Your Los Angeles fintech recruitment specialists
Nexus IT Group recruits fintech professionals for Los Angeles employers: payment systems and mobile banking engineers, financial software and data engineers, fraud and compliance engineers, platform and security engineers along with the CTOs and heads of engineering who run regulated consumer products. We place contract, contract-to-hire and permanent staff across the sectors that make Los Angeles a distinct fintech market, from the consumer lending apps in Santa Monica and Mid-City to the mortgage lenders in Irvine and the banks and asset managers downtown.
Our Los Angeles candidate network has been built over years of searches for consumer fintechs, lenders, banks and investment firms across the metro. Every search runs outbound to passive engineers, with three calls before you see anyone and a shortlist within 4 days, the same fintech recruiting process we run for clients nationwide. Candidates are screened on the payment, lending or banking systems they have actually shipped, so the first interview is about fit rather than verification.
Companies that staff their fintech roles with Nexus IT Group
Nexus IT Group will quickly staff your open Los Angeles fintech roles with high-quality committed candidates
81%
of our successful candidates are submitted within one week
92%
of our candidates will accept your offer
96%
of our candidates are employed with your firm after 12 months
Hiring fintech talent in Los Angeles?
Where Los Angeles hires fintech talent
Five sectors carry most of the demand, spread from Santa Monica and Burbank to Pasadena and Orange County, each with a platform large enough to need specialist engineers.
Consumer lending and payments
Cash advance, credit, underwriting and bill payment apps headquartered across the county, where engineering is the largest function at several of them.
- Dave
- Tala
- Sunbit
- Zest AI
- Acorns
- Papaya
Banks
The largest banks headquartered in Los Angeles and Pasadena, running core banking, payments and digital channels under OCC and California oversight.
- City National Bank
- East West Bank
- Banc of California
- Cathay Bank
Asset managers and wealth
Investment platforms, risk analytics and data engineering at the asset managers on Bunker Hill and along Wilshire.
- Capital Group
- Oaktree
- TCW
- DoubleLine
Mortgage and property data
Origination, servicing and property analytics platforms in Westlake Village and Irvine, with engineering the fastest-growing function at PennyMac.
- PennyMac
- loanDepot
- Cotality
Insurance and insurtech
Embedded insurance infrastructure in Santa Monica alongside the carriers headquartered in Woodland Hills and on Wilshire.
- Sure
- Farmers Insurance
- Mercury Insurance
What fintech roles pay in Los Angeles
| Role | Low | Median | High | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Risk Specialist (all industries) | $81,000 | $113,200 | $155,500 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Financial and Investment Analyst (all industries) | $83,000 | $102,300 | $134,200 | BLS OEWS, May 2025 |
| Senior Credit Analyst | $100,200 | $123,500 | $146,100 | Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide |
| Compliance Analyst | $104,500 | $132,300 | $149,700 | Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide |
| Fraud Investigator | $85,200 | $105,500 | $124,800 | Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide |
| Crypto Engineer (total compensation) | $125,000 | $140,000 | $165,000 | Levels.fyi, Sept 2026 |
| Machine Learning Engineer (base) | $160,000 | $185,000 | $285,000 | Built In, 2026 |
Figures are for the Los Angeles metro in 2026. The BLS rows cover every financial risk specialist and every financial and investment analyst in the metro across all industries, shown as the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile; the Robert Half rows are the 2026 Salary Guide starting salary bands by experience level; the Levels.fyi row is self-reported total compensation including bonus and equity, shown as the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile; the Built In row is self-reported base salary shown as the minimum, median and maximum. Treat these as ranges, not a benchmark to offer against.
What shapes a Los Angeles fintech search right now
DFPI crypto licensing is now live
The 1 July 2026 deadline under California's Digital Financial Assets Law has passed, and the DFPI's applicant list, last updated on 30 July 2026, runs to roughly 143 firms including Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, PayPal, Circle and Block. SB 97, signed on 30 June 2026, removed placeholder filings from the safe harbour, so every applicant now has to stand behind a complete application while the DFPI examines it. The compliance, security and reporting work behind those licences is engineering work that is being staffed now.
The cash advance apps are growing under DFPI oversight
Every income-based advance provider serving Californians has been registered with the DFPI since February 2025 and filed its first annual report in March 2026, and SB 825 stripped licensees of their exemption from the state's unfair practices law from January 2026. Los Angeles-based Dave reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $170.8 million, up 30%, on $2.3 billion of advances and raised its full-year guidance. The cash advance and credit apps headquartered here are hiring compliance, risk and data engineers.
Hybrid is the Los Angeles default
Los Angeles office occupancy sat at 46.7% in the week to 2 September 2026, the lowest of the large metros, and the 33 fintechs on American Banker's 2026 best workplaces list, Zest AI in Burbank and Financial Finesse in El Segundo among them, lead with work-from-home flexibility. An employer asking for five days in Santa Monica or Irvine is drawing from a smaller pool, so the attendance rule has to be settled first.
Streaming pay pulls the same engineers
The median Los Angeles software engineer reports $180,000 in total compensation. Netflix averages $450,000 and Snap $368,000 for the same platform, data and mobile skills a fintech needs, so a lender or bank hiring a senior payments engineer is bidding against that and the brief has to lead with product ownership and equity.
Searches we have completed for Los Angeles employers
Data Scientist, Data Engineers, Data Analytcs
This digital media firm provides Fortune 500 companies like Capital One, Viacom, PayPal and others in Advanced Analytics modeling, forecasting, marketing and advertising expertise. Our client was in a real bind, they had understaffed Advanced Analytics teams for 6 of their high priority clients. Not only had they just lost their Manager of Talent Acquisitions, but their key leadership on the Advanced Analytics team left the firm in the middle of their expansion. Having had previous experience working with Digital Media firms and brand side marketing teams within Data Analytics, Data Science and Data Engineering, we were brought on to handle end-to-end recruitment for their Advanced Analytics teams. Initially, we met with the stakeholders, gathering key requirements for the various gaps within their analytics teams. We helped shape the hiring process for a variety of skill-sets( SEO, SEM, Programmatic, A/B Testing, Research, Predictive Modeling, MMM, MTA etc) Salary levels, and set in a service level agreement to allocate the necessary resources.
Security Analyst
A not-for-profit credit union that offers a full suite of financial products and services for individuals and businesses. An Information Security II position was open for 3+ months when CommunityAmerica approached nexus IT group seeking assistance
They had 3 other recruiting vendors on the position for 3 months
Kept receiving under-qualified candidates and poor culture fits from other vendors.
Screened 50+ candidates
Submitted top 2 candidates within 1 week
Each candidate had spent 10+ years at current employer
Both candidates completed 3 rounds of the interview process
An offer was made and accepted 3 weeks after project initiation
Enterprise Architect
A leading wholesale provider of reinsurance, insurance and other insurance-based forms of risk transfer.
Quickly and cost-effectively find qualified candidates for hard-to-fill roles
Struggling to recruit top IT talent from traditional job boards
nexus IT group Solutions
Deployed candidate driven marketing campaign: Featured career opportunities to a targeted, qualified audience
Improved employer branding: Helped Swiss Re improve their position in the marketplace
Outreach Strategy: The secret sauce. Regardless of our network, each search requires a deep dive. Candidates will tell you our outreach is unique to what they’ve seen in decades of “being recruited”, and our client benefited from this reputation.
3 candidate submittals. 2 candidates interviewed. 1 offer and 1 acceptance
MarTech Consultant
A leading data analytics partner powered by mind+machine, that helps clients get the most out of their core processes. Due to client demand our client was seeking a Digital Martech specialist with experience in adobe sutie analytics( Adobe analytics, Launch, Audience Manager, AEP, Adobe target), web analytics, and marketing analytics. Because of our previous expertise in the Digita Marketing space we were able to quickly cold call and put an outreach campaign together that allowed us to get in front of 451 candidates. We picked our top 4 candidates and were able to get an offer to 1 candidate within a one and a half weeks.
Full Stack Engineer
A digital agency with a unique blend of strategic, media, creative and technical services tasked nexus IT group to find a Full Stack Engineer quickly. They had origianlly hired someone through a referral but that ultimately didn’t work out and this left them in a pinch. The Full Stack Engineer needed to have agency experience along with Martek, Pardot, Salesforce, and Marketo. It was important that this person could develop and launch large websites from scratch. Our software development recruiters sourced 76 candidates resulting in just 1 submitted candidate and that candidate being hired.
Data Scientist
A direct-to-consumer beauty, health and wellness incubator that recently launched its sixth brand reached out to nexus IT group to help them hire a Data Scientist for their growing analytics team. The ideal candidate would use their data and analytical skills to help analyze results and develop marketing strategies upon our current subscription and retention offerings. Essentially, this person would build predictive models to support key initiatives such as predictive churn, price elasticity, predictive LTV. Our Data Scientist recruiters screened 252 data professionals. We ended up submitting 5 candidates and received 2 offers.
SEO Analyst
Our client is an SEO, online media, and SEM agency focusing on brand building and customer acquisition to deliver measurable success. Due to continued growth they asked nexus IT group for help in find a Sr SEO Analyst. The SEO Manager was looking for a swiss army knife. The ideal candidate brought a technical SEO background with Python and enterprise site experience.
Data Analytics Manager
A large pork producer and food-processing company that has been a multi-year client with openings across the US asked us to help them in their need for 3 Data Analytic Managers. The Director of Data Engineering was looking for data professionals who could develop a deep understanding of operational processes and identify needs, then use technology to deliver impactful reporting solutions. With our expertise in data analytics our data scientist recruiters got right to work. We sourced 790 candidates, narrowed it down to our top 35 candidates and ended up submitting 12 candidates to the client and they ended up making all 3 hires.
Four ways to staff a Los Angeles fintech team from a retained CTO search to contract build capacity
Executive Search (Retained)
We run retained searches for fintech leadership in Los Angeles, including CTO, VP of Engineering, Head of Platform and the risk and compliance technology leaders that regulated products require. Investors frequently sit in on these processes, whether the company is a consumer app in Santa Monica or a lender in Irvine, so the shortlist has to survive a board conversation as well as a technical one. Our retained placements hold a 96% candidate retention rate.
Direct Hire
Fintech engineers in Los Angeles are courted heavily and rarely answer adverts, so our recruiters work outbound into payments, lending, trading and core banking depending on what the role actually touches. We deliver a vetted shortlist within 4 days of taking the requirement. One New York asset manager with $5.6BN under management had us screen 287 candidates and submit six inside two weeks, with the hire starting five weeks after kickoff.
Contract Staffing
Regulatory deadlines, migrations and integrations arrive with dates attached and often need capacity rather than headcount, as the DFPI licensing and reporting deadlines facing Los Angeles fintechs show. We serve as both the recruiter and the W2 employer for the contract term, which keeps co-employment risk off your side and gives you a clean way to convert the engineer if the work becomes permanent. Our contract placements hold a 94.3% quality of hire ratio.
Recruitment as a Service
A Los Angeles fintech scaling after a funding round is usually hiring across engineering, data and product at the same time, which is where per-placement fees stop making sense. Our Recruitment as a Service subscription handles candidate marketing, sourcing, screening and delivery for the whole plan, leaving your Los Angeles engineers the technical assessment. We generate an engaged pipeline for a named fintech role in under 7 days.
What our fintech clients have said about working with Nexus IT Group
The great thing about nexus IT group is that it has a smaller family feel, but they are able to deliver IT candidates better than the largest IT staffing suppliers that we work with. They have delivered high quality cybersecurity professionals for several years to our firm.
I’ve been in Talent Acquisition for 15 years and have used many IT staffing firms over the years. I highly recommend Nick and nexus IT group over any other IT staffing services. nexus’ commitment to quality and delivery is top tier. They take the time to understand your needs, provide thorough screening, and make sure that candidates have a positive on-boarding experience.
Working with nexus IT group has made my job much easier. Having a recruiting firm who specializes in IT and within my industry, and who understands our specific culture and hiring needs has been instrumental in our talent acquisition talent strategy.
Capital One has used nexus IT group’s recruitment services for a number of IT positions at varying levels, over the past 4 years. We’ve had a high success rate working with nexus IT group which is a testament to the caliber of their work and their internal sourcing and vetting practices.
I’ve dealt with a lot of hiring firms in my 18 years in the investment banking profession, and the majority of them have been awful to mediocre at best. Dealing with Nexus IT Group, on the other hand, was a breath of fresh air. After only one one opening, I was blown away by the quality and quantity of resumes I received. Nexus IT Group pays close attention to my demands and requirements. As a result, the individuals who were referred to me were excellent fits for our open positions. I appreciate the personal and professional expertise you offer to the process.
SAIC provides government services to several federal agencies across the US. We needed to recruit several new cybersecurity talent for our growing practice area. Travis quickly understood our business and the requirements of each cybersecurity need. nexus IT group showed patience, flexibility, and expertise in the search process. If you’re looking for good cybersecurity recruiters then you can’t go wrong with nexus IT group.
It is hard to put into words what nexus IT group has done for our organization. nexus IT group knows exactly what we look for and they get the right candidates 99% of the time. Anyone looking to hire tech talent would be lucky to have nexus IT group on their side. They have great work ethic, responsive, and a wide array of market knowledge.
We’ve enlisted the help of a number of IT recruiting firms in the past. Nexus IT Group has contributed to the success of many great hires by working professionally, diligently, and efficiently. We contacted Nexus IT Group after being introduced to them, and we were instantly impressed by their promptness and ability to focus on our needs. We received 3 resumes the same day and 3 more the next day, and we were able to hire four people in less than a week. We added an additional individual through Nexus IT Group a few weeks later as a result of vast network, service and professionalism. I highly recommend working with Nexus IT Group.
Frequently asked questions about fintech recruiting in Los Angeles
It starts with a discovery call to define the role, the stack, the regulatory context and the onsite expectation. From there our recruiters run an outbound campaign to passive engineers in the Los Angeles market and hold three calls with each candidate before you see them, then deliver a shortlist of two or three. We stay in touch with every placed candidate for two years, and we travel for retained leadership searches.
Mostly the consumer lending and payment apps, the mortgage and property data companies in Irvine and Westlake Village, the banks headquartered in Los Angeles and Pasadena, the asset managers downtown and the insurtechs on the Westside. Those are the employers running platforms large enough to need specialist engineers, which is where an outside recruiter earns its fee. We also take searches from smaller Los Angeles fintechs hiring their first payments or compliance engineer.
It depends on the role and on how far the compensation sits from the market. A payments engineer or data engineer search typically produces a shortlist within a week, while a fraud detection lead or CTO search takes longer. Current Los Angeles salary bands are a reasonable first check on whether a budget is in range, and where we have an active pipeline we can deliver candidates the day the contract is signed.
Both, and the mix follows the work. Contract and contract-to-hire is common for licensing programmes, platform migrations and integration projects at Los Angeles lenders and banks, while permanent placement and retained search cover the standing engineering and product teams. We are the W2 employer for the length of any contract, so the engineer can be converted later if the work proves ongoing.
Ask how many fintech roles they filled in the last twelve months and what their twelve-month retention is, then ask whether the recruiter on your search has placed the same role before. Our own figures are 96% of placed candidates still employed after twelve months and a 92% offer acceptance rate. A recruiter who cannot answer those questions for Los Angeles specifically is guessing at the market.