To hire a controls engineer in the UK, decide whether you need a controls, PLC or automation engineer, write an advert that names your platform, sector and shifts, offer pay in line with advertised rates, test practical skills, and complete a right to work check before the start date. Advertised pay for PLC engineers sits well above the typical all-employee wage.
Checked 28 October 2026. Pay is from ITJobsWatch (six months to 28 October 2026) and the ONS pay tables published 22 October 2026. Right to work, sponsorship fees and the Immigration Skills Charge were re-read on GOV.UK on 28 October 2026. Job board prices are undated third-party figures.
Disclosure. EDWartens runs a free job board for employers and has no charge to employers at present. We promise no applicants, interviews or hires, and we are not a legal adviser. This is general guidance, not legal advice: check your own contracts and the GOV.UK and ACAS pages linked below.
Controls, PLC or automation engineer: which title do you need?
The three titles overlap, but they ask for different people, and a muddled advert attracts the wrong applicants. In broad terms a PLC programmer writes and edits control code on a given platform, a controls engineer owns the wider control system including panels, drives, networks and documentation, and an automation engineer often covers the plant-level picture. Our guide to PLC programmer, PLC engineer and controls engineer roles sets out the differences.
How do you write the advert so the right people apply?
A good advert is specific. Include:
- Platform and versions. Name the PLC and software, for example Siemens S7 with TIA Portal, or Allen-Bradley with Studio 5000. "PLC experience" attracts everyone.
- Sector and environment. Food, water, pharma, packaging, automotive. Say if it is clean, hazardous-area or hot.
- Shifts and call-out. Say whether the role is days, a rota, or on call, and what is paid for it.
- Pay or a range. Applicants can only judge fit if they can see what the job pays, and the section below gives you something to anchor on.
- Standards and safety. Machine safety, BS 7671 wiring, and who signs off safety functions.
- Must have versus would help. Keep must-haves to what you will not train.
- Equal opportunities. Acas says employers "must follow a fair process" and that discrimination and data protection law apply across the whole recruitment process.
What pay should you offer for a controls engineer in 2026?
Use two sources and understand why they differ.
- Advertised pay. ITJobsWatch's PLC Engineer page, for the six months to 28 October 2026, shows a median of £60,000 across 147 permanent adverts, with 142 quoting a salary. The 10th percentile is £42,500 and the 90th is £65,000. A year earlier the same page shows 80 permanent adverts and a £57,000 median, and two years earlier 26 adverts. ITJobsWatch is an IT jobs site, so its adverts may not reflect every manufacturing employer.
- Employee pay. The ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2026 provisional results published 22 October 2026, shows a median of £48,700 for full-time employees in code 2125, Production and process engineers, on annual gross pay, from about 53 thousand jobs. Median gross annual pay for all full-time employees was £40,911 in April 2026.
The gap has ordinary causes. ONS counts what existing employees earn, across all experience levels and the whole code. Advertised pay is what employers offer to attract a new hire, often with a specific platform. ONS code 2125 also covers production and process engineers, not only controls roles. Neither number is a rate card: use them to see whether your offer is plausible, then adjust for your region, shifts and platform.
To see how roles and pay are described on a live board, read the controls engineer role page.
Where do you find controls engineers?
| Route | Cost to you | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| GOV.UK Find a job | Free account to post vacancies, per GOV.UK (page updated 23 June 2026) | Check the current service before relying on it |
| EDWartens job board | No charge at present, no placement fees | Free for employers; no promise of applicants; see the section on vetting below |
| Paid job boards | Third-party prices vary; Betterteam's pricing page showed monthly plans from $39 for one open job when opened on 28 October 2026 | An undated third-party figure, shown in dollars from the page as fetched; check each site for its current UK price |
| Recruitment agencies | Terms vary | we found no agency fee schedule we could cite, so ask for the fee, the rebate terms and the notice period in writing before agreeing |
| Your own network and apprentices | Staff time | See the train-your-own section |
Do not choose by headline price. Compare how each route reaches people with your platform, in your region, at your pay level. Make UK's report The Shape of British Industry (9 March 2026) says half of manufacturers see skills shortages as their biggest barrier to growth, so expect competition for good applicants whichever route you use.
How do you check skills, not only CVs?
A CV tells you what someone says they did. Add a short practical step:
- A fault-finding conversation. Describe a stopped machine and ask how they would start. You are listening for method, isolation and safety first, not the "right" fault.
- A code or drawing review. Give them a small piece of ladder or Structured Text with a planted problem, or an electrical drawing, and ask them to talk it through.
- A paid or supervised trial task, if you use one. Keep it short and fair, and do not take free work.
- References and evidence. Ask for evidence you can check, such as certificates.
On our board, "Vetted" has one meaning, defined on our how we vet engineers page: EDWartens staff checked evidence of an engineer's skills, such as certificates we issued, course assessments, job simulations, a passed skill check and a staff review that agrees with them. It is not an identity, reference, criminal-record or right to work check. You do those yourself.
What must you check on right to work, and when does sponsorship matter?
You must check that every applicant is allowed to work in the UK before they start. GOV.UK says: "You must check that a job applicant is allowed to work for you in the UK before you employ them." The page gives three routes: an online check using the applicant's share code, checking original documents with the applicant present, or an identity service provider that uses identity document validation technology. British and Irish citizens cannot get a share code, so you check original documents or use an identity service provider. Keep copies during employment and for 2 years after the person stops working for you, and record the date of the check.
You could face a civil penalty if you employ an illegal worker and have not carried out a correct check. The page we read does not state penalty amounts, so check the current figure on GOV.UK.
Sponsorship only matters if you want to hire someone who needs permission to work, from outside the UK or already in the UK. GOV.UK's licence page lists these fees as read on 28 October 2026:
- Sponsor licence for the Worker route: £611 for small or charitable sponsors, £1,682 for medium or large sponsors.
- Certificate of sponsorship, Worker: £525 per certificate.
- Immigration Skills Charge (Skilled Worker): for the first 12 months, £480 for small or charitable sponsors and £1,320 for medium or large sponsors, with more for each additional 6 months.
You must pay the licence fee and the charge yourself: GOV.UK warns that your licence may be revoked if you ask the sponsored worker to pay them. A sponsored job must also meet visa criteria, including skill level and salary rules that we did not re-read for this post, so check GOV.UK sponsor guidance before you plan a hire around sponsorship. EDWartens does not check right to work and does not sponsor visas.
Should you train your own?
If the market is tight, growing your own can be cheaper than competing on pay. A maintenance engineer who knows your plant and your fault history can learn PLC fault-finding. For apprentices, Skills England lists ST1426, Engineering maintenance technician (single discipline), and ST1443, the dual-discipline version; both are marked in revision, with a revised assessment plan replacing the current one for new starts on 13 April 2027.
Make UK's short video on its apprentice skills and technology hub gives one example of an employer-led training set-up.
To upskill existing staff, point them at the free PLC electrical troubleshooting course for maintenance engineers. It is free to start and does not replace your own supervision, site induction or competence sign-off.
What does a 30-day hiring timeline look like?
This is a plan to work to, not a prediction of how long hiring takes or how many people will apply.
- Days 1 to 3. Agree the title, platform, shifts and pay range. Write the advert.
- Days 4 to 7. Publish on two or three routes. Prepare a short practical test and a scoring sheet.
- Days 8 to 18. Shortlist on the same sheet. Hold fault-finding conversations.
- Days 19 to 24. Run the practical step and reference checks. Make a written offer.
- Days 25 to 30. Complete the right to work check, agree a start date and plan the first week: induction, permits, access, and who supervises.
The video below is general rather than controls-specific, but it covers recruiting engineers from a UK graduate recruiter's point of view.
Start free
If you are an employer, you can create a free employer account and read how our employer pages work. If you are an engineer reading this, you can work through the free courses linked above and try a job simulation, which is practice, not employment. We make no promise of applicants, interviews or hires, and nothing here is legal advice.
