The picture is tight, and it's getting tighter. Right now, 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list the Institution of Engineering and Technology's 2025 skills research. That matters for energy trading platforms, which sit exactly where deep software knowledge meets the clean energy transition.
Movement in the market makes the squeeze worse. Some 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026, according to recruitment firm Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report surveying over 500 employers and 1000 candidates Engineering and Technology Jobs, reporting Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report. When most of the talent pool is open to moving, the firms that act fast win the best people, and the slow ones keep losing them.
Energy trading platforms draw on the same scarce skills everyone else wants. Against a subdued 2025 economic backdrop, businesses took a cautious approach to hiring but there were demand hotspots for specialist tech skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly's tech recruitment outlook for 2026. Trading platforms need every one of those: real-time data pipelines, risk and pricing models, secure infrastructure and the enterprise systems that tie it together.
So these firms aren't recruiting in a quiet corner. They're bidding for AI, data and cyber security engineers against banks, utilities and scale-ups, and they're doing it while 76% of engineering employers already struggle to fill key roles the IET's 2025 skills figures. The roles that blend domain knowledge of energy markets with strong software skills are the hardest of all to find.
Start by being precise about the skills that actually move the needle. With specialist AI, data and cyber security skills in highest demand Computer Weekly's 2026 outlook, a vague job description competes for everyone and lands no one. Name the core capability, separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves, and you widen the pool to people who can learn the rest.
Then move quickly, because the people you want are already being approached. With 79% of technical professionals open to a move in 2026 Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, a slow, multi-week process loses strong engineers to faster employers. Keep interviews tight, give honest feedback and make the decision when you have it. Speed and clarity beat a long, cautious process every time in a market this competitive.
This is where we help. We search 15 million candidates to find engineers with the AI, data and security skills energy trading platforms need, and we rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds so you can act while the best people are still available. We handle recruitment end to end, from matching to a booked interview, so your team stays focused on building the platform. 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. Tell us the role today and we'll start the search.
