What senior candidates in sustainable finance keep asking me, and what I tell them
By Farrell Associates — B Corp-certified sustainability & ESG recruitment specialists*
Most weeks I have a coffee or a call with someone senior in sustainable finance who is either out of a role or thinking about leaving one. They ask broadly the same questions, and I give broadly the same answers, usually in fragments across LinkedIn posts. This is an attempt to put the whole conversation in one place, so that my contacts can (hopefully) gain some value.
None of this is meant to be discouraging. It is meant to be accurate, because the people who navigate this market well are the ones who understand it as it is rather than as it was in 2021.
What is actually happening with senior jobs
The honest answer is that there are fewer of them than there were, and the reason is not specific to sustainability.
For roughly four years now, interest rates have been high and the wider economy has been flat. In that environment the people running asset managers, banks and advisory firms (and pretty mcuh any other organisation outside of a few growth areas) are not thinking about growth. They are thinking about cost, and they have been for long enough that it has become the default setting rather than a temporary phase. Every headcount decision is made against that backdrop.
When a business is in cost mode, the most exposed role is the most senior one. A head of sustainable investing on a large package is a visible line in the budget in a way that a manager two levels down is not. So when a senior person retires, moves on or is moved on, the role very often does not come back at the same level. It is combined with another function, or it is filled by promoting someone internally at a lower grade, or it is simply left open while the team reports to whoever is nearest. The job has been juniorised, and the seat that the departing person occupied no longer exists in the form they held it.
For those that are looking, it changes the arithmetic. The pool of roles at your level is smaller than the number of senior people who could fill them, and it is being refilled slowly. That is not a reflection of your value. It is a feature of the market right now, and it is worth going in with your eyes open.
How you carry yourself while you look
Networking is where the conversation usually goes next, and my view is that it matters more than any other single thing you do. Some people find it natural and some find it excruciating, but the mechanics are less important than the impression you leave.
When you reach out to someone, when you bump into them at a conference, when you update your LinkedIn profile, when you catch up over coffee, people are reading your energy far more than your words. And the energy that works is a specific one. It says: I may well be open to something, but I am not going to move until it is the right thing. I am keeping myself busy. I am doing a course, or two. A few people in my network have asked me to do some advisory work, so I am doing that. I am in a good place and I am being selective.
That is quite different from the energy that says: I need a job, do you know of anything. Both may be true at the same time, and I am not suggesting anyone misrepresent their situation. But the first version is the one that leads to introductions, because people introduce those they are confident will reflect well on them. If you can get yourself into that position in reality, by taking on some advisory work or a course or a board role, so much the better. If you cannot yet, at least get yourself into that mindset before you start the conversations, because it shows. I know this sounds harsh, but it is reality, and it is what I have to live by in my own role (what message would it send if I went round asking people for work?).
The other thing to say about networking is that it compounds slowly. The coffee you have this month rarely leads to a job this month. It leads to someone mentioning your name in a conversation you will never hear about, six months from now, when a role does come up. That is the mechanism, and so the maths are do as many high quality meetings as you can, in the area that you think will be most proftable. Honestly, don;t overthing it - you need to enjoy this process too.
When the roles are not there
Sometimes the search confirms what the market is telling you. There is no head of sustainability role at your level at a firm you would want to join, and there will not be one this quarter. At that point the useful question is not how to find the job that is not there, but where the energy has gone instead.
Some parts of the market are growing, and it is worth looking at them even if they are not where you have spent your career. UK social impact and infrastructure investing is gathering assets, helped along by the pressure on pension pools to invest locally and the appetite for real assets generally. Managers in that space need people who understand impact measurement and responsible investment, and many of them are still building those functions rather than cutting them.
Then there is data and AI. There is a large and growing set of companies circling financial services with tools for ESG data, stewardship, carbon accounting, supply chain due diligence and reporting. Some of them are start-ups, some are scale-ups, and a good number are interesting, well-funded businesses that need senior people who understand how their clients think. They will not always have a role with your old title, but they often have a need that your experience fits, and they hire faster and with less ceremony than a large asset manager.
A tangential move of this kind is not a step down. It is often the route back into a senior seat at a larger institution a few years later, with a broader story to tell. Or, even better, it is a great career pivit which gives you the best job you’ve ever had.
How recruiters actually find you now
The last question is usually some version of how do I get noticed, and the answer has changed more than most people realise.
Search is still a relationship business on the client side. Firms give us work because they trust us, and that trust is built over years. But on the candidate side, it is no longer a database business. When we take on a search, we do not go to a filing cabinet of CVs. We go to LinkedIn and search it systematically, looking for everyone with a relevant combination of skills, titles and employers, and then we approach the people who look right for a conversation. That is how almost every shortlist in this market is built, whether it is by us or by anyone else. We also use AI to search speaker’s lists and publications.
Which means your LinkedIn profile is your interface with the recruitment market. It is the thing that determines whether you appear in the search at all, and if you do, whether the person looking pauses on you or scrolls past. It should be curated with that in mind. The headline should say what you do in the words a recruiter would search for, not a witty phrase. The experience section should describe what you actually did in each role, with the vocabulary of the field, because word search is how you will be found. If you have spent three years on climate transition plans and the phrase does not appear on your profile, you are invisible for that search.
I would go further and say the profile matters more than the CV. I rarely look at a CV until quite late in a process, and neither do most of the clients I work with. By the time a CV is requested, the decision to talk to you has already been made from the profile. Spend the time there.
The short version
The senior market in sustainability is tight and it is tight for structural reasons that will not change quickly. Go in knowing that, and adjust expectations on timing accordingly. Network in a way that projects choice rather than need, and if you can, make that a true description of your situation. Look at where the market is growing, particularly UK impact and infrastructure and the data and AI businesses around financial services, and do not rule out a sideways move. And treat your LinkedIn profile as the document that matters, because it is.
If you would like to talk through your own situation, I am always happy to.
FAQ
Why are there so few senior sustainable finance jobs at the moment? Four years of high interest rates and a flat economy have put most financial services firms into cost mode. Senior roles are the most visible cost, so when they become vacant they are frequently combined with other functions, filled at a lower grade, or left open. The supply of senior candidates has not fallen to match.
How should I approach networking when I am between roles? Project selectivity rather than need. Be honest, but frame yourself as someone who is open to the right thing, keeping busy with advisory work or study, and not in a hurry. People introduce those they are confident will reflect well on them.
Which parts of sustainable finance are hiring in 2026? UK social impact and infrastructure managers, helped by pension pool demand for local investment, and the ESG data, stewardship and climate analytics companies around financial services. Neither always offers your previous title, but both are growing.
Does my LinkedIn profile matter more than my CV? Yes. Recruiters build shortlists by searching LinkedIn for skills, titles and employers, then approaching people for a conversation. The CV is usually requested after that decision has been made. Write the profile in the language you want to be found for.