Scotland’s finance jobs market in Q3 2026: what candidates and employers need to know
By Cameron Brown and Claire McNally, Accountancy & Finance, Iconic Resourcing
The Scottish finance market is busier than it was in January, but employers are choosing carefully. Businesses are hiring where there’s a clear reason to: replacing a key person, strengthening leadership, improving reporting, supporting growth or delivering a systems or transformation project. High-volume hiring hasn’t returned.
The UK picture points the same way. The latest KPMG and REC Report on Jobs found permanent placements rose in August for the first time since September 2022, while temporary billings grew at their second-fastest rate in over three years. Hiring is picking up, and employers are leaning on flexible staff while it does.
Below, Cameron covers the qualified market and Claire covers transactional finance, followed by what it all means if you’re hiring or looking for your next role.
Q3 in brief
- Permanent hiring is purposeful: fewer roles, each with a clear business case.
- Interim and fixed-term work is one of the strongest parts of the market.
- Employers will pay more for scarce skills, but there’s no across-the-board salary race.
- Systems, data and process improvement skills are setting candidates apart at every level.
- Hybrid working still matters, but more candidates now treat it as a nice-to-have.
Qualified Finance
Where the demand is
Businesses are more willing to hire when they can see the value an appointment will bring. There’s still caution around headcount and cost, but more of our conversations are about growth, restructuring and systems improvement. That’s creating opportunities for experienced Finance Managers, Financial Controllers, FP&A professionals and Finance Business Partners, as well as project and transformation specialists. Tax and commercial finance remain busy too.
Traditional Financial Accountant and Management Accountant roles are more competitive. Employers have a wider pool to choose from, especially when the salary and benefits are strong. For candidates, commercial awareness, stakeholder management and being able to show what you’ve added can matter as much as technical accounting.
Skills over job titles
Employers are hiring less against a job title or a traditional career path and more against what a person can do. Experience with ERP systems, Power BI and data analysis, automation, forecasting, financial modelling and business partnering is in demand. The accountants employers are short of are the ones who can interpret the numbers, improve processes and help the business make better decisions.
If you’re interviewing, be ready to explain the impact of your work with examples: the process you fixed, the report the leadership team now relies on, the decision your analysis changed.
Interim, fixed-term and fractional
Interim and fixed-term recruitment continues to be one of the strongest areas of the market. Demand is coming from systems implementations, finance transformation, reporting improvements, year-end support and periods of organisational change. We’re also seeing interest in fractional Finance Director, Financial Controller and CFO support, which gives businesses senior expertise without a full-time appointment.
For employers, it’s a way to bring in specialist help quickly without adding permanent cost. For candidates, it’s a route into projects, businesses and sectors that might not be open through a permanent move.
Salaries
We’re not seeing a broad salary race. Employers are paying a premium where a candidate brings skills that are hard to find or tied directly to a business-critical need. Robert Half’s 2026 UK Salary Guide found 67% of finance and accounting hiring managers are willing to pay higher salaries when qualified talent is scarce.
In our market, the candidates commanding that premium combine an ICAS, ACCA or CIMA qualification with systems, data, commercial or transformation experience.
Transactional finance
The transactional market is competitive, with strong demand in specific areas and experienced people still hard to find.
Payroll
Payroll is one of the busiest areas. Knowledge of PAYE, National Insurance, pensions and statutory payments is expected, and processing experience alone won’t set you apart. Candidates who can contribute to process improvement, systems development and automation stand out as businesses look to run payroll more efficiently.
Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable
Businesses want people who can take ownership of the core processes while supporting the wider finance team. The candidates getting the most interest can show:
- high-volume processing experience
- reconciliations and month-end exposure
- a track record of spotting and resolving issues, beyond processing the transactions in front of them
Experience of the full transactional cycle is a real advantage when you’re looking to progress.
Finance Assistants
The Finance Assistant role has broadened. Many employers now want someone who can support across purchase ledger, sales ledger, bank reconciliations, payroll, month-end and general finance admin, where the role used to sit in one area.
That’s good news for people earlier in their careers, because experience across several areas is a strong foundation for progression. For small and mid-sized finance teams, it means one hire can cover more ground.
Systems
Technology is one of the biggest areas of change in finance, and transactional work is moving away from purely manual processing. Automation is taking on more of the routine processing, so teams need people who understand their systems, can interrogate data and can spot where a process could work better.
You don’t need to be a technology expert. Confidence with Excel, ERP systems, payroll platforms, reporting tools and automation is valuable, and experience of a systems implementation or process improvement project will get an employer’s attention.
What about AI?
AI comes up in almost every conversation we have, with candidates and clients alike. So far the worry is bigger than the impact. Where businesses are bringing AI in, it’s mostly being used as a tool to support their people. We haven’t seen employers use it to cut a whole salary band or job type.
Sandy Begbie, Chief Executive of Scottish Financial Enterprise, told Scottish Financial News in September that “no one is saying to us that there’s any major job losses”, with firms focused on reskilling and moving people into higher-value work.
Transactional finance is where the change is most visible. As automation handles more of the routine work, the people who progress will be the ones who can check it, fix it and improve it.
If you’re looking for your next role
Candidates are more selective about what they’ll consider. Hybrid working is still part of the decision for many, but it’s now weighed alongside progression, culture, flexibility, leadership and the chance to make an impact. More of the candidates we’ve spoken to recently describe hybrid as a nice-to-have. For the last few years, it’s been a must-have.
In transactional finance, the questions we hear most are:
- What progression is available?
- Can I study towards a qualification?
- How much exposure will I get to different areas of finance?
- Which systems will I use?
- How flexible are the working arrangements?
- Will I get the chance to take on more responsibility?
Whatever your level, the advice is the same: broaden your experience, get hands-on with systems, and be ready to explain the difference your work has made.
If you’re hiring
You have more choice than a year ago, but that won’t guarantee a strong shortlist for every vacancy. Candidates with proven experience in payroll, AP, AR, reconciliations, finance systems or commercial finance are still hard to replace, and the best of them are getting multiple offers. Where a role matters to the business, a long process is the quickest way to lose the person you want.
Salary alone rarely secures the strongest candidates. A clear offer on progression, development and culture, backed by a well-run process, makes the difference. Our advice:
- Be clear on the essential skills from the outset, and keep them separate from the nice-to-haves.
- Keep the interview process proportionate to the role.
- Give feedback quickly.
- Spell out development and progression. The candidate questions above make a good checklist for your advert and interviews.
- Consider candidates with transferable experience, beyond those from your exact sector.
Talk to us
Whether you’re planning a hire or thinking about your next move, we’re happy to give you an informal view of the Scottish market.
Qualified finance: Cameron Brown, cameron.brown@iconicresourcing.com
Transactional finance: Claire McNally, claire.mcnally@iconicresourcing.com