The ground is moving under employers. A striking 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026, according to Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, surveying over 500 employers and 1,000 candidates. That is not a quiet market. It is a workforce actively weighing its next move, and it tells you something simple: the people you want are already thinking about leaving someone else.
Pay sits at the centre of that thinking, but it behaves differently across the field. Top technology firms can pay sizeable wages to skilled migrants, leading to wages far above the salary threshold, while pay for engineering professionals on the Skilled Worker route is broadly in line with the UK average, according to the Migration Advisory Committee's review of professionals in IT and engineering. So the headline pay stories you read are often set at the top of the software market, not across engineering as a whole.
Where you recruit from matters. For the engineering profession, the vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force, indicating low reliance on international recruitment, according to the GOV.UK review of professionals in IT and engineering. In plain terms: most of your engineers will be hired from inside the UK, from people who already have a job and a current salary to beat.
Software roles pull the other way. Because top technology firms can pay sizeable wages that sit far above the salary threshold, as the Migration Advisory Committee notes, the upper end of the developer market sets a fast pace on pay. Add the fact that 79% of technical professionals plan to move in 2026, per Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, and you get a market where good people have options and expect your offer to reflect that.
Start with the base. Because most hires come from the resident labour force, as the GOV.UK review shows, your offer competes against a salary the person already earns. Benchmark the role honestly and make the base number clear up front. Guesswork at offer stage loses people you spent weeks finding.
Then design the whole offer, not just the number. With 79% of technical professionals planning to move in 2026, per Rise Technical's report, the things that keep an engineer, a clear career path, interesting work, flexibility and a manager worth staying for, are the things that win them too. Spell those out alongside pay.
Finally, move quickly. In a market where the best developers are weighing several conversations at once, a slow, vague process signals a slow, vague employer. Keep your interview stages tight, give feedback fast, and send a clear written offer the moment you decide. Speed is part of the offer.
This is where we help. We search 15 million candidates to find engineers who match the role and the level you need, then manage the process end to end so you can move at the pace this market demands. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. If you are building a software team in 2026, start a conversation with us today.
