The market is tight, and demand keeps climbing. Most engineering employers can't fill the roles they need: 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list the Institution of Engineering and Technology's 2025 skills research. That shortage sits against a clear growth picture. Occupations in Digital, Adult Social Care, Construction and Engineering have the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030 Skills England's assessment of priority skills to 2030.
The longer view points the same way. Digital, engineering and construction occupations appear most commonly among priority occupations, many already experiencing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly the Skills England annual skills report 2026. At a national level, demand for key occupations will grow by nearly 25% in the next decade, with 1.8 million new priority jobs expected by 2035 a 2026 Skills England report. Travel software is one of the engines behind that: every booking platform, dynamic pricing tool and mobile travel app needs engineers to build and maintain it.
When a sector digitises, it pulls in a familiar mix of engineering skills. Travel software demand is widening the need for software engineers, backend and API specialists, platform and cloud engineers, data engineers and the specialist roles that keep systems secure and reliable. These sit squarely in the categories growing fastest, as digital and engineering occupations appear most commonly among priority occupations and are expected to keep growing strongly Skills England's 2026 annual skills report.
The hiring dynamics make these roles harder to secure. People are on the move: 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026 Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, which surveyed over 500 employers and 1,000 candidates. That churn is both a risk and an opportunity. For employers filling new travel software roles, it means more skilled people are open to a move, but it also means you compete to keep the engineers you already have.
Start with a clear, honest brief. Define the one or two technical skills that genuinely matter for the role, the systems the person will own, and what success looks like in the first six months. The shortage is concentrated in technical and specialist skills, as 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles the IET's 2025 skills statistics, so precision in the brief helps you spot the right person faster.
Move quickly and look close to home. With 79% of UK technical professionals planning to change employers in 2026 Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, a slow process loses good people. Focus your search on the UK talent pool, too: for the engineering profession, the vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force, indicating low reliance on international recruitment a 2025 GOV.UK review of professionals in IT and engineering. Keep your interview stages short, give fast feedback, and make a decision while the right person is still interested.
We search 15 million candidates to find engineers who match your brief, and we manage recruitment end to end so you can keep building. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. If you're hiring for new travel software roles, tell Reed.ai what you need and we'll get started today.
