Major defence-related infrastructure projects are expected to generate 30,000 new civilian roles over the next five years – nearly 50% of which will involve engineers and engineering-related skillsets. This surge in demand will create a candidate-driven market in which businesses will be forced to work harder to attract and retain talent or face the productivity costs of high turnover and staffing gaps.
Australia’s plan to develop nuclear submarines using AUKUS partnership technology has been hailed as both an essential step forward for the country’s defence and a major boost for jobs. But the workforce demand extends far beyond sailors and submariners – the manufacturing and infrastructure needed to underpin this new high-tech fleet, as well as several other major upcoming defence projects, may well spark a cross-industry talent war.
The broader defence industry’s need for engineering and infrastructure skills to feed its upcoming pipeline of projects will inevitably mean poaching from other heavy industries such as marine, shipbuilding, mining, and oil and gas. Engineers and technical staff who are Australian citizens will be a particularly hot commodity, due to security restrictions which exclude the involvement of foreign nationals on sensitive projects.
“A war for homegrown engineering talent will likely compel many industries and employers outside of defence to adjust their workforce strategies to draw in supplemental talent from other countries,” said Querida Swinnerton, director ANZ at Brunel, a global recruitment and staffing solutions agency.
“While the AUKUS subs have stolen most of the headlines, Australia is also investing heavily in upcoming land, air and digital projects which will require similar skillsets to support the design, development and construction of military infrastructure, equipment and vehicles,” she said.
Swinnerton expects there to be significant talent movement in areas such as: designing and integrating complex defence systems; designing, testing and maintaining military vehicles, aircraft and naval vessels; and developing power distribution systems, avionics and electronic warfare technologies.
The focus will also be on:
- engineers specialising in aircraft, drones, missiles and hypersonic technology for defence applications;
- designing and maintaining submarines, warships and naval support infrastructure; and
- planning and designing infrastructure projects, including roads, bridges, tunnels and large-scale developments.
How many jobs will these new projects create?
Outside of direct ADF personnel, the AUKUS subs are expected to require 4000 design and construction roles at South Australia’s Osbourne Submarine Construction Yard, while the planned expansion of the Henderson shipyard in Perth (designated as the maintenance hub for the nuclear submarine fleet) is tipped to create 10,000 local jobs over the coming two decades.
Away from the water, other talent-hungry defence projects include the $7 billion Land 400 Phase 3 which will produce Redback infantry fighting vehicles, the AIR 6500 Joint Air Battle Management System which will revolutionise Australia’s ability to synchronise its air and missile defence capabilities, and the Digital and Cyber Uplift (Joint Command) to shore up the security of cloud environments, data sovereignty, digital twin technology, and other cyber defence systems.
Engineering skills will be integral to the design, development, operation and maintenance phases of these projects across civil, electrical, mechanical and structural disciplines.
Brunel business manager and ADF veteran Tim Chapman cautions that high-paying industries such as mining will not give up their workforce without a fight. “The mining sector’s ability to offer top dollar is likely to increase the stakes across the board and lead to even fiercer competition amongst out-priced players, which may well include defence,” he said.
“The defence industry needs to get better at creating awareness of the employment opportunities that extend beyond armament and weapon systems. There are many roles supporting humanitarian and national security infrastructure projects, which would likely appeal to candidates who haven’t considered this facet of defence.”
Shortfall perfect storm
Australia’s current undersupply of engineers is the product of several concurrent factors. The market is yet to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic which caused education backlogs that stifled the emergence of new graduates, and also choked access to international talent through immigration restrictions. Booming infrastructure projects since then have further depleted the availability of civil engineers.
Ms Swinnerton remarked that Australia needs to increase interest in engineering and STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) among young people – especially young women – in order to match workforce demand.
“Our education system needs to introduce students to STEM careers far earlier. It’s not enough to guide teens to a particular stream once they’ve already established interest in the broader field. If we want to capture the imagination of future generations we need to give them the opportunity to dream about being scientists, engineers and technology specialists while they are in their early primary years,” Swinnerton said.
How to manage the skills drain
In the meantime, businesses will likely need to adapt their recruitment strategies and consider candidates without Australian experience to plug the holes left by defence poaching. That means identifying the right combination of skills and experience in foreign markets then bringing them into the country on 482 Skills in Demand visas.
Adopting upskilling programs and innovative retention strategies are also key areas to consider for organisations invested in attracting and retaining talent.
“Employers should start planning how they will retain and grow their existing talent as well as how to effectively scout newcomers both within and outside of Australia,” Swinnerton said.
Swinnerton and Chapman advise companies to consider:
- Upskilling and cross-skilling: training existing workforce to fill new roles, particularly those with transferable skills from related disciplines.
- Targeting retirees: retired engineers are an untapped resource, with flexible work arrangements potentially luring them back to plug gaps or help rapidly skill and season newcomers.
- Engaging international talent: 482 visas are an effective mechanism to bring international talent with scarce skillsets into Australia. Unlike many working visas, these are instigated by an employer rather than the individual pursuing work.
- Improving workplace conditions: competitive compensation packages, flexible working arrangements and career progression are all important levers to help attract and retain talent.
- Long-term educational investment: making STEM subjects more appealing to more students, including women, will help boost the engineering pipeline.
In summary
The defence industry’s need for engineers will significantly drain talent from other sectors. Overall, it’s good news for Australia’s economy and experienced engineers. Competition will likely push wages significantly higher, but for employers unable to match the salaries offered by deep-pocketed industries like mining, creative strategies to engage international talent and position themselves as a highly-desirable employer to support greater attraction and retention will be essential.
Learn more about how Brunel can help grow your workforce here: https://www.brunel.net/en-au/482-on-hire-labour-agreement
#4 Improving workplace conditions. This needs to be expanded to include caring for the psychological health of the workforce. Many people are burning out due to top-down panic and unnecessary pressures, which would be easy to fix if upper managers were more willing to accept the professionalism of their employees. I have witnessed many examples of perfectly viable projects struggling due to upper managers undermining the professional requirements employees need to do their job, as managers no longer understand them. Then the managers shift to generic ‘people management’ methods that don’t relate to any industry best practice for managing people professionally, and then blame the employee for not being good enough when the project collapses. The people who have gone through this treatment typically learn to hold back their true talent and spend half their efforts managing the manager’s feelings while simultaneously ensuring that blame doesn’t land on themselves when something fails. I have had projects shut down with the project manager saying “I don’t want to be blamed for something that i didn’t do”. They can’t be blamed if they don’t do anything.