For engineering managers and HR Business Partners recruiting across CCGT, EfW, nuclear and SMR projects, filling an Electrical, Control and Instrumentation (EC&I Engineer) engineering role is rarely straightforward.

These roles sit at the intersection of high technical complexity, regulatory sensitivity and a shrinking active candidate market.

That combination means a standard contingency approach will almost always leave you waiting, and in operational environments, waiting has a cost.

This guide covers what retained recruitment for EC&I engineers actually changes in practice, how to write a role brief that converts when the shortage of EC&I recruitment options is real, and how to set honest benchmarks for time to fill so your project and operational plans reflect the market rather than wishful thinking.

Why EC&I Engineers Are So Hard to Recruit

The scarcity of EC&I Engineers in UK power generation is structural, not cyclical.

An ageing specialist workforce, limited intake of new entrants into the discipline, and an explosion in project activity across low-carbon infrastructure have converged to create one of the tightest talent markets in technical engineering.

The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board forecasts that the nuclear sector’s engineering construction workforce could increase by 29% over the next five years, growing to more than 46,000 by 2030.

Nuclear new build at Hinkley Point C, early-stage development on Sizewell C and the SMR programme, alongside a steady pipeline of CCGT and EfW asset projects, all draw from the same finite pool of EC&I specialists.

The result is that multiple employers are frequently pursuing the same small group of people at the same time, many of whom are not actively looking for a new role.

Compound that with nuclear-specific complications, security clearance lead times, site access requirements, competency frameworks aligned to ONR guidance, and it becomes clear why time to fill for EC&I roles in nuclear and complex process environments routinely exceeds industry averages for engineering hiring.

What Retained Recruitment Changes

Standard contingency recruitment operates on a no-placement, no-fee basis.

That model works when talent is visible, active and plentiful.

For EC&I engineers, it means consultants deprioritise your role the moment something easier lands, because that is where the fee certainty lies.

Retained recruitment changes the commercial structure, and therefore the behaviour.

Under a retained model, a specialist consultant holds a dedicated mandate on your role.

They are not dividing their time across twenty contingency vacancies. They’re mapping the EC&I market, approaching passive candidates directly, and delivering a qualified shortlist, often within 48 hours of brief sign-off, depending on role complexity.

For EC&I roles in CCGT, EfW, nuclear and SMR environments specifically, a retained approach enables:

Active market mapping — identifying who holds the right skill profile across live plants, outage teams and contracting pools, rather than waiting for job advert responses
Passive candidate engagement — making direct approaches to employed EC&I engineers who are open to the right opportunity but are not applying anywhere
Brief development support — a retained consultant will challenge and refine your brief before going to market, reducing the risk of attracting technically unsuitable candidates
Compliance pre-qualification — for nuclear roles, this includes early eligibility screening for security clearance, preventing drop-off once an offer is made
Genuine exclusivity of effort — your role is the consultant’s priority, not one of many

This is a structurally different approach to advertising your EC&I Engineer role. And, when shortage EC&I recruitment conditions are this tight, it is often the only method that reliably produces a result.

How to Write a Brief That Converts

The quality of your role brief is one of the most underestimated variables in EC&I recruitment.

A poorly constructed brief that’s heavy on generic responsibilities and light on context will fail to engage the passive, employed engineer who already has options.

Here is what a converting brief looks like in practice:

Define the plant and its challenge, not just the job title.

An EC&I engineer who has spent a decade on EfW plant wants to know what they’re walking into.

What DCS platform is installed, what the asset condition looks like, what the scope actually involves.

“EC&I Maintenance Engineer” tells them nothing.

“EC&I Maintenance Engineer — 40MW EfW plant, Siemens DCS, full lifecycle maintenance ownership including CEMS compliance” tells them something worth reading.

Be honest about the environment.

Experienced EC&I engineers have seen enough to recognise when a brief is masking problems.

If the site has ageing control systems, say so. Frame it as the challenge they are there to own.

Skilled engineers are often drawn to complexity, not deterred by it.

State the clearance position upfront for nuclear roles.

If Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) or Security Check (SC) clearance is required, include it in the brief.

Engineers who can’t or won’t undergo vetting will self-select out early, saving wasted effort on both sides.

Include a decision timeline.

EC&I Engineers in high demand are not going to hold themselves available indefinitely.

If you need someone mobilised for an outage in Q3, your brief should signal that the decision process will be efficient and commercially aligned.

A brief that converts covers:

Plant type and technology (CCGT, EfW, nuclear, SMR)
DCS, SCADA and instrumentation platforms in use
Key deliverables in months one to six and beyond
Clearance requirements, if applicable
Reporting line and team structure
Onsite requirements, shift pattern or rota
Interview process — number of stages, format and timeline to offer

Benchmarking Time to Fill for EC&I Roles

Understanding what realistic looks like for time to fill EC&I Engineer roles is essential for engineering managers and HRBPs planning operational headcount or project mobilisation windows.

The broader benchmarks provide useful context.

According to LinkedIn data cited by Factorial HR, engineering roles take an average of 49 days to fill.

Wider UK recruitment data suggests engineering positions typically take between 56 and 65 days from role approval to offer acceptance, with some specialist roles exceeding 90 days.

For EC&I roles specifically, those averages understate the challenge.

Roles in nuclear environments carry additional lead time for security vetting.

CTC clearance typically takes six to eight weeks from application. SC clearance runs to around six weeks for employees.

If your hiring plan does not account for these windows before the brief is even raised, your mobilisation date is already at risk.

Against that backdrop, Astute’s average time to fill of 39 days — against an industry average of 67 — gives a meaningful reference point for what a retained, specialist approach can deliver.

That figure matters most when you are working to a fixed outage date or a project phase gate.

What to measure:

Time to shortlist — days from brief sign-off to a qualified shortlist being delivered; for retained EC&I mandates, this should be measurable in days, not weeks
Time to fill — role approval to accepted offer; benchmark against your last three to five comparable hires, not cross-sector averages
Clearance pipeline lag — for nuclear roles, track the gap between offer acceptance and site-ready date separately; this is a compliance reality, not a recruitment failure
Drop-off rate — the proportion of candidates who withdraw between offer and start; for nuclear EC&I roles, this is often linked to clearance duration and competing offers arriving in the window

If your current time to fill on EC&I roles is sitting above 70 days, it’s worth examining whether the brief, the interview process or the recruitment model is the primary constraint, because each requires a different fix.

How People Plus Supports EC&I Hiring

When an EC&I role is genuinely business-critical (a safety-critical position on a nuclear site, an outage function that cannot proceed without it, or a commissioning lead on a new-build asset) a slow or unsuccessful hire has direct operational and commercial consequences.

People Plus is Astute’s retained recruitment service built for exactly this type of mandate.

It’s designed for hard-to-fill roles in power, nuclear and EfW where passive candidate engagement, specialist market knowledge and a guaranteed shortlist delivery are what the situation demands.

Working with Astute’s power and nuclear specialists through People Plus gives engineering managers and HRBPs:

A dedicated retained consultant with specific EC&I recruitment experience across CCGT, EfW, nuclear and SMR environments
Proactive market mapping and direct candidate outreach — not a reliance on job adverts in a market where active candidates are thin
A qualified shortlist delivered to an agreed timeline, with a 93% success rate and an average of 39 days as the benchmark
Brief refinement support, so what goes to market is compelling enough to engage the passive talent pool
Compliance pre-screening for nuclear roles, reducing clearance-related drop-off and protecting your mobilisation schedule

If you are planning an EC&I hire, whether for a plant-based maintenance role, a commissioning position, or a safety-critical systems lead, the right time to brief a retained search partner is before the pressure is on, not after.

Speak to the Astute power and nuclear team today to discuss your EC&I requirement and find out how People Plus can de-risk your next hire.