When a business struggles to find the right Engineering or Technical Director, the natural response is often to widen the search, approach more candidates or wait for someone with the right background to become available. However, there is another question worth asking before the search goes any further: does the brief accurately reflect what the business needs its new leader to achieve, or has it become a wish list of experience that very few people are likely to possess?
For manufacturing businesses, a senior technical appointment can involve a demanding combination of engineering expertise, operational leadership, commercial responsibility and the ability to deliver change. Hiring managers understandably want someone who can make an impact quickly, particularly when the role is linked to improving plant performance, reducing costs, delivering capital investment or preparing the business for its next stage of growth. The difficulty arises when all these expectations are translated into a specification that also requires experience in the same subsector, familiarity with particular technologies, responsibility for a similar-sized operation and a proven track record of delivering the same type of transformation.
Each requirement might seem reasonable in isolation, but together they can leave the search focused on a very small group of people. Before concluding that the market cannot provide the right candidate, it is worth examining the brief itself.
When a job specification becomes too restrictive
One of the most useful ways to assess a difficult brief is to separate what the successful candidate must be able to do from the experience the business would ideally like them to have.
Consider a manufacturer looking for an Engineering Director to improve equipment reliability, reduce unplanned downtime and strengthen the maintenance function across several sites. The essential requirements might include a strong engineering background, experience leading technical teams, evidence of improving equipment performance and the ability to influence operational decisions. The hiring team might also prefer someone who has worked in the same manufacturing subsector, managed an identical production environment and delivered a similar improvement programme at a comparable company.
The distinction matters because the first set of requirements describes the capability needed to do the job, while the second describes one particular route through which a candidate might have acquired it. If every preference becomes a mandatory requirement, someone who has delivered comparable results in another manufacturing environment could be excluded before their experience has been properly considered.
This does not mean that specialist knowledge should be treated as optional. Where a role depends on specific regulatory requirements, safety-critical processes or highly specialised technology, direct experience may be essential. The purpose of reviewing the brief is to establish where that distinction lies, rather than automatically relaxing the criteria in the hope of attracting more applicants.
Start with the business problem, not the candidate profile
A more effective brief begins with an honest assessment of what the appointment needs to change. Is the business trying to improve engineering reliability, increase production capacity, reduce maintenance costs, lead a major investment programme, introduce automation or develop a stronger engineering team? It may need to achieve several of these objectives, but understanding their relative importance helps determine which capabilities should carry the greatest weight in the selection process.
The hiring team should then consider what evidence would demonstrate that a candidate could deliver those outcomes. For example, a leader who has reduced equipment downtime, introduced a more effective maintenance strategy or improved engineering performance across multiple sites may offer relevant experience even if they have not worked with precisely the same products or production technology.
This approach also helps expose conflicting expectations within a brief. A business might want a highly technical specialist, a commercially focused leader, an experienced transformation director and someone who can immediately take responsibility for a large multi-site operation. Those capabilities may exist in one individual, but the business needs to understand which are critical from day one and which could be developed or supported by the wider team.
Agreeing these priorities before the search begins gives everyone involved a clearer basis for assessing candidates and reduces the risk of repeatedly rejecting suitable people because they do not match an idealised profile.
Use market mapping to test the brief before ruling out candidates
Once the priorities are clear, market mapping can help establish whether the proposed requirements are realistic. Rather than relying on a familiar list of competitors or searching for people with matching job titles, the research examines where relevant experience exists, how comparable responsibilities are described across different organisations and how many potential candidates appear to meet the agreed criteria.
This is particularly valuable when a search is expected to be difficult. If only a small number of people meet every requirement, the findings can help the hiring team understand why. The constraint might be a genuinely scarce technical specialism, a narrow geographical search, a particular combination of experience or a set of preferences that has reduced the potential market unnecessarily.
The next step is to examine the evidence rather than make assumptions. Which requirements are supported by a clear business need? Could experience gained in another manufacturing subsector provide the same capabilities? Would a different job title conceal someone with the right level of responsibility? Could the geographical scope be widened, or would the business consider a candidate who has led a comparable function on a different scale?
Technical Network’s use of market mapping in specialist engineering searches helps establish talent availability, identify equivalent job titles and build a clearer picture of the market before the wider search strategy is developed. The value is not simply in finding more names, it is in giving the client a better understanding of the candidates available and the choices involved in defining the role.
A longlist should test the assumptions behind the brief
The longlist is an important opportunity to assess whether the original assumptions hold up against the available talent. Instead of treating the job description as a checklist in which every missing requirement rules someone out, candidates should be considered against the agreed priorities, with their responsibilities, achievements and experience examined in context.
A candidate may have led a comparable engineering function in a different sector, delivered a significant improvement programme or managed a complex operation without having held the exact title specified in the brief. Another candidate may have worked for a direct competitor but have less evidence of the leadership, commercial judgement or operational improvement the business needs. Understanding those differences provides a more meaningful comparison than relying on sector background or job title alone.
This does not mean presenting candidates who fall short of essential requirements. It means being able to explain where an individual meets the brief, where their experience differs and what that difference means for the appointment. A well-researched longlist should give the hiring team the information needed to make those judgements, rather than simply reproducing a list of CVs that match the original wording.
How the 3D Framework® supports a more considered search
Technical Network’s 3D Framework® Diversity, Data and Delivery supports this approach by combining a broader view of the talent market with research and a focused assessment process.
Diversity encourages consideration of different career backgrounds and sources of talent, helping the search look beyond the most obvious profiles without losing sight of the requirements. Data brings market intelligence into the process, helping test assumptions about candidate availability and identify where relevant experience may sit. Delivery keeps the search focused on the agreed objectives of the role and the quality of the candidates being assessed.
Together, these principles help businesses make better-informed decisions about the brief and the people being considered. The aim is not to make the role easier to fill by lowering the standard, but to ensure that the standard reflects what the business genuinely needs.
Turning a difficult brief into a realistic search
The wider skills market makes this an important consideration for manufacturers. Skills England’s 2026 Advanced Manufacturing Sector Skills Needs Assessment identifies 25 priority occupations and projects that these occupations will require around 47,000 additional workers between 2025 and 2035, alongside approximately 101,000 replacement workers as people leave those occupations. These projections cover priority occupations across advanced manufacturing rather than Director-level recruitment specifically, but they illustrate the wider demand for technical capability and the importance of understanding where relevant skills can be found.
For employers recruiting an Engineering or Technical Director, the most productive next step when a brief appears impossible to fill may therefore be to revisit the requirements before extending the search. By defining the business outcomes, distinguishing essential criteria from preferences and testing the specification against the available market, hiring teams can make a more informed decision about the experience they need and the candidates they should consider.
Through specialist market knowledge, detailed research, considered longlisting and its 3D Framework®, Technical Network helps businesses approach complex technical leadership searches with a clearer understanding of both the role and the talent market.
If your search for an Engineering or Technical Director is proving challenging, speak to Technical Network about how market insight and a more targeted approach could help identify the right candidates.
