It's a candidate's market, and the data is blunt about it. Some 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list, according to the Institution of Engineering and Technology's 2025 skills figures. That shortage sits at the heart of why a single local advert rarely fills a software role any more.
The people you want are also on the move. Research shows 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026, based on Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, which surveyed over 500 employers and 1,000 candidates. So the talent exists. The challenge is reaching the right engineers before someone else does, wherever in the country they happen to live.
Specialist skills are the pinch point, and nothing shows it more clearly than AI. Demand for AI skills increased nearly 200% in a year, with London accounting for 80% of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all technology vacancies in the UK, according to Accenture data reported by The Register.
That concentration is the real story for anyone hiring outside the capital. If most postings cluster in one city, a role advertised only in your town competes against a far smaller pool. The engineers with the exact stack you need, whether that's backend, data, machine learning or platform work, are spread across the UK. A national reach turns a thin local shortlist into a deep one.
Start with one well-written role. Be specific about the stack, the problems the person will solve and how the team works, including whether it's remote, hybrid or office based. A clear remote or hybrid line alone widens your reach from a single postcode to the whole country.
Then move quickly. With 79% of technical professionals planning to change jobs in 2026, per Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, the people you want are weighing up several conversations at once. Reply in hours, not days. Keep the process short, give honest feedback and tell everyone what happens next. Matching on real skills rather than job titles is what surfaces the strong engineer who doesn't use the exact words in your advert.
This is where we come in. We search a database of 15 million candidates, so one post reaches software people right across the UK rather than one local area. We rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds, contact matched people in under a minute and can book an interview in under three minutes, then we manage the process end to end. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Post your software role with Reed.ai today and see your shortlist.
