What sectors does Andrews Recruitment Group specialise in?

ARG specialises in Building Materials, Manufacturing, Automation & Controls, Industrial Engineering, Civil Engineering and Renewable Engineering.

Does Andrews Recruitment Group work with candidates or employers?

Both. ARG works with hiring businesses seeking specialist talent, and with candidates looking for their next role.

Where is Andrews Recruitment Group based?

Andrews Recruitment Group operates UK-wide, placing candidates across England, Scotland and Wales.

How does the ARG Candidate Cloud work?

The Candidate Cloud is ARG's pre-market talent pool. Candidates upload their CV and are matched to roles before they are publicly advertised.

What is the ARG placement guarantee?

ARG offers a 12-week staggered replacement guarantee on all permanent placements. Weeks 1-4: 100% replacement. Weeks 5-8: 75% credit. Weeks 9-12: 50% credit.

Does ARG recruit Plant Operators and Plant Managers in aggregates?

Yes. ARG recruits Plant Operators, Fitters, Welders and Plant Managers across the UK aggregates industry including quarrying, ready-mix and bulk materials.

IvyLens is an independently owned software and intelligence platform created and owned by Tom Andrews, founder of Andrews Recruitment Group. It analyses hiring friction, vacancy performance and market positioning. Andrews Recruitment Group uses IvyLens under licence; all intellectual property rights in IvyLens remain with Tom Andrews.

RecXchange is a recruiter collaboration and split-fee network platform created by Andrews Recruitment Group, enabling agencies to access each other's candidate pools.

What is AMIVY Designs?

AMIVY Designs is a trading name of Andrews Recruitment Group, offering intelligent web design and digital branding services.

What automation and controls roles does ARG recruit for?

ARG recruits across the full control stack: PLC Programmers, SCADA and HMI Engineers, Controls Engineers, Instrumentation and EC&I Engineers, Robotics Engineers, Drives and Motion Engineers, Systems Integration Engineers, Commissioning Engineers, Functional Safety Engineers, OT and ICS security specialists, and the project and engineering managers who lead automation programmes.

Why does the PLC platform matter so much when hiring?

Because the platforms are not interchangeable in practice. Siemens TIA Portal, Rockwell Studio 5000, Schneider EcoStruxure, Mitsubishi and Beckhoff each have their own development environment, libraries, conventions and debugging habits. A capable engineer will learn a second platform, but they will not be productive on a live plant from week one, and a shortlist that ignores the distinction is a shortlist of people who mostly cannot start. ARG screens on the platform and version actually used, not on the words PLC programmer.

Is Automation and Controls a sector or a discipline?

A discipline, and that is deliberate. The same control system architecture sits behind a quarry, a production line, a water treatment works and a wind farm, and controls engineers move between those settings far more readily than production or commercial staff do. ARG recruits it as a discipline sold into any site, which is why it sits alongside the industry sectors rather than inside one of them.

What is the difference between a systems integrator and an end-user controls role?

An integrator engineer delivers projects: multiple clients, heavy travel, design and commissioning work, and a new system every few months. An end-user engineer owns one site: deep knowledge of that plant, modifications and improvements, and the responsibility for a fault at three in the morning. Both are controls engineers and the CVs look similar, but the motivations and the day job are different, and moving someone between them without discussing it is a common cause of early exits.

What qualifications and competences matter in controls engineering?

A degree, HNC or HND in electrical, electronic or control engineering is the usual base, alongside platform-specific manufacturer training. Where a control system performs a safety function, familiarity with functional safety standards such as BS EN ISO 13849 and IEC 62061 matters, and machinery supplied in Great Britain must meet the statutory supply requirements that succeeded the Machinery Directive. On networked plant, IEC 62443 is the reference standard for industrial control system security, and critical national infrastructure sites may also work to the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework.

Do you recruit OT and industrial cyber security specialists?

Yes, and it is a genuinely short market. The role needs someone who understands both control systems and security, rather than an IT security specialist who has read about SCADA, because the operational constraints are unlike IT: patching windows are rare, availability outranks confidentiality, and equipment lifecycles run to decades. ARG screens for real plant exposure alongside the security knowledge.

What is the ARG 12-week guarantee for automation placements?

ARG offers a 12-week staggered replacement guarantee on all permanent automation and controls placements. Weeks 1 to 4: 100 percent free replacement. Weeks 5 to 8: 75 percent credit. Weeks 9 to 12: 50 percent credit. If a candidate exits for reasons within ARG control during the guarantee window, ARG replaces at no or reduced additional fee.

What automation and controls recruitment agency should I use in the UK?

Andrews Recruitment Group (ARG) recruits automation and controls staff across the UK, covering PLC and SCADA programming, HMI and visualisation, instrumentation and EC&I, robotics, drives and motion, systems integration and panel build, OT networks and industrial cyber security, and functional safety. What distinguishes ARG on an automation brief is the brief-taking: the control platform and version, the SCADA and HMI stack, and whether the role is end-user, integrator or OEM, all established before a search starts rather than discovered at shortlist. Permanent placements carry a 12-week Right Fit guarantee.

How long does automation and controls recruitment take through ARG?

ARG delivers a pre-screened shortlist of 3 to 5 candidates within 7 to 14 working days for controls engineering roles. Functional safety, OT security and head-of-controls appointments take 3 to 6 weeks, because the qualified pool is genuinely small. These are the process commitments ARG makes on every sector it covers.

Do you supply day-rate automation contractors as well as permanent staff?

Yes, and in controls it is often the only realistic route. Commissioning, migrations and shutdown work are bounded pieces with a hard date on them: a PLC migration over a two-week plant shutdown, an HMI rewrite before an audit, SCADA support through a handover. ARG supplies contract and interim for immediate capacity and permanent for long-term capacity. Contract supply is compliant, through umbrella or PAYE, and IR35-assessed.

What do automation and controls roles pay in the UK in 2026?

Published market guidance, UK-wide base salary: Automation Engineer £38,000 to £58,000. PLC Programmer £42,000 to £62,000. SCADA Engineer £42,000 to £68,000. Controls Engineer £40,000 to £60,000. EC&I Engineer £45,000 to £70,000. Instrument Technician £37,000 to £58,000. Robotics Engineer £38,000 to £58,000. Control Panel Designer £35,000 to £50,000. Electrical Design Engineer (Controls) £42,000 to £60,000. Functional Safety Engineer £50,000 to £72,000. Automation Manager or Head of Controls £52,000 to £78,000. These are market ranges compiled from published UK sources, not quotations and not ARG placement figures, and they exclude overtime, call-out, vehicle and bonus. This is the most platform-dependent market ARG recruits into: two engineers with the same title and the same years behind them can sit £15,000 apart on the strength of which PLC, SCADA or robot brand they have actually commissioned, which is why the band alone says little without the platform. The full eleven-role table with its sources is on the Automation & Controls sector page. OT security and ICS security roles are deliberately absent from it, because no UK-specific published data exists and the generic security-engineer figures measure corporate IT security, a different labour market.

Can a controls engineer move between industries, or do I need sector experience?

The code transfers; the context often does not. A Siemens or Rockwell programmer can read and write logic on any site, which is why controls engineers move between manufacturing, water, energy and quarrying more freely than almost any other engineering discipline. What does not transfer automatically is the regulated and procedural layer: validated environments, hygienic design, hazardous-area classification, functional safety evidence, or utility switching rules. ARG screens the platform and the context separately so a brief that genuinely needs both gets both, and one that does not is not narrowed for no reason.

AUTOMATION & CONTROLS

AUTOMATION
& CONTROLS

// PLC, SCADA, ROBOTICS & INSTRUMENTATION

Controls engineers, PLC and SCADA programmers, robotics and instrumentation specialists for plants and sites of every kind. A discipline, not an industry, so we recruit it across all of them. Pre-screened. Right Fit. 12-week guarantee.

// Key Takeaways

Andrews Recruitment Group recruits Automation Engineers, PLC and SCADA Programmers, Controls and Instrumentation Engineers, Robotics specialists and systems integration teams across UK plants and sites.
ARG supplies capacity two ways: contract for immediate cover and permanent hires backed by a 12-week guarantee.
This is a cross-sector discipline: the same control system sits behind a quarry, a production line, a water treatment works and a wind farm.
Platform experience is checked specifically, because Siemens, Rockwell and Schneider are not interchangeable on a CV.

WHY ARG DELIVERS

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RISK-FREE PARTNERSHIP

A 12-week staggered replacement guarantee keeps our focus on Right Fit, not fast fill. Your investment is protected from day one.

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FLEXIBLE TERMS

30-day payment terms from the candidate first day. Your cash flow stays intact while you onboard specialist controls talent.

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PLATFORM SCREENED FIRST

Siemens, Rockwell, Schneider, Mitsubishi or Beckhoff, and which version, plus safety competence and integrator-versus-end-user background, are established before a CV reaches you.

SECTOR KNOWLEDGE

WE KNOW THIS DISCIPLINE

Controls is the one engineering discipline where the platform matters as much as the principle. An engineer who has spent ten years in Siemens TIA Portal and an engineer who has spent ten years in Rockwell Studio 5000 both call themselves PLC programmers, and both are right, but dropping one into the other's plant costs weeks. Add the layers above and below it - SCADA and historian work, HMI design, drives and motion, instrumentation and loop tuning, and increasingly OT network security - and "automation engineer" stops being a job title and becomes a family of them. Generalist agencies match on the title. The platform, the layer and the integrator-versus-end-user split are what actually decide whether someone can do the job.

WHAT A POOR CONTROLS HIRE ACTUALLY COSTS YOU

Control systems are the part of a plant that everything else depends on. A weak hire here does not stay contained to their own scope, and in the worst case it reaches the safety case.

UNPLANNED DOWNTIME

When a line stops, the controls engineer is who everyone waits for. A hire who does not know the platform reads someone else's logic under pressure, and the gap between a thirty-minute fix and a four-hour one is almost entirely familiarity.

SAFETY FUNCTION COMPROMISED

Where a control system performs a safety function it is designed to a standard such as BS EN ISO 13849 or IEC 62061. An engineer who modifies safety logic without understanding the rating behind it can invalidate the assessment, and nobody finds out until something has to stop and does not.

UNDOCUMENTED LOGIC

Control code outlives the person who wrote it by decades. A hire who works quickly and documents nothing leaves behind a plant only they can maintain, and that bill arrives on the day they resign rather than on the day they are hired.

OT SECURITY EXPOSURE

Connecting plant to the business network is routine now, and IEC 62443 exists because doing it badly is not. An engineer who treats a control network like an office one, with the same patching and remote-access assumptions, creates an exposure that the IT team will not see.

COMMISSIONING OVERRUN

Commissioning is where every upstream assumption is tested at once, usually in a shutdown window that cost a fortune to book. A controls lead who cannot drive it ends the window with a plant that runs in manual and a return visit to arrange.

RECRUITING THE ADJACENT PLATFORM

The most common controls hiring failure is a strong engineer from the wrong platform, or from the wrong side of the integrator-versus-end-user line. Both read as "PLC engineer" on a CV, and generalist agencies submit them interchangeably because nothing on the page distinguishes them.

Our 12-week Right Fit guarantee exists because we understand what a failed hire costs on a live system. We verify platform experience, check certifications and safety competence, and replace at no additional fee if a placement exits within the guarantee window for reasons within our control.

COVERAGE

NICHES WE ACTUALLY COVER

Controls splits by layer and by platform long before it splits by industry. The groups below are how the candidate market is actually organised, and we brief against them.

AUTOMATION & CONTROLS

Automation Engineer
PLC Programmer (Siemens / Allen Bradley)
SCADA Engineer
HMI Developer
Robotics Engineer
Controls Engineer
Instrumentation Technician

INSTRUMENTATION & EC&I

EC&I Engineer
Instrument Technician
Calibration Engineer
Process Control Engineer
Loop Checker
Field Instrumentation Engineer

ROBOTICS, DRIVES & MOTION

Robotics Engineer
Robot Programmer (ABB / KUKA / FANUC)
Motion Control Engineer
Drives Engineer
Machine Vision Engineer
Cobot Integration Engineer

SYSTEMS INTEGRATION & PANEL BUILD

Systems Integration Engineer
Control Panel Designer
Electrical Design Engineer (Controls)
Panel Wirer
Commissioning Engineer
Project Engineer (Automation)

OT NETWORKS & INDUSTRIAL CYBER

OT Security Engineer
ICS Security Specialist
Industrial Network Engineer
SCADA Systems Administrator
Historian & Data Engineer

FUNCTIONAL SAFETY & LEADERSHIP

Functional Safety Engineer
Controls Team Leader
Automation Manager
Head of Controls
Engineering Manager (Automation)
Technical Director

What Automation & Controls Roles Pay In The UK

Published market guidance for the controls, instrumentation and systems roles we are asked about most. This is the most platform-dependent labour market we recruit into: two engineers with the same job title and the same years behind them can sit £15,000 apart on the strength of which PLC, SCADA or robot brand they have actually commissioned.

What Automation & Controls Roles Pay In The UK. UK-wide permanent base salary, excluding overtime, call-out, vehicle and bonus, compiled October 2026. These are market ranges drawn from published sources, not quotations and not Andrews Recruitment Group placement figures. Site-based instrumentation roles frequently carry a van, call-out and overtime that materially change total earnings without changing base, and those are not in the figures below.
Role	Typical UK range	What moves it up the band
Automation Engineer	£38,000 to £58,000	The broadest title in the sector and the one where the band says least on its own. Named platform experience — Siemens TIA Portal, Rockwell Studio 5000 — and having commissioned rather than supported a system are what place a candidate in it.
PLC Programmer	£42,000 to £62,000	Advertised salaries are the better evidence here than any aggregate average. Multi-platform capability is the clearest premium: an engineer fluent in both Siemens and Allen Bradley is scarcer than one twice as deep in either.
SCADA Engineer	£42,000 to £68,000	Water, power and pharma pay above general manufacturing for this role, and the regulated sectors also want documented change control, which narrows the field considerably. Senior and specialist roles are advertised to £80,000.
Controls Engineer	£40,000 to £60,000	Overlaps Automation Engineer in practice, and employers use the titles interchangeably. Where it is distinct, it is the site-resident role: owning the installed control system rather than delivering a new one.
EC&I Engineer	£45,000 to £70,000	The strongest advertised-salary cluster of any role in this table, and consistently above generalist controls work. Process industries — chemicals, nuclear, water, pharma — are where it is paid, and hazardous-area competence (CompEx) is the common differentiator.
Instrument Technician	£37,000 to £58,000	Base understates this role more than any other here. Field-based and shutdown work advertises with a van, call-out and overtime that can add a third again; CompEx and calibration traceability carry the top of the base band.
Robotics Engineer	£38,000 to £58,000	Brand-specific, like the PLC roles: ABB, KUKA and FANUC programming are not transferable on paper to an employer running the other two. Integration experience across cell design, safety and vision pays above teaching points.
Control Panel Designer	£35,000 to £50,000	The design office counterpart to the site roles above, and paid accordingly. EPLAN proficiency and designing to a standard — BS 7671, UL where the panel is exported — are what reach the top of the band.
Electrical Design Engineer (Controls)	£42,000 to £60,000	A 2026 design-engineering survey puts electrically and control-biased designers roughly £6,500 above mechanically biased ones on the same experience, which is the clearest single measurement of the controls premium we found.
Functional Safety Engineer	£50,000 to £72,000	The highest-paid individual contributor role in the sector. IEC 61508 and 61511 competence, TÜV certification and SIL determination work are the qualification trail, and it is short enough that the band holds up across sources.
Automation Manager / Head of Controls	£52,000 to £78,000	Food, beverage and FMCG sit at the upper end of the published bands. Owning a capital automation roadmap and a team, rather than being the most senior engineer on site, is what separates the halves of this band.

Basis. UK-wide permanent base salary, excluding overtime, call-out, vehicle and bonus, compiled October 2026. These are market ranges drawn from published sources, not quotations and not Andrews Recruitment Group placement figures. Site-based instrumentation roles frequently carry a van, call-out and overtime that materially change total earnings without changing base, and those are not in the figures below.

Sources. Compiled from advertised and reported UK salaries on Indeed, Glassdoor, Totaljobs, Jobsite, Payscale, Jooble and talent.com, with published 2026 salary guidance from SimWest Engineering Recruitment, Alexander Daniels Global and Edwartens.

Benchmarking a specific role against a live brief rather than a national range? Send us the brief and we will benchmark it.