The competition is real, and the data backs it up. In 2025, 76% of engineering employers said they struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list, according to the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). That combination of technical and sustainability skill is exactly what a renewables project needs from its structural engineers.
The pressure is set to grow. Skills England's assessment of priority skills to 2030 names engineering and construction among the occupations with the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030. Its follow-up analysis found that demand for key occupations will grow by nearly 25% in the next decade, with 1.8 million new priority jobs expected by 2035, according to Skills England. Renewables sits right in the path of that growth.
There is a supply problem underneath the demand. In engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap, according to GOV.UK's snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK. Fewer people are coming in at the bottom, so the experienced pool everyone wants to hire from is getting no younger and no bigger.
Structural engineers are central to offshore foundations, turbine towers, solar mounting systems and the civils that hold it all together. They also carry the sustainability specialism employers say is hardest to find, and Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, surveying over 500 employers and 1,000 candidates found 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026. High mobility means the person you want is often already employed and open to a better offer.
Where do these engineers come from? Mostly from here. For the engineering profession, the vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force, indicating low reliance on international recruitment, according to a GOV.UK review of professionals in IT and engineering. Pay for engineering professionals on the Skilled Worker route is broadly in line with the UK average, per the Migration Advisory Committee, so the international route offers no easy shortcut around a domestic shortage.
That points to a clear conclusion. Digital, engineering and construction occupations appear most commonly among priority occupations, many already experiencing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly, according to the Skills England annual skills report 2026. You are hiring from a resident pool that every other renewables developer, contractor and consultancy is also chasing.
Start with speed. With 79% of technical professionals open to moving in 2026, per Rise Technical's report, the best people are in play but not for long. Shorten your process, book interviews quickly and give a decision in days, not weeks. A slow hiring loop loses good engineers to faster competitors.
Then widen the funnel you build from. With entry-level engineering hiring down at -19%, per GOV.UK, leaning only on senior hires deepens the shortage. Bring in early-career engineers alongside experienced ones and grow your own specialists, so you are not competing for the same small group of experienced names every time.
Sell the mission and the progression. Sustainability skills top the list of hard-to-fill roles, per the IET, and structural engineers who choose renewables often care about the work itself. Be clear about the projects, the training and the path forward. Since most engineering hires come from the resident labour force, per GOV.UK, focus your effort where the talent actually is: the UK workforce.
When the pool is limited, reach and speed decide who hires first. We search a database of 15 million candidates to match structural and sustainability engineers to your renewables roles, and we manage recruitment end to end so your team can stay on the projects. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Ready to build your engineering team? Start with Reed.ai today.
