Demand is high and the squeeze is real. The Institution of Engineering and Technology found that 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list. That pressure is set to continue. Skills England places engineering among the occupations with the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030, alongside digital, adult social care and construction.
The longer view points the same way. Skills England expects demand for key occupations to grow by nearly 25% over the next decade, with 1.8 million new priority jobs by 2035. For product and engineering leaders, that means the skills you need now will be even harder to source if you wait.
The reward is shifting from job titles to specific capabilities. Skills England reports that digital, engineering and construction occupations appear most commonly among priority occupations, many already seeing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly. In practice, that favours people who pair core engineering knowledge with digital and sustainability skills.
Automation is reshaping what each role actually does. Make UK found that six in ten (59%) manufacturers cited automation and half (50%) cited wider digitalisation as trends changing jobs and skills needs, and 74% expect demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to increase by 2030. So when you map a product role, look past the tools and toward problem-solving, judgement and the ability to learn fast.
Retention is the other half of the story. Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, which surveyed over 500 employers and 1,000 candidates, found 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026. When most of the market is open to moving, a clear, skills-based role is what makes your opening stand out.
Start by writing the role as a list of capabilities, not a wish list of titles. Break each product role into the technical skills, the digital or sustainability skills, and the cognitive skills it genuinely needs. Barclays Corporate found that manufacturers rank skills shortages (75%), recruitment (36%) and talent retention (32%) as their top barriers to growth, so a sharp, honest spec saves time at every stage.
Then plan for building as well as buying. Make UK reports that 40% of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce for redeployment as automation and digitalisation take hold, a figure that rises for firms with more than 1,000 employees. Map the skills you can grow in-house and the ones you must hire for, and you will know exactly where to focus your search.
Keep the process quick and human. With most technical professionals open to a move, a slow or vague process loses good people. Be specific about the skills that matter, give clear feedback fast, and keep the person in front of you informed at each step.
Once you have mapped your product roles to the skills that matter, we help you find the people who have them. We search a database of 15 million candidates and rank a shortlist against the capabilities you set, so you spend your time with the right people rather than reading through the wrong CVs. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell us the role, and we will start building your shortlist today.
