Demand for PLC and automation skills in the UK is rising on the evidence we can see. ITJobsWatch counted 144 permanent PLC Engineer adverts in the six months to 21 October 2026, against 79 in the same period a year earlier, at a median advertised salary of £60,000. Automation Engineer adverts roughly doubled, from 227 to 463. The samples are small and skew towards IT, so this is a signal, not a census.
How many PLC and automation jobs are advertised in the UK?
Hundreds of permanent roles a year cite these skills, and the volumes grew sharply in 2026. We checked ITJobsWatch, a UK vacancy index that analyses job adverts, on 21 October 2026, and set the figures against the same period a year earlier.
| Search term | Permanent adverts, 6 months to 21 Oct 2026 | Same period 2025 | Median salary 2026 | Median salary 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLC Engineer | 144 | 79 | £60,000 | £57,000 |
| Automation Engineer | 463 | 227 | £60,000 | £55,000 |
| SCADA | 632 | not captured | £55,000 | £55,000 |
PLC Engineer adverts grew by about 82%, and the median rose 5.3%. Automation Engineer adverts grew by about 104%, and the median rose 9.1%. SCADA appears in 632 permanent adverts, with a flat median of £55,000. For context, ITJobsWatch also showed 27 PLC Engineer adverts for the equivalent period in 2024, so the trend over two years is steeper still.
What do PLC and automation roles pay?
The middle of the market sits around £55,000 to £60,000, with a wide spread between junior and senior roles. Percentiles show the range better than medians alone.
| Role | 10th percentile | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PLC Engineer | £42,500 | not shown | £60,000 | not shown | £65,000 |
| Automation Engineer | £45,000 | £50,000 | £60,000 | £70,750 | £82,500 |
| SCADA | £39,500 | £46,525 | £55,000 | £67,500 | £80,000 |
Outside London the picture is similar. ITJobsWatch reported a UK-excluding-London median of £57,500 for both PLC Engineer and Automation Engineer. The Automation Engineer figure rose 15% year on year, against under 1% for PLC Engineer. Our PLC engineer salary guide and salary page go deeper on experience bands.
What does the Reed job board show?
Reed shows a broad entry-to-senior spread, mostly outside London. On 21 October 2026, a search for "PLC programmer" returned about 107 jobs, and "trainee PLC" returned roughly 130. Salaries seen in the first pages ranged widely:
- Entry and graduate: £25,000 to £30,000 for roles that train you in PLC programming.
- Junior to mid: £40,000 to £50,000, for example a Junior Automation Engineer asking for PLC and Siemens TIA Portal exposure.
- Mid to senior: £48,000 to £55,000 for a PLC Programmer working with Allen-Bradley, Mitsubishi and Schneider, up to £55,000 to £70,000 for a Control Systems Engineer / PLC Programmer.
The locations were spread across the country, including Birmingham, Plymouth, Cambridge, Runcorn, Huddersfield, Nottingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Cheltenham and Dalkeith. That matches the ITJobsWatch pattern: demand is not confined to the South East. For entry roles in detail, read trainee PLC jobs in the UK: what employers want.
Which industries and skills appear in the adverts?
The adverts we read span food and drink, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, water, warehousing, defence and general manufacturing, and they name a wider skill set than PLC logic. In the Reed results for 21 October 2026:
- Sectors named: food and beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care and chemical manufacturing (a nationwide automation services provider); defence, material science, aerospace and nuclear (a specialist technology supplier in Cambridge); water and utilities (a control systems role in Nottingham); automated warehouse storage and retrieval (a shift engineer role in Skelmersdale); and materials processing (a maintenance role in Dalkeith).
- Platforms named: Siemens TIA Portal, Allen-Bradley and Rockwell, Mitsubishi and Schneider, plus DCS systems in the process-industry roles.
- Companion skills: HMI, SCADA, drives, commissioning, fault-finding, electrical panel work and, for some roles, travel and a driving licence.
Two points follow. First, a PLC skill set travels between sectors, so you do not need to pick an industry before you start learning. Second, Siemens-specific roles exist but they sit alongside plenty that name Rockwell or Mitsubishi, so it pays to understand how platforms differ; see Siemens vs Allen-Bradley.
Why do PLC Engineer, Automation Engineer and SCADA pay differ?
Part of the difference is what each search term captures. "Automation Engineer" is a broad title that covers everything from junior roles to senior leads, which is why its range is wide: £45,000 at the 10th percentile and £82,500 at the 90th. "PLC Engineer" is narrower, with a tighter range of £42,500 to £65,000. "SCADA" is a skill rather than a job title, so it can appear in roles from support technicians to senior systems engineers, which may help explain the lowest 10th percentile (£39,500) and a high 90th percentile (£80,000).
The practical point is that adding skills tends to widen your options more than switching job titles. A PLC programmer who can also build HMI and SCADA screens fits more adverts, and one who understands commissioning and drives fits more again. For how job titles differ in practice, see PLC programmer vs PLC engineer vs controls engineer.
How can you track the market yourself?
Check the same sources monthly and write down what you see. That gives you a trend you can trust more than any single headline:
- Open the three ITJobsWatch pages above and note the advert count, median and period end date.
- Run the same Reed searches ("PLC programmer", "trainee PLC") and record the result counts and five example salaries.
- Save the adverts that match your target role and highlight the skills they repeat.
- Compare after three months. If a skill keeps appearing, it is worth learning.
Is there a skills shortage in UK engineering?
Employers report one, and automation is part of it. In the IET's 2025 Skills Survey, run with YouGov among 1,316 managers at engineering and technology employers and published on 6 October 2025, 76% of engineering employers said they struggle to recruit for key roles, and 30% said they lack automation skills.
Treat these as employer-reported pressures, not guarantees for any individual. A shortage of experienced people does not automatically translate into jobs for beginners. It does, however, explain why so many adverts offer structured training for candidates with the right background.
What do these numbers mean for you?
They mean there is demand, but the best-paying roles still go to people who can show experience. Here is how that plays out for different readers:
- Career changers from electrical or maintenance work are well placed. Adverts for junior controls roles often ask for exactly that background.
- Graduates can find training-led roles at £25,000 to £30,000, with pay rising quickly as skills develop.
- Experienced PLC engineers see a median of £60,000, with the top decile at £65,000 on this index for PLC Engineer and £82,500 for Automation Engineer titles.
- Employers face competition, which may explain why training-into-role adverts are common.
If you are weighing an investment in training, is PLC training worth it in the UK looks at the cost-versus-pay maths, and the automation engineer career guide maps routes. International applicants should read PLC jobs in the UK and visa sponsorship.
How should different readers use these figures?
Use the data as a starting point for questions, not as a forecast. A few practical readings:
- If you are choosing whether to retrain, the adverts suggest a real market with a wide pay range. Treat the medians as what employers advertise for experienced hires, not what you will earn in month one.
- If you are negotiating pay, compare your offer to the percentiles in the table rather than the median alone. A 25th percentile of £50,000 for Automation Engineer titles tells you where the lower-middle of the market is.
- If you are hiring, the rise in adverts hints at competition for experienced people, and the many training-into-role posts show how others respond to it.
- If you are an international applicant, read the gov.uk guidance before relying on any salary figure; our visa sponsorship article explains what to check.
How reliable is this data?
It is directional, and you should hold it loosely. These are the main limits, and we want you to see them before you quote any figure.
- ITJobsWatch is an IT-focused index. It covers adverts that cite the search term, so it under-represents manufacturing, engineering-recruiter and direct-employer adverts that never reach IT boards.
- Samples are small. 144 PLC Engineer adverts is a useful signal, not a census, and a handful of recruiters posting repeat adverts can move it.
- Adverts are not hires. A rise in advertised roles can reflect churn, duplicate postings or unfilled vacancies.
- Medians use only adverts that state a salary. Many employers write "competitive", which skews the sample.
- Reed counts change daily. The figures above describe 21 October 2026 and will differ when you look.
- A title match is not a skill match. "SCADA" appears in many adverts for roles that are not mainly SCADA.
We have not forecast what happens in 2027, and we will not. Check the live pages before you rely on a number: PLC Engineer, SCADA and Automation Engineer. If you are unsure how PLC and SCADA roles differ, see our PLC vs SCADA explainer.
How EDWartens can help
If you want Siemens-based PLC, HMI and SCADA skills, the Professional Module is a five-day live online class (Siemens TIA Portal, certificate states V17) with 68 self-paced Basic Engineering modules, a one-to-one resume session and a student-portal job board. It costs £2,140 + VAT = £2,568, with a £100 deposit. There is no job guarantee, and the CPD certificate is not a regulated qualification. Sign up or try the free labs first.
