The Tenfold Quarterly

Q3 | 2026

Hello,

Banks are cutting their junior classes, and much of the work those juniors used to cut their teeth on is now handled by AI. In May, Reuters reported that Jamie Dimon expects JPMorgan to hire more AI staff and fewer bankers. He isn't the outlier here; he's just the one saying it on the record. Plenty of GPs think the deal team of the future will look very different from today's.

But there's a second-order effect: the analyst bullpen has long been the way onto the buy side. The investors we place sharpened their craft on the buy side, but almost all of them got there the same way: through the analyst grind. The analyst program was the natural path in, worked as a filter, and is the seat AI is now absorbing. Thin that layer out, and it isn't just a cohort of juniors that goes. It's the supply of trained investors that PE and credit firms hire from years later. So the pipeline may be narrowing at the source, even if that won't land on anyone's desk for a few years. Here's the part the headlines miss: a squeeze on supply is very good news for anyone already on the right side of it.

The Wall Street Journal framed the near-term version of this well this quarter: AI can build the model, but it can't make the next rainmaker. We'd push it further. The machine can do a growing share of what a strong mid-level investor used to do, but it can't yet replace the judgment they built doing it, and the line of people coming up behind them who earned that judgment the same way may not refill the way it always has. The mid-level investor who's already good, already trained, already through the fire is about to become even more sought-after than before.

Then there's the AI hiring itself, and we've been fortunate to be part of several of these conversations. We placed the first AI hire for a $10bn+ fund this quarter and are running a handful of other first-time AI hires for funds. AI transformation isn't just a mega-fund story anymore. Firms under $5bn are making their first AI hires now, with remits ranging from portfolio value creation to GP transformation and the tooling that could eventually reach the desk. We're even seeing smaller managers bring on computer science graduates to build and operate AI inside the GP itself.

So what does the talent of the future look like? Someone who got the analog reps before the reps disappeared, and who can point AI at a problem and know when it's lying to them. Someone whose relationships, sector instinct, and IC-level judgment arrived earlier than they used to, because lean teams and cleared grunt work push real responsibility down the org faster than we have previously seen. The foundation, plus the thing built on top of it. That profile was always valuable.

Below, you’ll find Tenfold mandates, key capital moves, hiring trends, and market changes that influenced the quarter.

Let’s dive in.

Inside The Deal Team

This quarter, we spoke with a Director who leads associate recruiting at a core-plus and value-add infrastructure fund. We wanted the middle-market view: how a lean team competes for talent against the megafunds, and what actually separates the people who make it from the ones who don't. Click through to learn more.

Community Poll

Everyone agrees AI is changing the analyst seat. Nobody agrees on what a strong senior hire looks like once it has. Tell us where you stand.

What Our Candidates & Clients are Saying

Fundraising & Deal News

Discover the latest financial milestones and transformative deals in our sector-focused roundup:

Open Roles & Opportunities

Are you looking to explore new career opportunities, or do you know someone who is? We are currently connecting with talent in various sectors. Contact us to learn more about these exciting opportunities.

Private Equity Associate / Senior Associate, Digital Infrastructure (data centers + fiber) | Connecticut

A highly collaborative and high-performing digital infrastructure team is adding an Associate, and the mandate is flexible by design: data centers and fiber, credit and equity, giving you reps across instruments and asset types that most peer seats don't offer. You'd be on live transactions from week one, owning diligence, modeling, structuring, and documentation, and staying with deals through post-close asset management rather than handing them off. It's a flat group with a real seat at the table, deep relationships across the digital infrastructure ecosystem, and clear momentum heading into its next fund. The fit is someone with 2 to 4 years of direct investing or transactional experience in digital infrastructure, telecom, or technology, who comes from a specialist or boutique bank or a comparable investment firm, and is plug-and-play enough to pick up a live deal without a long ramp. Connecticut-based, in office.

Energy Transition | Associate & Vice President Openings | Washington, DC

An established global infrastructure investment firm is building out its energy transition effort and adding at the Associate and Vice President levels. This is a platform with real institutional scale and a second office in Houston, moving deliberately rather than chasing the market. 

The VP: The seat suits a VP with infrastructure or energy-investing reps who want to help build an energy transition practice from a position of strength, with the deal flow and backing that a firm this size brings.

The Associate: You'd sit close to senior investors on diligence, modeling, and execution across energy transition assets, with the breadth a scaled platform's deal flow gives you and the room a newer practice offers to take on more, earlier. It suits an associate with infrastructure or energy investing or advisory reps who wants to grow inside a firm that has real weight behind it.

Private Credit Associate / Senior Associate, Digital Infrastructure & Tech Services | Washington, DC

A DC-based private credit firm with a concentrated focus on digital infrastructure, technology services, and enterprise software is hiring a Senior Associate into a lean, growing office. This is a lead seat from day one. You'd own underwriting and structuring across credit investments, drive execution from diligence through documentation and close, and hold portfolio relationships through amendments and credit events. The fit is someone who has built their technical foundation in private equity/credit, investment banking, or leveraged finance, has roughly 2 years of experience, and can build the model, defend the structure, and walk an IC through a thesis without leaning on anyone. Sector familiarity with technology, digital infrastructure, or software is a plus, not a requirement. Washington, D.C., with a long-term commitment to the market, is strongly preferred.

Director AI, Portfolio Value Creation, Mid-Market Private Equity (~$5B AUM) | New York

A generalist mid-market PE firm with around $5B in AUM is making its first dedicated data and AI hire, and handing that person the mandate to define how the firm uses AI for years. This is a builder-operator seat, not an advisory one. You'd stand up the firm's data and AI capability from scratch, the infrastructure, the tooling, the playbooks, then point it at the portfolio to turn AI from a talking point into real EBITDA. Day-to-day, you'd work alongside deal teams and portfolio management teams, embedding AI into revenue, pricing, cost, and back-office workflows where it pays for itself, and building a system that lets any new deal be tested against the firm's full history of memos and performance data. It suits someone with 10-plus years across the modern AI and data stack (LLM integration, retrieval, vector stores, warehousing) who has driven measurable operating impact and can hold credibility with an investment committee and a CEO in the same afternoon. New York, on-site.

The associates who make it through this shift will be worth fighting for. We can help you find them.

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We look forward to sharing more insights, opportunities, and success stories with you next quarter!

Take care,
The Tenfold Team