Market Context
Global primary markets are best understood as a series of connected financing ecosystems rather
than isolated product silos. Leveraged finance and private credit form one of the market’s central
credit anchors, while debt capital markets and investment-grade credit provide a second, distinct
core-credit spine. Together, these businesses define much of the market’s financing architecture,
with different products serving adjacent but differentiated capital needs.
Competition for talent within this ecosystem broadened in 2026. Leveraged finance saw renewed
demand for senior capital markets professionals, while private equity firms, private credit
managers, and other alternative asset managers continued to recruit bankers into financing,
origination, and capital markets roles. At the same time, demand for debt and capital structure
advisory talent increased as clients sought professionals able to evaluate a broader range of
financing alternatives. Restructuring has also expanded beyond traditional bankruptcy work to
include liability management, amend-and-extend transactions, rescue financings, and other
complex capital solutions, increasing the relevance of professionals who can operate across
multiple forms of debt financing.
Private capital markets constitute another meaningful capital-formation ecosystem. Private debt
and equity placements, fund finance, and secondaries are naturally connected around private-
market capital formation, although firms continue to take different approaches to organizing those
capabilities. Some are building integrated private capital solutions businesses, while others
maintain distinct debt and equity platforms. Across both models, the growth of private markets is
increasing demand for professionals with institutional investor connectivity and the ability to
advise issuers across public and private alternatives.
Alternative asset managers are also continuing to institutionalize their own capital markets and
capital solutions functions, particularly in areas such as digital infrastructure and real estate.
These teams draw talent from investment banking, debt capital markets (DCM), leveraged finance,
structured finance, and advisory as firms seek to aggregate financing relationships, develop
portfolio-level solutions, and access a broader range of public and private capital.
Structured and securitized credit represents another substantial part of the primary market
landscape, although it remains fragmented across a wide range of product labels. Collateralized
loan obligations, asset-backed securities (ABS), mortgage-backed products, and asset-backed
finance share strong adjacencies, and their collective significance can be understated when each
category is considered separately. Viewed together, they form a broad structured-credit
ecosystem requiring specialized product, structuring, and distribution capabilities.
Digital infrastructure illustrates how these traditional boundaries are increasingly converging.
Demand in 2026 extended across investment banks, asset managers, infrastructure investors,
hyperscalers, neoclouds, and other compute-intensive businesses, with some corporates also
building more sophisticated financing capabilities within the CFO organization. Recruiting activity
broadened from its earlier concentration in ABS and commercial mortgage-backed securities
(CMBS) toward project and infrastructure finance, DCM professionals with 144A and private-
placement expertise, and leveraged finance, high-yield, and special situations talent capable of
financing data centers, fiber, and other compute infrastructure. As a result, digital infrastructure is
increasingly a convergence market spanning infrastructure, technology, energy and power,
telecommunications, and multiple financing disciplines.
Equities provide a further cross-market connection, linking issuance through equity capital
markets (ECM) and convertibles with cash trading, research, and derivatives. Across primary
markets more broadly, these developments point to a market in which expertise is increasingly
portable across products, employers, and pools of capital, particularly for professionals who can
combine sector knowledge with structuring, advisory, and public- and private-market capabilities.
For further compensation analysis, including tables with breakouts by demographic categories,
see our 2026 Primary Markets survey compensation tables.
About the Author
Shannon Bade Neason (sbade@heidrick.com) is a partner and member of the global Financial Services Practice; she is based in the New York office.