The picture is mixed, and that matters if you're planning an OT security hire. The wider labour market is what the Low Pay Commission calls 'low hire, low fire', with weaker recruitment and vacancies below pre-pandemic levels Low Pay Commission Report 2025, GOV.UK. Yet against that subdued backdrop, businesses have kept spending on specialist skills, with clear demand hotspots for AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026).
Demand for technical talent isn't evenly spread. The largest volume increase in vacancies over August to October 2025 sat in professional, scientific and technical activities, which rose by 5,000 ONS – Vacancies and jobs in the UK: November 2025. Looking further out, Skills England names Engineering, alongside Digital and Construction, among the occupations with the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030 GOV.UK - Assessment of priority skills to 2030 (Skills England). Automation firms sit right where engineering and digital meet, so this demand lands squarely on them.
The cyber security side is tight, too. The UK cyber security workforce numbers around 143,000 people, with growth picking up from 2% in 2022 to 5% in 2024 Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2025 - GOV.UK. Even so, 70% of cyber firms reported at least one hard-to-fill vacancy AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk. When you combine scarce cyber talent with scarce engineering talent, OT security roles become some of the hardest to fill of all.
OT security is the practice of protecting the systems that run physical processes: the programmable logic controllers, SCADA platforms and industrial networks on a plant floor. The skill firms want most is the blend: someone who understands cyber security and can read a control system without bringing production to a halt. That blend is rare because it draws from two already-stretched talent pools.
There's a supply squeeze at the junior end that shapes how firms build these teams. In Engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a nine-percentage-point gap GOV.UK - A snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK. Across UK tech more broadly, graduate jobs were cut by 46% in the past year with a further 53% drop projected The Register, and entry-level postings have dropped 30% since ChatGPT launched techUK – What's actually happening with entry-level and graduate jobs?. Fewer junior routes in means fewer people maturing into blended OT security roles later.
So firms are creating their own pipeline. Apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report, a shift that works just as well for OT security: hire for aptitude, then build the specialist blend in-house. It's also worth noting where competition concentrates, London accounts for 80% of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all UK technology vacancies The Register (Accenture data), which gives regional automation firms a real recruiting advantage if they use it.
Start by deciding what you can teach and what you can't. It's often faster to take a strong control systems engineer and add cyber security knowledge than to find a full package on the open market, especially when 70% of cyber firms already report hard-to-fill vacancies AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk. Write job specs around the actual work: the protocols, the plant environment, the incident scenarios you need covered. That attracts people who can do the job and filters out those who only look right on paper.
Build your own talent, and be patient. With entry-level engineering hiring down and graduate routes narrowing GOV.UK - A snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK, apprenticeships and cross-training aren't a fallback, they're the plan. Reward broad thinking: on the government's Skilled Worker route, pay for engineering professionals is broadly in line with the UK average, while top technology firms can pay well above the salary threshold Professionals in IT and Engineering (Migration Advisory Committee), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk. If you compete purely on headline pay, you'll struggle. Compete on the interesting problems, the training and the career path instead.
Move quickly once someone strong appears. In a scarce market, the best people don't stay available long, so a slow process loses them. Look beyond London, where postings and competition cluster The Register (Accenture data), and keep your shortlist tight and your interviews few. The firms that hire well here treat OT security as a long-term capability to grow, not a single vacancy to fill.
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