ Candidates want mission-driven, charismatic founders, and far more clarity on runway, P&L and risk.

5️⃣ New VP and C-Suite roles are mostly replacement hires. With executives asked to run multiple functions instead of one, merging jobs together (CRO Sales, Marketing, Growth, CTPO Software & Product, COO Chief of Staff, Ops ,HR hybrids).

6️⃣ Executives without genuine AI capability are struggling to get hired, don't have recent AI then its going to be tough.

7️⃣ Founders are looking for operational CEOs to run day-to-day execution, with people leadership + AI automation at the centre.

8️⃣ Enterprise Sales Executives will be one of the most in-demand roles as new AI products fight it out for market share.

9️⃣ Hiring of grads and over-50s continues to decline.

🔟 Engineering salaries are rising while comp across most other roles stagnates for another year.

1️⃣1️⃣ Streamlined org structures: fewer heads, higher efficiency, with a focus on automation to plug the former headcount gaps.

1️⃣2️⃣ Remote and 4-day-week roles come with ~20% lower salaries.

1️⃣3️⃣ Less focus on traditional degrees; more emphasis on recent, hands-on AI commercial experience.

1️⃣4️⃣ Continued brain drain from the UK to low tax domiciles in Europe, the Middle East and the US ✈️.

1️⃣5️⃣ Investors demanding returns in 2026, more focus on revenue.

1️⃣6️⃣ Talent supply and demand is wildly misaligned. There are far more candidates than new jobs, with graduates and corporate execs flooding the market.

1️⃣7️⃣ And it’s not just AI in growth mode, Digital Assets, Cybersecurity, Defence and Fintech are all powering on.

1️⃣8️⃣ UK companies hunt for lower-cost office locations in response to rising taxes.

Are you a Founder, Operator, or Investor at a VC/PE-backed company?

If you’re thinking about driving revenue, replacing underperformers, launching a new market, then we should talk.

👉 Most suitable for candidates interested in working for companies with 20 to 500 headcount, VC-backed Series A, B, C scale-ups, challenger brands and Private Equity.

👉 DM Ellis Seder for a confidential chat