Defence is one of the busiest corners of UK engineering today, and the numbers back that up. MOD expenditure with industry supported a total of 272,000 direct jobs in 2023/24, an increase of 11% compared to the previous financial year, according to the MOD supported employment estimates for 2023/24 on GOV.UK. That followed a run where the total number of MOD-supported UK jobs reached 239,000 in 2022/23, up 6% on the year before, as reported in the MOD supported employment estimates for 2022/23 on GOV.UK.
Recruitment itself is accelerating too. The defence sector continued to be an attractive employer, with surveyed recruitment growing by 17.8% in 2022, according to GOV.UK's defence sector economic update. Fresh capital is adding to that momentum: more than 1,700 new jobs are being created across the UK defence sector following at least £1.4 billion in foreign direct investment committed since July 2024, as set out in GOV.UK's defence dividend announcement. Underwater systems, from sonar to subsea platforms, sit right inside this growth.
The pull is strongest where specialist engineering and future skills meet. Occupations in Digital, Adult Social Care, Construction and Engineering have the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030, according to Skills England's assessment of priority skills to 2030. Underwater systems work draws on exactly these areas: electronics, signal processing, software, mechanical design and hydrodynamics all in one programme.
Finding those people is hard. 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. There is also a shape problem in the talent pipeline. In Engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap, according to a GOV.UK snapshot of entry-level hiring. Thinner entry-level intake today means fewer experienced specialists tomorrow, which is a real risk for long underwater programmes.
Start with the resident workforce, because that is where most engineering talent already comes from. For the Engineering profession, the vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force, indicating low reliance on international recruitment, according to GOV.UK's review of professionals in IT and engineering. In practice that means building strong UK pipelines rather than waiting on hard-to-source international hires.
Then design for the long game. Underwater systems roles often need security clearance, so plan timelines around that and keep people interested. Open your criteria to adjacent sectors, think marine, subsea energy, robotics and telecoms, where transferable skills are plentiful. And rebuild the entry-level rung through apprenticeships and graduate routes, so you close the senior gap before it widens. Move quickly when you find the right person: in a market this tight, a slow process loses them.
When you need specialist underwater systems and defence engineering skills fast, we help you find the right person without slowing your programme down. We search 15 million candidates and manage your recruitment end to end, from a ranked shortlist to a booked interview. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Ready to fill your next engineering role? Start a search with Reed.ai today.
