Demand is strong and set to grow. Skills England names digital, adult social care, construction and engineering as the occupations with the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030 GOV.UK - Assessment of priority skills to 2030 (Skills England). Its latest annual report goes further, finding that digital, engineering and construction roles appear most often among priority occupations, many already seeing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly GOV.UK - Skills England annual skills report 2026.
There is plenty of room for automation to expand, too. The UK ranks 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. Government data tells a similar story: the International Federation of Robotics reported the UK used only 101 robots per 10,000 workers in 2020, substantially behind international peers Smart Machines Strategy 2035 - GOV.UK. As hospital pharmacies roll out robotic dispensing, that gap turns into jobs for the engineers who build and run these systems.
Pharmacy automation needs a mix of hands-on and specialist engineering skills: commissioning and installation, robotics maintenance, controls and software integration, plus the data work that keeps medicines moving safely. These are exactly the skills employers find hardest to fill. The IET reports that 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills at the top of the list Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
The pipeline is tightening at the start, which matters if you want to grow talent over time. 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. And you cannot assume you will fill these roles from abroad: for the engineering profession, the vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force, pointing to low reliance on international recruitment GOV.UK - Professionals in IT and engineering.
Start by writing for the resident labour market, because that is where most engineering hires come from GOV.UK - Professionals in IT and engineering. Describe the real work: the dispensing robots, the control systems, the integration with hospital medicines records. Be specific about what someone will build and maintain, not just the job title.
Then widen the pool on purpose. With 76% of engineering employers struggling to recruit for key roles, insisting on a narrow background shrinks an already small market Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). Look at adjacent sectors, from manufacturing automation to building controls, where the core robotics and integration skills transfer well. Given the drop in entry-level hiring, consider building a route in for junior engineers and apprentices so you are not only competing for senior people GOV.UK - A snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK. Finally, move quickly: in a tight market, a slow process loses good people to faster employers.
The right partner helps you move at the speed this market demands. 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 are hiring engineers for an automation programme, tell us what you need today and we will get started.
