Engineering & Technical recruitment
R&D is where most of our search work happens. The consultant on your search knows the difference between a hardware engineer and an embedded software engineer, and why that difference shapes your shortlist.
What this desk covers
R&D here means the engineering that turns a concept into a working, testable design, along with the technical leadership that sets the direction those engineers build against. Each discipline differs enough in its own tooling and failure modes that we work them as separate specialisms rather than one generic engineer bucket.
Hardware & Electronics Design
Electronics and PCB design engineers across analog, digital and mixed-signal hardware.
Embedded Software & Firmware
Embedded software and firmware engineers across C/C++, real-time systems and hardware-adjacent development.
RF & Microwave
RF and microwave engineers for defence, aerospace, telecoms and test & measurement businesses.
FPGA & Digital Design
FPGA and digital design engineers, from VHDL/Verilog design through to verification.
Mechanical Design
Mechanical design engineers across CAD, product design and mechanical R&D.
Semiconductor & IC Design
Analog, digital and mixed-signal IC design engineers, plus semiconductor process and test roles.
Photonics & Optical Design
Photonics and optical design engineers across laser systems, fibre optics and optical component design.
Engineering & Technical Leadership
Engineering Managers, Engineering Directors and CTOs for growing engineering and technology businesses.
Typical seniority
Graduate and early career
Building depth in a first discipline.
Design owner
Engineers who own a design or a subsystem outright.
Principal and staff
Trusted with the hardest technical problems in a business.
Leadership
Engineering Manager, Engineering Director, VP Engineering and CTO.
Most day-to-day volume sits in the engineer to principal band. The searches we run as retained, confidential work concentrate at the top of the ladder.
Industries
Semiconductor and IoT demand clusters around Cambridge, with the industrial and automotive electronics base spread across the Midlands and South East. These sectors overlap in practice: a semiconductor design engineer might move between a telecoms infrastructure business and a defence prime without changing discipline, though defence and aerospace work carries a security clearance requirement a commercial telecoms role would not.
What makes this hard to hire for
Scarcity is the core problem. RF, FPGA and semiconductor design are small, specialist pools where deployable engineers are rarely active on job boards, so a search built on advertising and waiting for applications stalls quickly. Job titles are unreliable across this desk too: "Electronics Engineer" or "FPGA Engineer" can mean different jobs at different companies, so the brief has to be read at the level of the actual work. Where a role needs clearance, that timeline has to be planned in from the outset, because a straightforward-looking brief can take considerably longer than it appears on paper.
How we approach it
We work this desk by discipline, so the consultant on an FPGA brief knows the difference between an RTL design engineer and a verification engineer, and screens on it. Where the pool is thin, direct approaches to people who are not looking do more of the work than an advert. Senior and leadership searches run retained and confidential for the same reason. Most disciplines here are available on a contract or day-rate basis as well as permanent, since a lot of R&D need is project-shaped rather than a permanent headcount.
Engineering & Technical hiring: frequently asked questions
Hiring across Engineering & Technical?
Tell us what the role needs to do. We'll come back with questions about the work, and an honest read on what the brief will take.
Tell us about the role