The picture is strong, and the momentum is building. MOD expenditure with industry supported a total of 272,000 direct jobs in 2023/24, an increase of 11% compared to the previous financial year, according to the MOD supported employment estimates for 2023/24. That builds on the year before, when the total number of MOD-supported UK jobs reached 239,000 in 2022/23, an increase of 6% on the previous financial year, as reported in the 2022/23 estimates.
Recruitment inside the sector is growing too. The defence sector continued to be an attractive employer, with surveyed recruitment growing by 17.8% in 2022, according to a GOV.UK release on the sector's economic contribution. Fresh investment is adding to that: more than 1,700 new jobs are being created across the UK defence sector following at least £1.4 billion in foreign direct investment committed since July 2024, as set out in a GOV.UK announcement on the defence dividend. For anyone building power and battery teams, that's a sector moving in the right direction.
Power engineering sits at the heart of this growth. Defence battery and power systems work, from energy storage to platform power, needs electrical, electronic and systems engineers, and the hiring pool for these roles is largely homegrown. For the Engineering profession, the vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force, indicating low reliance on international recruitment, according to a GOV.UK review of professionals in IT and engineering. In practice, that means you're competing for UK-based talent, so a sharp, local hiring approach matters.
There's also a pipeline dynamic worth watching. In Engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap, according to a GOV.UK snapshot of entry-level hiring. That gap is a warning sign: if fewer people enter at the start, the senior engineers who design and certify defence power systems get harder to find over time. Employers who invest in early-career routes now are protecting their future shortlists.
Start by being precise about the work. A defence battery programme needs specific skills: high-voltage safety, thermal management, power electronics, systems integration and the compliance that comes with security-cleared environments. Write the role around those capabilities rather than a generic engineering title, and you'll match the right people faster.
Because the vast majority of new engineering hires come from the resident labour force per the GOV.UK review, treat the UK talent market as your main field. Move quickly when you find a good match, keep your process short, and give people a clear view of the mission and the progression on offer. And with that entry-level gap in mind from the GOV.UK snapshot, build apprenticeships and graduate routes alongside your senior hires so your pipeline keeps feeding itself.
We built Reed.ai to make specialist hiring like this faster and simpler. We search 15 million candidates to find the right power and battery engineers for your programme, rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds and manage the process end to end, from first contact to a booked interview. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. If you're growing a defence power engineering team, start a hire with us today.
