Top 5 'hot' engineering tech skills of summer 2025

Across five highly regulated markets that we supply, our technical hiring teams are noticing the temperature of equally as many engineering tech skills to be rising this summer, writes Lee Knowles, founder at Adepto Technical Recruitment.

As of July 2025, organisations in those markets -- Automotive, Aerospace, Defence, Chemical Manufacturing and Life Sciences -- are actively seeking full-time and freelance engineers with five key technical skills.

We identify these top 5 ‘hot’ engineering tech skills of summer 2025 below, exclusively for Free-Work.

But significantly, while the heatwave has been here in the United Kingdom, these engineering tech skills appear to be the ‘best’ five -- the top of the list -- in the eyes of employers across the USA and EMEA regions, too.

1. Kneat Validation Engineers

Within the pharmaceuticals, medical device and biologics sectors, validation -- the task of ensuring processes, systems, and equipment conform to a rigorous regulatory framework-- has always been a ‘hot’ market.

However, in the first six months of 2025, we’ve seen a trend towards ‘Kneat’ expertise, which is a paperless, digitalised validation system.

More companies are moving away from traditional paper-based processes and towards digital validation systems.

Kneat, the newest shoo-in for freelance contract engineers…

Those corporations adopting Kneat are seeing faster document creation and approval cycles. They are also benefiting from stronger support for data integrity and traceability, especially as the Food & Drug Administration (in the US) and other regulatory bodies encourage the shift to more compliant and efficient digital systems.

Due to it often being a cyclical or project-based activity, validation engineering is particularly sought-after in the contract and freelance market.

And Kneat Validations Engineers are currently top of that list.

Kneat Validation Engineer Pay: Reflecting the strong demand for their skills, typical rates for Kneat solutions as a validation engineer are between £70 and £80 an hour (on a limited company basis).

2. Continuous Improvement Specialists

With rising energy prices and heavy competition from lower-cost territories such as India and China, it has been a tough time for UK and European manufacturers in recent years.

These cost pressures from emerging market economies have galvanised a rise in demand in the UK and Europe for Continuous Improvement Specialists.

What job does a Continuous Improvement Specialist do?

Characterised by data-driven methodologies such as Lean and Six-Sigma, Continuous Improvement Specialists seek to eliminate deficiencies in manufacturing processes, thereby driving down costs and improving quality and efficiencies.

Demand for these activities is particularly high within the energy/utilities, chemicals, healthcare, automotive and defence sectors.

Continuous Improvement Specialist Pay: With these relatively wage-rich sectors seeking to fill continuous improvement jobs, day rates start at a respectable £450 a day. But Continuous Improvement Leads can expect up to £550 a day. Both roles quoted here are on a limited company basis.

3.  Process Development Engineers

As the developed world pivots towards more sustainable, cleaner energy sources, the climate tech market has clicked into overdrive.

Leading this charge are start-up companies, dedicating themselves to the cause.

Process Development demand is consolidating

As more and more nascent companies explore increasingly novel technologies in carbon reduction, recycling, waste to energy, biofuels, battery power and biotechnology, skills such as process development are surging on top of the already previously high demand.

Process Development Chemists and Engineers help to optimise technologies and scale them from laboratory environments through to pilot/demonstrator plants and, hopefully, full-scale manufacturing.

Process Development Chemist/Engineer Salary: Thanks to the currently significant appetite for process development engineers and scientists, advertised salaries for senior roles start at £75,000. But we’ve also placed some process development specialists on jobs currently paying £85,000 a year. 

4. Procurement Specialists

Global supply chains have experienced significant disruption in recent years, particularly as a result of the covid pandemic and, more recently, military conflicts.

The result? Serious shortages in raw materials, especially in the chemical manufacturing sector.  Supply has been limited and demand has been high.

Therefore, procurement specialists, particularly those with a CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply) Level 4 qualification, are now in high demand.

Top four job tasks of a procurement specialist

Procurement Specialists are extremely ‘hot’ when they can demonstrate their ability to:

1. Strategically manage supply chain risk;

2. Lead complex tendering processes;

3. Construct effective contractual documentation, and;

4. Negotiate preferential terms.

Procurement Specialists Salary: Due to being very sought-after at this halfway point of 2025, annual salaries for senior-level procurement specialists start at £75,000. But for bonafide procurement and supply chain experts with the CIPS Level 4 diploma, £85,000 a year is also achievable.

5. Process Safety Engineers

Manufacturing plants can be highly hazardous environments to work in and when things go wrong, the consequences can be catastrophic.

Ranging from Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico and Piper Alpha in the North Sea to the Shandong Youdao Chemical Company in China in May 2025, accidents are often the result of insufficient safety protocols -- or failure to follow them.

What job does a Process Safety Engineer do?

Process safety engineers identify hazards in manufacturing processes and make recommendations on how risks can be mitigated, while maintaining compliance with prevailing regulatory requirements.

Demand for process safety engineers is currently spiking, with large ‘EPCM’ (Engineering, Procurement and Construction Management) companies, manufacturers and a plethora of SME-style consulting organisations all seeking this single skillset.

Process Safety Engineers are usually degree-qualified chemical engineers (although not exclusively so).

Process Safety Engineer Salary: The typical annual wage for a (senior) process safety engineer starts at £70,000 but can reach up to £80,000.

The future: Outlook for engineering tech skills -- my hiring and jobs forecast for H2 2025

At the time of writing (with the second half of 2025 now well underway), the engineering technology jobs market is uniquely positioned -- there’s an enormous appetite for cleaner, novel technologies, but energy prices are high and funding is limited.

So we expect demand to remain driven by those organisations that can harness efficiencies, while maintaining quality and regulatory compliance. If you’re an engineering tech job candidate in this buoyant ‘space,’ you might be wise to put those employers towards the top of your own ‘Top 5’ list.