Defence and security hiring is strong, and the numbers back that up. 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 MOD supported employment estimates 2023/24 - GOV.UK. That builds on momentum from 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 MOD supported employment estimates 2022/23 - GOV.UK.
The sector is also pulling in new people, not just holding its ground. The defence sector continued to be an attractive employer, with surveyed recruitment growing by 17.8% in 2022 Defence sector continues contributing significantly to UK economy - GOV.UK. More recently, 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 Defence dividend delivers thousands of UK jobs following exceptional foreign investment - GOV.UK. For anyone hiring systems engineers, that means you're competing in a growing, confident market.
When you read a batch of live defence roles side by side, a pattern appears. Employers aren't really listing a tool stack. They're describing how a person thinks across a whole programme, from requirements to decommissioning. The systems engineer who stands out is the one who connects moving parts: hardware, software, people, timelines and security, all at once.
That pattern lines up with the scale of the work. With MOD expenditure supporting 272,000 direct jobs in 2023/24 MOD supported employment estimates 2023/24 - GOV.UK, programmes are large, long and interdependent. Roles reveal three things in particular about the engineers behind them.
Live roles tend to ask for someone who owns a system across its life, not a specialist for one phase. That tells you the best people can trace a decision made at design through to support years later. Look for evidence of trade-off calls, not just a list of certifications.
Many defence roles need clearance, and that narrows the pool before skills even come into play. It changes how you plan a search: you weigh current clearance, eligibility and sponsorship timelines. The engineers who move fastest are often those already cleared or clearly eligible, so this needs to sit at the front of your process.
Systems engineering lives at the seams between teams. Roles repeatedly reward people who can translate between customer, supplier and technical specialists. With recruitment growing by 17.8% in 2022 Defence sector continues contributing significantly to UK economy - GOV.UK, teams are forming quickly, and the engineers who help those teams talk to each other are the ones worth chasing.
Start with clarity on clearance. Decide upfront whether a role needs existing clearance or whether you can sponsor it, because that single choice changes who you can realistically reach and how long the hire takes.
Done well, this turns a slow, clearance-heavy search into a focused one. You stop reading CVs for keywords and start matching people to the system they'll actually run.
We built our recruitment agent to handle exactly this kind of search end to end, so a demanding, clearance-aware defence hire doesn't swallow your week. We search 15 million candidates, rank a shortlist and manage the process from first contact through to interview, while you stay focused on the technical decisions only you can make. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost, through Reed.ai. If you're hiring systems engineers in defence and security, tell us the role and let us build your shortlist today.
