Your addressable pool of Site Engineers in Scotland stands at 72 career records, but 33 of them moved into their current role within the last 18 months.

Luddon Construction is competing for a shallow and recently reshuffled pool of civil engineering site talent in Scotland. Understanding exactly where that pool sits, how long it stays put, and which employers are holding it is the difference between a fast hire and a long vacancy.

What your market actually looks like

The non-obvious point is how concentrated employer-level holding is at the top of the market. Six named employers account for 25 of the 72 pool records between them, and Balfour Beatty alone holds 7 — nearly 10% of the entire Scottish pool. That means the majority of the talent you want is not freely circulating; it is sitting inside a small number of direct competitors and specialist contractors, most of whom will not advertise when they lose someone until after the individual has already decided to move. Waiting for candidates to apply to your advert means you are, by definition, only seeing the fraction who have already left or who are openly searching.

When these people move

The median time a Site Engineer in this pool spends in a role before moving is 1.0 year, derived from 343 completed roles — so the population as a whole turns over quickly by construction industry standards. Set against that, 33 of the 72 individuals moved into their current position within the last 18 months. Those two numbers together create a specific timing window: a substantial proportion of the pool is approaching or already past the point at which they historically become open to a move, yet they are not necessarily dissatisfied enough to be actively searching. That is the optimal moment for a direct, unsolicited approach — before they have briefed an outbound recruiter or updated a job board profile.

Who holds this capability

Balfour Beatty plc carries the largest share with 7 pool members, followed by Advance Construction Scotland on 6 and Luddon Construction Limited itself on 4. Mackenzie Construction and Robertson Group each hold 3, and GEORGE LESLIE holds 2. The practical implication is that the realistic hiring universe for this role is not the open market — it is five or six specific organisations whose Site Engineers you can identify by name and approach directly. It also tells you that your own current headcount of 4 in this pool is proportionally competitive with Mackenzie and Robertson, but materially behind Balfour Beatty and Advance Construction Scotland.

Where people actually go

The observed employer-to-employer moves show two consistent pathways worth noting. John Paul Construction has fed Advance Construction Scotland twice, and Robertson Group has fed John Paul Construction twice — suggesting a northward drift along a loose contractor hierarchy where individuals use mid-tier firms as stepping stones. Separately, Wills Bros Ltd has sent two people to Robertson Group, and Aaron Group has sent two to Kilmac. None of those four receiving employers is Luddon, which means the natural flow of talent through this network is currently bypassing you. The actionable read is that John Paul Construction, Wills Bros Ltd, and Aaron Group are the upstream sources — individuals there have already demonstrated willingness to move laterally and have done so recently.

Where the pool is

Glasgow is the strongest single concentration with 15 pool members, which aligns directly with your registered office at G23 5HD. Edinburgh holds 6, Greater Glasgow Area a further 5, Aberdeen 5, and a broader Scotland label accounts for another 5. The Glasgow-first shape of the pool is genuinely favourable: the largest single cluster of relevant engineers is already in the same city, removing relocation as a friction point for the majority of direct approaches. The Edinburgh and Aberdeen cohorts are reachable but would require either a commute conversation or a project-based deployment discussion depending on your current programme geography.

What the market pays

No published pay series covers this occupation in the Scottish market — there is no dated benchmark figure in the available data. That is not an evasion; it reflects a genuine absence of publicly reported salary evidence for Site Engineers at this level in Scotland. What it means practically is that rate is being set bilaterally in direct conversations rather than anchored to a transparent market index, which gives you both flexibility and exposure: candidates will be comparing informal signals from multiple approaches simultaneously, and the employer who moves fastest and most clearly on package terms tends to close.

A sample, anonymised

Real career records. Names and profile links are withheld here; they are released with the full read.

The approach

We hold career records for 72 individuals in this pool and can identify those whose tenure profile places them inside the historical movement window right now. We would build a short-list from the Glasgow-concentrated cohort first — prioritising the 15 in the city — cross-referenced against tenure data to surface those most likely to be receptive, and approach them directly and confidentially before they become visible on the open market. References to specific individuals in any further conversation will use the anonymised codes from this document until you confirm you want a full brief on any one of them.