Where Investment Banks Are Actually Hiring in 2026

Goldman Sachs posted a 48% surge in investment banking fees in the first quarter of 2026, with advisory revenue up 89% year-over-year. That is not a rounding error. It is the signal that the 18-month deal drought is officially over, and the hiring that follows a revenue surge of that magnitude is already underway.

If you are an analyst or associate evaluating your next move inside banking, or a VP deciding whether to stay put or make a run at an elite boutique, this is the moment to pay attention. The market has turned. The question is where the hiring is actually concentrated, which firms are buying out deferred compensation to land laterals, and where the comp premium is large enough to justify the friction of moving.

The Deal Backdrop That Changes the Hiring Equation

Global dealmaking hit $4.6 trillion in 2025, up 49% year-over-year and the highest volume since 2021, according to LSEG data. The 68 mega-deals exceeding $10 billion totaled $1.5 trillion, more than double 2024's figure and the most ever recorded. Goldman Sachs advised on 38 of those 68 deals, earning $4.6 billion in M&A fees and reclaiming the top spot in global advisory rankings. JPMorgan led broader investment banking fees at $10.1 billion when adding equity and debt underwriting. Evercore ranked fifth in M&A fee revenue at $1.7 billion, with Centerview Partners close behind at $491 billion in announced deal value.

The first quarter of 2026 accelerated that momentum. Industrywide investment banking revenue climbed 14% to $28.2 billion, with fees rising an average of 27% across six major U.S. banks. Announced deal value reached $1.38 trillion, the second-highest first-quarter total on record. That level of activity creates real staffing pressure. Deal teams that were lean through 2023 and 2024 are now executing at volumes that require more hands.

Restructuring runs on a parallel track. Chapter 11 filings hit a 10-year high in 2025. About 12% of borrowers now have negative cash flow, and 13% carry interest coverage below 1.0 times, according to Deloitte's 2026 restructuring outlook. Roughly $1 trillion in speculative-grade debt maturities comes due in 2028, and advisors are already working through the pre-wiring. Restructuring activity is expected to increase modestly in 2026, with key stress concentrated in industrials, consumer discretionary, healthcare, and tech-adjacent businesses. The advisory demand is real and will not disappear when M&A volume normalizes.

Bulge Brackets: Where to Be and What to Avoid

Goldman's advisory division is executing at historically high volumes. The firm aggressively staffed its sector-specific advisory teams heading into 2026 to capture the pent-up pipeline, and analysts and associates are seeing more live execution work as a result. Goldman bumped base salaries for entry-level analysts to $120,000, a move that other bulge brackets followed. The coverage groups that matter right now are technology, healthcare, and financial institutions, all driving elevated deal flow into 2026.

JPMorgan remains the dominant firm by total investment banking fees and continues to expand its direct lending initiative, providing nearly $10 billion in capital to large-cap and middle-market sponsors in 2025. Morgan Stanley's EMEA reorganization in early 2026 is a signal of broader ambition, with the firm repositioning senior bankers to capture renewed private equity and M&A activity. Bank of America is similarly active: advisory revenues jumped 64% in 2025 and the firm is working its way up the mega-deal league tables, including work on the contested Warner Bros. Discovery bid.

The honest word on bulge bracket laterals: the best windows open after bonus payouts, typically in late June and early July. Banks are also more willing to buy out deferred compensation in a strong market. Bulge bracket to bulge bracket moves make the most sense if you are leaving a weak group (ECM, DCM, a coverage sector with thin deal flow) for a live M&A or sector coverage group at a stronger platform. Lateral positions at bulge brackets often open due to turnover after those bonus payments, and moving mid-year is more feasible than most analysts assume. End-of-year 2025 bonuses rose only 5% for analysts and associates despite record revenues, reflecting a pattern where most of the fee uplift flows to senior bankers. VP and director comp rose 10 to 15%, and MDs saw 25% or more. That disconnect is part of what makes the boutique path worth running the numbers on.

Elite Boutiques: The Comp Gap Is Real, and It Widens Fast

The chart below makes the case directly. The compensation delta between bulge bracket and elite boutique is negligible at the analyst level, meaningful at the associate level, and substantial at the VP level. Every year you stay at a bulge bracket past the associate stage is a year you leave money on the table at a boutique, assuming you are producing.

Source: Mergers & Inquisitions 2026, ibinterviewquestions.com 2025. Midpoints shown. Includes base salary and year-end bonus; excludes deferred and signing. EB associate reflects firms like Centerview and Perella Weinberg. Chart by Archer Careers.

Centerview Partners and Perella Weinberg Partners pay associates $50,000 to $100,000 or more above the bulge bracket range, and pay those bonuses in 100% cash rather than partially deferred stock. That matters for a lateral candidate comparing two offers: the bulge bracket number looks higher on paper until you strip out the deferred portion that vests over three to four years and disappears if you leave.

Evercore ranks as the largest elite boutique by headcount and deal volume, with $488.7 billion in announced M&A in 2025 across 204 transactions. It runs a hybrid M&A and restructuring generalist model at the junior level, making it attractive for analysts who want to keep both paths open. Moelis is similarly generalist and has been climbing the league tables. Its role advising Netflix in the contested Warner Bros. Discovery bid, alongside Allen & Co, helped it jump three spots in global M&A rankings in 2025. PJT Partners reported record strategic advisory revenues in 2025, with firm-wide revenue up nearly 75% from 2021 to 2025. Its associate and VP comp is consistently cited among the highest on the street at any level.

Lazard is worth separate mention. It has a deep sector coverage platform and tends to hire associates who can move between M&A and restructuring based on deal flow demands. That flexibility commands a premium in the current environment where both practices are busy simultaneously, which is historically unusual.

Restructuring: The Highest-Signal Hiring Pocket of 2026

If you have restructuring experience or are willing to develop it, this is the most defensible specialty in the current market. It is counter-cyclical to M&A in theory but is now running hot alongside M&A in practice, because the wave of leveraged buyouts done at peak valuations in 2021 and 2022 is hitting stress simultaneously with a record M&A advisory boom.

Houlihan Lokey holds the No. 1 global restructuring advisor ranking and was named Investment Bank of the Year for Restructuring at The Banker's Investment Banking Awards in 2024. It recently advised an ad hoc crossholder group holding $11 billion of Lumen Technologies debt through a comprehensive recapitalization, and completed the restructuring of CIFI Holdings' $8.1 billion of offshore indebtedness. Its restructuring group is actively expanding, including senior hires in its healthcare capital solutions practice and a recent managing director addition in European business services. Houlihan Lokey is not a prestige play for its own sake. It is the firm where restructuring professionals get the most reps on the most complex transactions globally.

PJT Partners' Restructuring and Special Situations group was named IFR's Restructuring Advisor of the Year for four consecutive years from 2020 through 2023. The firm has completed over $1.9 trillion in restructuring deals since inception and aggressively expanded its team in 2025 with new leadership hires in New York and London and the acquisition of deNovo Partners to build out MENA coverage. PJT has an open associate role in its Restructuring and Special Situations Group as of this writing. The interview process is among the most technically demanding in banking: expect Chapter 11 mechanics, waterfall analysis, creditor negotiation strategy, and bond math all in a single superday.

Lazard runs a generalist summer analyst program with RX placement based on performance, which historically means the top analysts choose restructuring over M&A. Moelis runs a fully generalist model where RX interest is communicated to the staffer. Evercore's restructuring practice has been climbing and is particularly active in energy and special situations. For associates lateraling specifically into restructuring, the Houlihan Lokey and PJT direct-track RX programs are the two strongest platforms. Competition for these seats is fierce precisely because the exits are elite: distressed credit funds, special situations PE, and private credit platforms all prize RX experience above most other banking backgrounds.

Middle Market: Jefferies, Raymond James, William Blair, and Where the Actual Openings Are

The middle-market tier is often treated as a stepping stone rather than a destination, which creates a persistent misread of what these firms offer. For analysts and associates who want earlier deal ownership, sector depth, and faster promotion timelines, several platforms are genuinely worth targeting as a deliberate choice rather than a fallback.

Jefferies plans to increase MD headcount by roughly 10%, or about 37 people, in 2026, according to comments made by President Brian Friedman at the firm's investor day. That MD expansion creates downstream openings at the associate and VP levels. Jefferies runs a generalist model across M&A, restructuring, and capital raising, and has consistently expanded its market share in Asia (3.2% over the past decade) and EMEA. Its restructuring practice is considered tier two behind Houlihan and PJT but is active and expanding. One important nuance: Jefferies has significant clawback provisions on bonuses above the analyst level on a rolling four-year schedule, which affects the math for anyone considering leaving for a competitor.

Raymond James reported M&A advisory revenues up 92% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2025, the second-best quarterly result in firm history. That momentum signals real deal flow and real hiring need. The firm has been adding technology and services bankers, including three senior hires from DC Advisory in 2025. William Blair added a managing director in healthcare investment banking from Cantor Fitzgerald and co-heads of its fund placement and advisory practice from Credit Suisse. Piper Sandler has been adding sector specialists, including a pharma services managing director from Cain Brothers. These are not placeholder hires. They reflect genuine demand in healthcare, technology, and financial services coverage.

The middle-market firms that deserve real consideration for experienced laterals: Harris Williams for tech and healthcare M&A, Lincoln International for sponsor-led sell-side work, and Houlihan Lokey's corporate finance group (distinct from its restructuring practice) for diversified coverage across industrials and business services. These platforms consistently rank as top-bucket in terms of deal quality relative to bank size, and they hire laterally throughout the year rather than in a compressed window.

The Lateral Mechanics That Actually Matter

Lateral hiring at bulge brackets and elite boutiques picks up materially in two windows: late June to July after bonus payouts, and January to February after year-end compensation is distributed. Banks accelerating hiring cycles in 2026 means the windows are less predictable, but the post-bonus period remains the highest-volume moment. If you are an associate or VP considering a move, beginning conversations two to three months before those windows ensures you are in active processes when the openings appear rather than chasing them.

The terms have also changed. In a strong market, firms that want a specific lateral candidate are more willing to buy out unvested deferred compensation, offer guaranteed bonuses for the stub year, and negotiate a level upgrade rather than a straight lateral. Selby Jennings noted in its 2025 to 2026 hiring analysis that for the right candidates, banks are offering guarantees, non-prorated bonuses, and deferred comp buyouts at a rate higher than previous cycles. These terms are not standard. They are negotiable, and they require a candidate who understands what they are worth and has positioned themselves accordingly.

The uptiering question deserves a clear answer. Moving from middle-market to bulge bracket or elite boutique has become more selective, not less. Elite boutiques in 2026 are focused on candidates who can contribute immediately on complex transactions, specifically large public-to-public M&A processes, which involve disclosure requirements, board dynamics, and market scrutiny that are simply different from private company sell-sides. A strong mid-market track record with a few public company transactions is a competitive profile. A strong mid-market track record with only private deals is a harder sell at the highest-tier firms, regardless of deal count.

This is where positioning earns its return. The difference between a lateral move that clears in four weeks and one that stalls for months is almost never about qualifications on paper. It is about how your deal history is framed, which firms you target first, and how your first conversation with a headhunter or senior banker lands. Candidates who work with Archer Careers on their banking lateral process move through a deliberate targeting and narrative-building process that surfaces the right openings and closes them faster. In a market moving this quickly, that structure matters.

Where to Focus Your Energy Right Now

The 2026 hiring environment is the strongest in three years. Investment banking fees are rising across all tiers. Restructuring is simultaneously hot. The comp gap between bulge brackets and elite boutiques is real and measurable. The timing is right.

If you are an analyst: the boutique path (Evercore, Moelis, PJT advisory) is worth pursuing now if your current group has limited deal flow or a coverage sector with structural headwinds. The analyst comp delta is small, but the experience quality and exit opportunity set are meaningfully better. If you are an associate: run the actual numbers between your current firm and a Centerview, PWP, or Lazard offer. The cash comp premium, combined with 100% cash bonuses rather than deferred stock, is often $80,000 to $120,000 per year. If you are a VP: the boutique or specialized firm premium at your level is the largest it will ever be relative to effort. The window to move before you are too senior to be a clean lateral is narrowing.

And if you have restructuring experience, or can build a credible argument for why your M&A background translates to distressed advisory: every signal in 2026 says that seat is worth more than it was two years ago.

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