Automation is reshaping the shop floor, and sawmills sit right in the middle of that shift. When a mill adds optimising saws, laser scanning and programmable logic controllers, someone has to set them up, tune them and keep them running. That someone is a controls or automation engineer, and the data shows demand for those skills is climbing across manufacturing.
Six in ten (59%) manufacturers cited automation and half (50%) cited wider digitalisation as trends changing jobs and skills needs, with 74% expecting demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to increase by 2030 Make UK – 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap. Yet adoption is still early: only 2% of manufacturers say AI is widely embedded across their operations, and over 50% cite skills shortages as the main barrier to AI adoption The Manufacturer / Make UK – AI, Skills and the Future of UK Manufacturing.
There is plenty of headroom. 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. Earlier figures put UK utilisation at only 101 robots per 10,000 workers in 2020, substantially behind international peers Smart Machines Strategy 2035 - GOV.UK. As mills and factories close that gap, they will need the people who make automation work.
Automating a sawmill does not remove people so much as change what they do. The operator who once ran a manual line can move towards monitoring, maintenance and programming. That redeployment is already a plan for many firms: 40% of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce, specifically for redeployment as a result of automation and digitalisation, a figure that rises for firms with more than 1,000 employees Make UK Executive Survey 2026.
The roles in demand are engineering and digital ones. Digital, engineering and construction occupations appear most commonly among priority occupations, many already experiencing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly GOV.UK - Skills England annual skills report 2026. Engineering also sits among the occupations with the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030 GOV.UK - Assessment of priority skills to 2030 (Skills England).
Finding these people is hard. 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). The shortage has a price tag: in 2025 there were 55,000 unfilled long-term vacancies in UK manufacturing, costing the economy £6bn in lost output every year Make UK – Industrial Strategy Skills Commission Report 2025.
Start by looking inward. If 40% of manufacturers are planning to redeploy existing staff as automation lands Make UK Executive Survey 2026, the operators and maintenance team you already have are prime candidates for controls training. Map the skills a line needs after automation, then build a path from where your people are now to where the machines will take them.
Plan your early-career pipeline too. In Engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap GOV.UK - A snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK. Cutting junior intake now stores up a senior shortage later, so apprenticeships and trainee controls roles protect your future bench strength.
Widen your net at home. For the Engineering profession, the vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force, indicating low reliance on international recruitment GOV.UK - Professionals in IT and engineering. That means the talent is here, but you will be competing for it, so clear role definitions, quick responses and a focus on transferable skills all help you move faster than the next employer.
We built our AI recruitment agent to find scarce skills fast. It searches 15 million candidates, ranks a shortlist in under 30 seconds, contacts matched people in under a minute and can book an interview in under three minutes. For controls and automation roles, where good engineers move quickly, that speed matters.
Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. The focus stays on one thing: finding the right person to keep your automated lines running. Tell Reed.ai about the role today and see your first shortlist.
