Specialities · Risk and Financial Advisory

Risk and financial advisory recruitment for financial services and GCCs

From credit, market and quantitative risk to enterprise, technology and cyber risk, and from deals and M&A advisory to valuations, financial modelling and transformation, we help banks, insurers, consultancies and global capability centres hire the people who measure risk and shape decisions.

Credit and market riskQuantitative and model riskOperational and enterpriseTechnology and cyberDeals and M&AValuations and modelling

What risk and financial advisory roles does EliteRecruitments recruit for?

EliteRecruitments recruits across the full risk and financial advisory spectrum. On the risk side: credit, market, quantitative and model risk, enterprise and operational risk, liquidity and balance sheet risk, technology and cyber risk, and regulatory and compliance risk. On the financial advisory side: deals and M&A advisory, financial and commercial due diligence, valuations and financial modelling, financial planning, and financial transformation. It serves banks, insurers, asset managers, consultancies and global capability centres, from analyst to Chief Risk Officer and partner level.

Since 2014

recruiting across risk and the financial functions

80%

screening ratio, candidates we submit get interviewed

85%

joining ratio, offers that become joiners

Buy and sell side

analyst to Chief Risk Officer and partner

The centre of the landscape

Sharp judgement, and the trust to influence decisions

Risk and financial advisory sit at the heart of every financial institution. Risk teams decide how much exposure a firm can safely take, and financial advisory teams shape the deals, valuations and transformations that move a business forward. Both demand sharp technical judgement and the trust to influence senior decisions, and both have been reshaped by regulation, by data, and by a level of demand that has made experienced talent genuinely scarce.

We have recruited across risk and the financial functions since the firm’s early years, placing enterprise, operational, quantitative and technology risk specialists, financial controllers, and the advisory and modelling professionals around them. That history matters now, because this is one of the most competitive talent markets in financial services, and clients want a recruiter who understands both the technical detail of a role and where the market is heading.

The risk roles we recruit

Risk is not one discipline

It spans the people who price and manage credit and market exposure, the quants who build the models, the specialists who govern operational, technology and cyber risk, and the leaders who own the whole picture, on both the buy side and the sell side.

Credit risk

Across retail, wholesale, corporate and counterparty credit, from analysts and modellers to heads of credit risk and chief credit officers, including credit risk modelling, portfolio risk and the IFRS 9 and expected credit loss work within it.

Market and traded risk

Across all asset classes: traded market risk on the sell side, non traded risk including interest rate risk in the banking book, and the buy side market and investment risk roles within hedge funds, asset managers and trading firms.

Quantitative risk and modelling

Quant risk managers, model developers and model validation specialists, spanning market, counterparty, retail, wholesale, liquidity, economic scenario generation and increasingly climate and AI model risk. A scarce, highly technical group.

Liquidity, capital and prudential

Liquidity risk, capital risk, balance sheet risk and recovery and resolution specialists, an area that has grown sharply since the financial crisis, for banks, financial services firms and the consultancies that serve them.

Operational and enterprise

The roles that own the firm wide risk picture, the risk appetite, the register and second line oversight, increasingly including climate and ESG risk as boards and regulators expect enterprise functions to govern sustainability risk too.

Technology and cyber

A fast growing area as financial firms become more digital and more exposed. These professionals keep firms within policy, regulation and risk appetite, and are among the hardest risk hires to make well.

Regulatory and compliance

Regulatory change, risk governance and the compliance dimension of risk. Deeper audit, internal controls, SOX and financial crime compliance sit on our Audit page, which this page connects to.

Risk leadership

Chief Risk Officers, heads of risk and the senior leaders who build and run risk functions. Confidential, judgement heavy searches that sit alongside our Executive Search practice.

The financial advisory roles we recruit

Where risk protects the balance sheet, advisory shapes the deals

We recruit across the deal and finance advisory landscape, the same disciplines the major professional services firms organise their deals and transaction services practices around.

Deals and M&A advisory

M&A and corporate finance professionals across the deal lifecycle, from origination and execution to completion, on both the buy side and the sell side, for advisory firms, banks and corporates.

Financial and commercial due diligence

Transaction services professionals who assess the financial and commercial reality of a deal before it closes, across financial due diligence, quality of earnings and commercial due diligence.

Valuations and financial modelling

Valuation specialists and financial modellers across business and asset valuation, deal modelling and the analytical work that underpins a transaction or a strategic decision.

Corporate finance and business partnering

The people who plan, forecast and steer financial performance, from analysts and managers to heads of finance and finance business partners, alongside the deal facing advisory work.

Financial transformation

Finance transformation professionals who modernise how a finance function works, across operating model change, systems, reporting and the data and automation reshaping finance.

Financial advisory leadership

Directors, partners and the senior leaders who run deals, transaction services and finance advisory teams. Confidential, senior searches alongside our Executive Search practice.

The market and the GCC opportunity

One of the most competitive markets in financial services

Regulation keeps raising the bar on risk functions, the deal and transformation agenda keeps demand for advisory and modelling talent high, and the strongest people, often experienced quants, risk leaders and deal professionals, are rarely on the open market. Across banks, insurers, asset managers and consultancies, firms are competing for the same scarce specialists.

The GCC build out in risk and quants

International banks and financial firms are building risk, quantitative, model validation and finance functions in their India centres, not just operational support but genuine analytical and decision making capability. That has created strong demand for exactly the risk, quantitative and financial advisory talent we specialise in, and it is one of the clearest areas where our financial services depth and our reach into the experienced talent pool give us an edge.

Risk in fintech and insurtech

Hybrid roles, where risk meets product and data

Fintech and insurtech firms rarely hire pure, single discipline risk roles. They want people who combine risk expertise with strong analytical and technical capability, because here risk sits right next to product, data and growth. We recruit for exactly those hybrid roles, including credit risk analytics, fraud analytics, risk and decision modelling, model validation, and the compliance technology and regulatory technology roles where risk meets engineering.

Modern risk functions increasingly run on analytics, modelling and data, and the strongest professionals often operate between the two disciplines. This is one reason clients engage us across both our risk and analytics practices: we understand where the disciplines overlap, and we know the people who work in that overlap.

Who we serve

Who we hire risk and advisory talent for

Banks and financial services firms building credit, market, operational and technology risk teams. Insurers and reinsurers strengthening enterprise, capital and model risk. Asset managers, hedge funds and trading firms on the buy side. Consultancies staffing their risk, deals and transaction services practices. And the global capability centres building risk, quantitative and finance functions in India.

Why our placements hold

We test judgement, not just technical depth

Risk and advisory hiring is unusually easy to get wrong. The technical bar is high, and a candidate can present the right models, deals or frameworks and still lack the judgement, independence or commercial sense the role needs. A risk manager who cannot hold a line with the front office, a quant who cannot explain a model to the people who must trust it, or a deal professional who misreads the commercial picture, all look strong on paper and fail in the role. Our process is built to test for those qualities before any profile reaches you.

That discipline is why our placements last. We screen at an 80 per cent rate and our candidates join at an 85 per cent rate, and since 2014 we have had to return fewer than fifteen fees because a placement left early. In a market where risk and advisory professionals routinely hold several offers, that retention record is hard won and genuinely rare. See how we work

Your specialist

Led by a founder who knows this work first hand

Founder

Shagun Gupta

Founder, oversees all four core practices

EliteRecruitments was built by Shagun Gupta, who founded the firm out of actuarial and has recruited across actuarial, risk, analytics and audit, the four disciplines at the centre of the business. She stays close to the actual work rather than managing it from a distance, and presides over all four practices while staying closest to the senior and most complex searches.

Connect with Shagun on LinkedIn

Practice lead

Somya Aggarwal

Leads the risk and financial advisory practice, under Shagun

Somya Aggarwal leads recruitment for our risk and financial advisory practice. A client facing recruitment manager focused on delivery and team leadership, she manages end to end hiring and client relationships across the practice, from credit, market and quantitative risk to operational, enterprise, technology and cyber risk, and the financial advisory side from deals and valuations to corporate finance and transformation. Her focus is understanding each brief precisely and finding the person who genuinely fits it.

She and her team work directly with hiring managers and risk and finance leaders, so when you talk to us about a role, you are talking to someone who understands the work and the market for it, not a generalist passing on a brief.

Connect on LinkedIn

Proof

When we place, they tend to stay

Fewer than fifteen fees returned since 2014. Representative mandates, shown as role, sector and city, without names, counts or salaries:

Head of Credit Risk

Bank · Mumbai

Quantitative Risk Manager

Capability centre · Bangalore

Operational Risk Lead

Insurer · Gurugram

M&A and Valuations Manager

Advisory firm · Delhi

Illustrative of the role types we recruit. Specific anonymised placements to be confirmed before publishing.

Shagun has always been a delight to work with. She understands the requirement of the role well and suggests candidates accordingly. She is very professional in her approach and I have been able to hire good candidates through her firm.
Corporate Vice President and Head of Financial Risk, at a leading life insurer

Success story

Challenge. A leading bank was building an independent model validation function and needed quantitative risk specialists who could challenge models built by much larger teams.

Approach. We mapped the quantitative risk talent pool, assessed genuine modelling and validation capability rather than credentials alone, and matched candidates who could hold their own against senior stakeholders.

Outcome. The core validation team was hired, and the function now operates as a genuine independent check on the bank’s models.

Illustrative format. To be replaced with a real anonymised risk placement before publishing.

Credit risk talent for a new underwriting function, built at speed during a period of rapid portfolio growth.

Operational risk specialists placed across a growing capability centre, all with genuine BFSI domain experience.

More examples are on our Success Stories page.

How to work with us

The right model, with a 90 day guarantee

Retained search for senior and business critical hires such as Chief Risk Officers and deal leaders, contingency for active roles, recruitment process outsourcing where you are hiring at volume, and capability build recruitment when you are standing up a risk, quantitative or finance function from scratch, which is exactly what many capability centres are doing now. For leadership roles, our executive search process applies.

Whichever way we work, our placements come with a 90 day guarantee. If a placement does not work out within 90 days, we replace them. Since 2014 we have had to return fewer than fifteen fees, because our process is built so the guarantee rarely needs to be used. Explore Capability Build Recruitment

One connected ecosystem

Risk sits at the centre of the talent landscape

The same firms building risk functions are hiring the actuaries whose models feed capital and insurance risk, the analytics and data professionals who power risk modelling, and the audit and controls teams that test the risk environment. These functions are one connected ecosystem, and we recruit across all of them, so a relationship that starts with a risk or advisory hire often grows into actuarial, analytics and audit.

Common questions

Frequently asked questions

What risk roles does EliteRecruitments recruit for?
Across credit, market, quantitative and model risk, liquidity and capital risk, operational and enterprise risk, technology and cyber risk, and regulatory and compliance risk, at every level from analyst to Chief Risk Officer, on both the buy side and the sell side.
What financial advisory roles does EliteRecruitments recruit for?
Across deals and M&A advisory, financial and commercial due diligence, valuations and financial modelling, financial planning and analysis, and financial transformation, from analyst to director and partner level.
Do you recruit risk and quantitative talent for GCCs in India?
Yes, and it is one of the firm’s strongest growth areas. International banks and financial firms are building risk, quantitative, model validation and finance functions in their India capability centres, and the firm helps them hire the experienced specialists those functions need.
Do you recruit quantitative risk and model validation specialists?
Yes. Quantitative risk managers, model developers and model validation specialists are among the scarcest and most technical hires in the market, spanning market, counterparty, retail, wholesale, liquidity and increasingly AI and machine learning model risk.
How does EliteRecruitments assess risk and advisory candidates?
By testing judgement, independence and commercial sense as well as technical depth, because in these roles those qualities decide whether a placement succeeds. This is why the firm’s placements last, with an 85 per cent joining rate and fewer than fifteen fees returned since 2014.
Do candidates pay any fees?
No. Candidates never pay any fees. The firm is engaged and paid by the hiring organisation.

Start a conversation

Talk to us about risk and financial advisory hiring

Whether you are building a risk or quantitative function in a capability centre, hiring a hard to find credit, market or model risk specialist, staffing a deals or transaction services team, or weighing your own next move, we would like to help.

What you are hiring for