Demand is strong and growing. 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's 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 MOD's 2022/23 estimates.
Recruitment inside the sector is accelerating 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 pipeline: 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 an SME, that growth is the opportunity and the challenge. More orders mean more components, more suppliers and more delivery deadlines to manage, which is exactly why a first dedicated supply chain hire starts to pay off.
In a small defence business, the first supply chain hire usually absorbs work that's been spread across founders, engineers and operations. Before you write a job description, list every task that person will own. A typical scope includes:
Defence contracts add layers that civilian supply chains don't: tight traceability, security clearance considerations and long qualification lead times for new suppliers. The more of these your contracts demand, the more senior your first hire needs to be.
Size the role by the complexity of your work, not by how many people you hope to have one day. Ask three questions. How many active suppliers and purchase orders will this person manage at once? How critical are long-lead or single-source components to your delivery dates? And how much of the job is strategic sourcing versus day-to-day buying?
If most of the work is transactional, with a settled supplier base, a strong buyer or supply chain coordinator can carry it. If you're scaling fast, qualifying new suppliers and managing risk across critical programmes, you need a supply chain manager who can both do the work today and build the function for tomorrow. Many SMEs start with a hybrid: someone hands-on enough to raise orders and senior enough to shape supplier strategy.
The talent pool is tight, and defence competes with the whole of UK manufacturing for it. In 2025 there were 55,000 unfilled long-term vacancies in UK manufacturing, costing the economy £6bn in lost output every year, according to Make UK's Industrial Strategy Skills Commission report. That shortage is felt most sharply by employers themselves.
When manufacturers were asked about their top barriers to growth, skills shortages came first at 75%, recruitment at 36% and talent retention at 32%, according to Barclays Corporate research on the UK manufacturing skills shortage. For a defence SME, add security clearance timelines and the need for sector-specific experience, and the pool narrows further. That's why clear scoping matters: a well-defined role attracts the right people faster.
Start with the scope you've just mapped and turn it into a focused job description. Be honest about what's hands-on and what's strategic, because the best supply chain people want to know exactly what they'll own. Make clearance expectations clear up front, since existing clearance or eligibility can shorten your time to productivity.
Look beyond pure defence backgrounds. Strong supply chain professionals from aerospace, automotive or regulated manufacturing often transfer well, and they bring fresh supplier networks. Test for judgement, not just process knowledge: ask how someone handled a sole-source shortage or a supplier that missed a critical delivery. Move quickly once you find the right person, because in a tight market good people don't stay available for long.
We built our recruitment agent to help defence SMEs fill specialist roles like this without the slow, manual grind. We search 15 million candidates to surface people with the right supply chain experience, rank a shortlist, and handle 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, through Reed.ai. If you're sizing your first supply chain role, tell us the scope and we'll find the right person. Start today.
