Introduction
Q3 has arrived in the blink of an eye, the rains have returned and the summer is starting to feel like a distant memory; schools are back, the mornings are darker and, incredibly, the supermarkets seem to think it’s Christmas next week.
In the accountancy and advisory market, September has also brought the usual post-summer increase in activity, but there’s a noticeable difference in the way firms are approaching senior hiring.
The appetite to invest is certainly still there, but the level of scrutiny has changed. Firms are being much more deliberate about where they add senior headcount, what that individual brings, and how quickly an appointment can contribute to growth.
At Senior Manager level and above, and particularly at Director and Partner, being technically strong isn’t enough. Firms increasingly want to understand what you can build, what relationships you can develop and, ultimately, what commercial impact you can have.
Senior hiring is becoming more deliberate
Earlier in the year I wrote about the senior talent gap widening. That gap hasn’t disappeared, but firms are getting much more specific about how they fill it.
There is still significant investment taking place. Grant Thornton, for example, has now announced more than 100 Partner appointments during 2026 as it continues a major expansion of its partnership. That’s an extreme example, but it demonstrates that firms will invest very heavily when they believe the opportunity and individual are right.
However, I’m seeing less appetite for hiring a Director or Partner simply because there is capacity pressure in a team. Increasingly, there needs to be a bigger strategic reason to recruit.
That might be entering a new market, establishing a new service line, building presence in a specific geography, succession planning for an existing Partner or bringing in relationships and capability the firm doesn’t already have.
For senior candidates, that changes the conversation. The question is becoming less about whether you can do the role and more about what changes because you’re there.
The business case matters more than ever
This is particularly noticeable at Director and Partner level.
Technical credibility is generally assumed by the time someone reaches this point in their career. What firms really want to understand is the commercial story behind the individual.
That doesn’t necessarily mean arriving with millions of pounds of immediately portable revenue. In most cases, that isn’t realistic. It does mean being able to articulate where you’ve originated work, how you’ve developed existing relationships, where you’ve cross-sold other services, what your external network looks like and how you would approach building a market.
For Associate Directors looking to make the step to Director, this is equally important. The strongest candidates aren’t necessarily those running the biggest engagements. They’re the ones who can demonstrate that they’re beginning to move beyond delivery and into genuine ownership of client relationships and business development.
I’m having more conversations with candidates about this than ever before, because being able to tell that story properly can be the difference between being viewed as a very good number two and being viewed as a future Partner.
Audit leadership remains one of the hardest areas to recruit
One area where demand remains particularly strong is senior audit.
Experienced Responsible Individuals continue to be one of the most difficult profiles for firms to find, particularly outside London. The challenge becomes even greater when firms need someone who combines RI status with commercial ability, leadership experience and an appetite to grow a practice.
This isn’t just replacement hiring. Across the market, Audit Directors and Partners are being appointed to lead regional growth, support succession and increase signing capacity.
We’re seeing this particularly clearly in Scotland. Dains recently appointed David MacCallum as Audit Partner and RI as part of its continued investment in its Scottish audit business, while Johnston Carmichael has also brought in Deborah Ramsay from KPMG as Partner and RI in Glasgow.
For ambitious Senior Managers and Directors, getting RI status and demonstrating that you can combine audit quality with commercial leadership remains one of the strongest ways to differentiate yourself in the senior practice market.
Deals activity is improving, but selectively
The Deals market is an interesting one to watch.
On the surface, UK M&A activity looks a lot stronger. The value of announced UK deals more than doubled in the first half of 2026 to £124.2bn. However, the number of transactions actually fell by 13%, with a relatively small number of major deals propping up much of the increased value.
That tells quite an important story for recruitment.
There is capital available and there is increasing confidence around the right assets, but this isn’t yet a market where every Transaction Services, Corporate Finance or wider Deals team is suddenly hiring aggressively again.
Instead, investment remains targeted. Firms are looking for senior people who bring something specific, whether that’s sector expertise, private equity relationships, specialist analytics capability, infrastructure experience or a demonstrable track record of generating work.
For Directors and Associate Directors in Deals, being good at execution remains important, but commercial differentiation is increasingly what opens up the most interesting opportunities.
Private equity continues to reshape the market
It would be difficult to write a quarterly update on accountancy without mentioning private equity.
Consolidation remains one of the defining features of the market. ICAEW research found that nearly 75% of mid-tier firms surveyed had already acquired another firm, with further acquisition appetite remaining strong, particularly among larger and PE-backed businesses.
We’re also starting to see some platforms moving into the next stage of the investment cycle. Shaw Gibbs, for example, recently secured new investment from ECI Partners following four years backed by Apiary Capital, during which time the business completed 14 acquisitions and grew from around 100 people to more than 800.
For senior candidates, this means the questions around an opportunity are changing.
It’s no longer just about salary, title and how quickly you can become Partner. People increasingly want to understand who owns the firm, what the growth plan is, how Partner reward works, what level of autonomy exists locally, how acquisitions are being integrated and what equity actually means in practice.
Those are sensible questions because there is no single PE-backed accountancy model. Different firms are taking very different approaches to ownership, culture and growth, and understanding those differences is becoming an important part of evaluating a senior move.
Scottish market dynamics at senior level
Scotland continues to be a unique and interesting market.
There is a combination of established independent firms investing in leadership and technology, national firms expanding their Scottish footprint and PE-backed groups looking to build scale.
Recent appointments illustrate that well. Johnston Carmichael has strengthened its senior team with a new Audit Partner alongside its first Chief Technology Officer, while Dains continues to invest in building its Scottish audit capability. Armstrong Watson has also expanded its Central Belt presence this year with a permanent Edinburgh office following its earlier acquisitions in Glasgow.
What I’m seeing through my own conversations is that senior hiring remains very relationship-driven here. The most interesting opportunities never make it anywhere near a job board.
A firm might know it needs succession in the next two years, want to build a new service line or be interested in strengthening a particular office without having an approved vacancy sitting on a recruitment system.
That’s why the senior market works totally differently. The conversation generally comes first, and the role then follows.
Your Next Move
For Senior Managers, Associate Directors, Directors and Partners, I think this remains a very good market to explore, but it needs to be approached in the right way.
There are opportunities, but firms are becoming very selective and candidates need to be equally selective in return.
If you’re thinking about moving, it’s worth understanding what your commercial story actually is. What have you built? Where have you influenced a client relationship? What work have you originated? Where have you created opportunities for other teams? And what could you realistically build somewhere else over the next three to five years?
You don’t need to be actively looking for a job to have those conversations.
Most of the work I do at Iconic Resourcing is with people who aren’t applying for advertised vacancies at all. It’s about understanding where the market is moving, identifying firms where there could be a genuine strategic fit and opening conversations before somebody decides they desperately need to leave.
At senior level, that is nearly always a better position to be in.
Final thoughts
The senior accountancy and advisory market remains active, but it is becoming much more commercially focused.
Firms are still prepared to invest in senior talent. The biggest difference is that the justification behind those appointments is becoming clearer and the expectations attached to them are becoming higher.
Technical excellence gets you into the conversation. Increasingly, it is your ability to lead, develop relationships, build something and create commercial value that determines where that conversation ultimately goes.
With the UK Budget also due on 28 October, there is plenty still to come before the end of 2026.