The UK has room to grow when it comes to automation, and that shapes who you can hire. The Smart Machines Strategy reports that UK utilisation of industrial robots substantially lags internationally, using only 101 robots per 10,000 workers in 2020 Smart Machines Strategy 2035 - GOV.UK. The gap is visible in global rankings too: the UK sits just 24th in global robotics density, and targeted innovation and digital investment could add £150 billion to the UK's GDP by 2035 Making it Smarter: Global Lessons for Accelerating Automation and Digital Adoption in UK Manufacturing - Make UK.
Adoption is still early for many firms. Over 50% of manufacturers cite skills shortages as the main barrier to AI adoption, and only 2% say AI is widely embedded across their operations The Manufacturer / Make UK – AI, Skills and the Future of UK Manufacturing. So the demand for people who can own automation is rising faster than the supply of people trained to do it.
Motor sizing is an engineering judgement, not a tick-box. Someone has to verify torque, inertia, speed and duty cycle against the real load, then sign off that the drive and motor will run safely for the life of the machine. When that work has a single named owner, problems get caught before a line goes live rather than after a failure on the floor.
The roles that carry this responsibility, controls engineers, automation engineers and mechatronics specialists, are exactly the ones the sector is short of. 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 Make UK – 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap. Those cognitive skills, the ability to reason through a sizing calculation and own the outcome, are precisely what a motor sizing check demands.
Many firms are closing the gap from within. 40% of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce, specifically for redeployment as a result of automation and digitalisation, and that figure increases for firms with more than 1,000 employees Make UK Executive Survey 2026.
Start with the accountability, not the job title. Write the role around the decisions the person must own: motor and drive sizing, safety sign-off, duty-cycle verification and commissioning. Make it clear that this person is the named owner of those checks, because that clarity attracts engineers who want responsibility and filters out those who don't.
Because skills shortages are the main barrier most firms name, the firms that write sharp, specific roles and move quickly will win the engineers who can own this work The Manufacturer / Make UK – AI, Skills and the Future of UK Manufacturing.
When you need a named owner for your motor sizing checks, speed and reach matter. We search a database of 15 million candidates to surface engineers who match the accountability you've defined, so you spend your time on the right people rather than on sorting applications. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell us what your automation owner needs to own today, and we'll start the search.
