• Private-credit investors are hiring. BI spoke to recruiters to figure out where.
• Workers who get their hands dirty in workouts, restructuring, and operations are in demand.
• Hiring for private-equity dealmaking is likely to pick up as more companies trade hands.

Private-credit fever is heating up on Wall Street as large financial companies, from Goldman Sachs to Point72, pour capital and talent into non-bank lending.

Of course, "private credit" is a broad term for a wide variety of lending — everything from the staid business of writing loans to blue-chip companies to the bare-knuckle brawl of distressed debt with its penchant for "creditor-on-creditor violence" (when lenders try to box each other out for higher returns in a restructuring).

So, what roles are private-credit investors hiring for in 2025? And what might that tell us about how the industry is growing and evolving?

Business Insider spoke to two top recruiters who highlighted roles in restructuring, special situations, and even portfolio operations as signs that private lenders are increasingly looking to get their hands dirty to make money while lending — even if it means turning from loaner to owner.

"They're now comfortable with owning businesses versus just taking the keys and trying to get out of it as quickly as possible," said John Rubinetti, cohead of the private equity and credit recruiting practice at leadership advisory firm Heidrick & Struggles.

Firms are also searching for professionals with specialized skills, like asset-backed finance — a sign the non-bank lending industry is looking to get creative with how it lends. Robin Judson, the founder of the recruiting firm Robin Judson Partners, said that while her firm is seeing demand "all over the map" at all levels of seniority, there's been less interest in generalists.

Most of the demand is "not the straight-down-the-fairway, plain, vanilla lending," she said. Instead, firms are looking for talent where they see returns: in the less traveled areas of finance.

Here are four hiring trends in the booming industry of non-bank lending, also known as private credit.

Loan-to-own

Private credit has seen an increase in defaults in the last few years, especially with senior lenders. The default rate for senior loans nearly tripled between mid-2022 and September 2024 per MSCI. But distress can also provide opportunities for lenders who have the right talent.

Rubinetti said he has noticed a "significant uptick" in roles for restructuring professionals over the last year as more direct lenders look to invest in opportunities where they might become owners of the companies they are lending to.

Lenders are also following in the footsteps of their private-equity cousins and investing in portfolio operators who can help steer businesses that defaulted on their loans.

"I've also seen, for the first time ever, credit firms hiring private-equity-style portfolio operations professionals," Rubinetti said.

Rubinetti estimated that a majority of the largest credit-only players now have someone on their team with some operational portfolio management skills, but said it's still an emerging trend at pure-play, lending-only firms.

Special situations

Judson is seeing a lot of demand in a related corner of the market: special situations. Special situations lenders step in when a company is dealing with some sort of, well, special situation and needs a lender willing to write a complicated, risky, and, conversely, very lucrative loan.

For example, a fund may have loaned money to a company, and the loan is now not performing, putting the fund in trouble, too. The fund may reach out to another fund, which will take on some of the risk of that loan but also gain more control over the business in the meantime. Writing that loan involves a lot of risk, but also stands to generate very high returns.

"You have to have a very acute sense of risk and reward," Judson said about special-situations loan professionals.

"It really requires somebody who understands credit and leverage, and understands how to put together a transaction that is going to benefit everyone involved," Judson said. "How to provide the financing a company needs and a return that a fund is looking for."

Judson is seeing demand for special-situation credit experts from independent private credit funds and megafunds as well as private-equity firms with industry-specific, multi-asset funds.

According to job listings, lender and asset manager Golub Capital is hiring an associate for its direct lending workout group and special-situations team. The associate would help the firm with "maximizing recoveries and minimizing losses" and may require "operational turnarounds." The base salary for New York-based hires is $170,000 to $185,000 and likely includes a bonus as well, the listing said.

Asset-backed finance and other specialties

Professionals who specialize in complicated and lucrative types of loans or lending to in-demand industries are also getting a lot of attention in today's job market, recruiters said.

"The demand we see is in the corners of the market where the structures and the issues are more complex and juicy," Judson said. In these niches, lenders can differentiate themselves from the competition through how they structure and manage their loans, and drive higher returns as well, she added.

Rubinetti said that he's seen the most interest recently in niches such as alternative credit, asset-based lending, and specialty finance.

"If firms don't have this capability now, they want it," Rubinetti said. "It's a small area, but far and away, it's been the most active area."

Corporate consolidation shows just how much interest there is in some niche lending strategies. Janus Henderson acquired asset-backed lender Victory Park at the end of last year to provide its clients a "highly in-demand asset-backed-focused private credit strategy," according to Ali Dibadj, CEO of Janus Henderson, in a press release announcing the deal.

Rubinetti has seen job demand for lending roles in equipment leasing, aviation finance, consumer finance, or any industry with real assets. "Infrastructure and energy transition credit have been hot areas," he added.

Sponsor finance poised to bounce back

While demand for loan generalists has been soft, non-bank lenders may see a return to the business that started the whole industry: providing the leverage for private-equity buyouts and recapitalizations, also known as sponsor finance.

At this point, Rubinetti said, hiring has been very slow for these roles, as most origination teams are fairly well-staffed for the low volume of deals. But 2025 is likely to see "a significant increase in PE deal flow," according to PWC. And firms that feel fully staffed up now may see things differently as more deals unfold.

"That will change in 2025," Rubinetti said.

At the end of December, Apollo posted for two "US Sponsor Origination" roles: an associate position with a base pay range of $175,000 to $200,000 and a principal earning $300,000 in base pay, according to job listings that also note that the positions are eligible for an annual bonus.