Over the past decade, the insurance-linked securities (ILS) market has expanded significantly, while keeping its global talent footprint remarkably lean. According to 20Twenty Search Advisor Jason Sykes, this streamlined operational structure shields ILS professionals from the widespread cost-cutting affecting traditional re/insurance, pointing to a bright future for talent in the sector.
Speaking with Artemis around the time of the 2026 Monte Carlo Rendez-vous event, Sykes, who serves as an Advisor at the re/insurance focused recruitment and executive search specialist, highlighted how shifting hiring priorities within the ILS space are a useful lens to understand how the segment has continued to evolve over the last decade.
“The ILS labour market can be hard to break in to. Attractive remuneration, twelve-month notice periods, and one-year non-compete clauses limit movement among senior professionals within the sector and, therefore, upward mobility,” Sykes explained to Artemis.
Citing data from broker Guy Carpenter, Sykes noted that the ILS market expanded by over 80% to approximately $123 billion between 2015 and 2025, almost 20 percentage points more than the growth in traditional reinsurance.
“This happened without anywhere near the same increase in the ILS workforce, which probably numbers well under 2,000, globally. Nevertheless, some interesting opportunities have arisen for those looking to move across from traditional (re)insurance and other areas of asset management as ILS has gained traction,” Sykes added.
The hurricane trio of Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017 caused insured natural catastrophe losses to increase to $144 billion, almost triple the level of 2016. According to Sykes, this put paid to any expectation that ILS managers could rely on reinsurer underwriting as investors nursed losses, endured trapped capital, and demanded answers.
Consequently, following this, demand for analytics experts, particularly actuaries and cat modellers, saw a sharp increase as fund managers quickly began to build expertise within their firms.
Sykes explained to Artemis that demand for such roles has remained steady, with huge advances being seen in data science, as well as the rise of AI, and the expansion of ILS into perils such as wildfires and severe convective storms.
“Around 2023, the sector experienced another recruitment spurt. In that year, ILS generated record returns and outperformed most other classes. This led to a surge of investor interest in the non-correlated returns available. Companies therefore needed business development professionals able to explain the opportunities in investors’ own language and facilitate asset raising,” Sykes said.
He continued: “In a few notable cases, strong investor networks, and the ability to understand and explain esoteric asset classes were more important than knowledge of (re)insurance per sé. Indeed, during the period 2023 to 2025 numerous posts were taken by professionals moving into the sector from other pockets of alternative asset management.
“This new blood helped the market become more professionalised, with better investor education, information and data availability, greater transparency, an increased “partnership” role in cycle management, and better exit options.”
Moreover, it was around this period that the casualty ILS market began to grow and gain heavy momentum.
Sykes acknowledged that casualty ILS was “a whole new ball game to the ILS mainstay of property cat,” with casualty being generally a high frequency, low severity business. The advisory also outlined that casualty is far harder to model than property cat.
“So, as the Casualty market grew from under $1 billion in 2022 to perhaps as much as $5 billion today, according to Willis Re. Demand for professionals who understood the line of business increased, hence a flow of senior casualty underwriters and actuaries into the ILS world,” Sykes noted.
In recent months a number of new ILS manager’s have been launched, including Hannover Re Capital Partners, and Beazley’s dedicated cyber ILS fund operation in Bermuda, as well as from start-ups such as Radix and Cedar Trace, all of which Sykes emphasises creates opportunity in the labour market.
Sykes also observed that a small but largely determined influx of hedge fund investors has also played a role towards intensifying competition for specialist talent within the ILS sector.
“Companies such as Arini Capital Management, Qube Research & Technologies and Squarepoint have made key hires from ILS firms. This movement has created opportunities for ILS Portfolio Managers, which are roles that are normally nurtured internally over a number of years,” Sykes noted.
“The jury is out about how long hedge funds will stick around, but their arrival has certainly created an interesting new dynamic in the market.”
Sykes also outlined that a significant area of ILS recruitment is found among intermediaries and investment banks, with firms such as Aon Securities, Gallagher Securities, GC Securities, and Howden Capital Markets & Advisory (HCMA) experiencing a substantial rise in catastrophe bond issuance and sidecar creation, leading to a demand for both seasoned and entry-level structuring professionals.
Around 18 months ago, during the peak of advisory hiring, much of the movement consisted of lateral transitions within the segment or shifts from the buy side to the sell side. However, Sykes added that considerable opportunities for junior-level reinsurance professionals arose as these firms sought to manage the increased workloads.
“One noteworthy aspect of the ILS market’s phenomenal growth over the past decade is that it has expanded without a commensurate increase in the ILS workforce. The nature of the ILS market means it can accommodate significant continued growth – possibly up to $200 billion or more – without the need for a hiring spree,” Sykes added.
“While other areas of the specialty insurance and reinsurance market have in recent years bemoaned the demographic cliff edge caused by having a large chunk of the workforce approaching retirement and fretted about Gen Z shunning (re)insurance, the ILS segment has had no such existential fears.
“This, of course, makes it more difficult for those keen to spread their wings from vanilla reinsurance, and that’s particularly true for those wishing to work in the European ILS hubs of London and Zurich. (In recent times New York and Bermuda beat them hands down in terms of volume of opportunities).”
“However, in the softening market, where large global insurers are using AI to slash jobs, and the world’s biggest reinsurers talk ominously about major cost cutting programs, the leanness of the ILS workforce offers protection,” Sykes explained.
Additionally, Sykes stresses that another reason why the ILS market is an excellent workplace is its lack of correlation with broader financial markets.
“This robust asset class looks more appealing than ever, given our geopolitical permacrisis and very real possibility of an AI-bubble-bursting-triggered equity markets meltdown,” Sykes said.
Concluding: “The ILS market may not be associated with high drama and mass movements of teams, played out day by day in the trade press or in court rooms, but for those employed in the sector, the future looks extremely bright.”
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