After years on the sidelines, defence industry sees “major” change in engineers
In a microphone voice that echoes between the ornate walls of Børsen, vice president of the technology company Teledyne Ole Søe-Pedersen talks about a trend in the defence industry.
“About four years ago, we wanted to keep quiet about the fact that we work for the defence. Now we say it out loud, so people know it when they come in,” the vice president says and elaborates:
“I have noticed a major change in people’s attitude towards it. We were used to having many engineers and other types of staff who don’t really want to work with defence, certainly not with anything that goes bang. And that idea is changing.”
Around the hall, industry professionals nod at Søe-Pedersen’s words. On this day at the beginning of April (exactly one week before the flames rose up around those same walls), they have gathered in the historic halls on Slotsholmen in Copenhagen for a conference focused on critical infrastructure and the need for underwater technology for defence purposes.
Teledyne Marine supplies technology for underwater activities from its Danish branch. Around the tables are similar representatives from the defence industry.
The question from the floor this Monday afternoon was: Has the war in Ukraine made it more attractive for engineers to work in the defence industry? A question that has proven extremely difficult to answer with concrete data.
Quite simply, there are no official figures on how many people are applying to companies in the defence industry in recent years.
But there are signs. Signs that Ole Søe-Pedersen and others at Børsen confirm.
It was Version2’s journalist who asked the question during a debate with the Teledyne director. And the undersigned has directed the same question to the software company Systematic, which has been recruiting to that extent in the first half of their current financial year, which started on 1 October last year.
Defence “resonates better with the population”
Lone Bryder, senior manager for people attraction at the company, says that over the last six months, just over 100 new employees have been hired at Systematic, approximately 70 of whom are in their Danish departments. Systematic is currently operating in 11 countries.
The ambition is to reach 200 new employees before the end of the financial year.
“So it’s going really well,” observes Lone Bryder, who says that this influx is a little out of the ordinary compared to what they are used to.
Another sign that new winds are blowing in the industry is a “qualitative feeling”, as Bryder calls it.
“When we talk to the candidates, we notice that there’s a more positive interest in our industry. I sense that our purpose in the world has a different resonance today than it did just a few years ago.”
Systematic’s communication software is part of NATO missions in which allies need to work together effectively.
“We can see that there’s a greater and greater demand for that. After all, the main objective is to get our soldiers home alive and give them the best possibilities to work together effectively. And I sense that purpose resonates better with the population today since it’s relevant.”
How do you sense it?
“We always ask candidates how they feel about potentially having to work in a company that works in the defence industry. When I ask my team, I can hear that there’s a greater degree of respect and an attitude that what we do is important in the situation we are unfortunately facing in Europe now.”
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Illustration: Systematic.
Is it a trend that has accompanied the fact that we are now experiencing war in Europe?
“Yes it is.”
Can you elaborate on what type of conversation you have with candidates today?
“There’s a greater recognition of the importance. There’s a sense of significance and perhaps also a different awareness of what is needed to continue to preserve peace in Europe. Until war came to Europe, it didn’t mean much to us Danes, so the fact that it’s now closer has created a different awareness of its importance.”
It is mainly software developers who are hard to come by.
Has it become easier to find them now than before?
“Yes, I think it has become a little easier. But whether it has anything to do with the fact that people have decided to work with defence deliveries to a greater extent, I cannot say. There’s also a bit of a development at other IT companies that works in our favour in terms of recruitment.”
In addition to changes in the IT industry, Lone Bryder also mentions factors such as Systematic’s Copenhagen office as another factor that may have made it easier to attract people.
No data points
The first challenge one encounters when trying to quantify the influx of employees in the defence industry is that it is a fluid boundary that determines whether the companies are part of the industry or not.
Version2 has contacted the Danish Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of Danish Industry, the defence industry association CS, and the engineers’ union IDA to obtain the figures.
None of them have data on the specific influx before or after February 2022.
But at the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI), according to Joachim Finkielman, who is in charge of the defence and security industry, they have noticed through the organisation’s activities and dialogues with companies that the winds are blowing in the direction of defence.
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Illustration: Sif Meincke/Dansk Industri.
“At its core, there’s an issue with delineating who is part of the defence industry and who is not,” he says.
“Having said that, we can clearly notice that activities are increasing in this area. We’ve noticed that some are expanding their business and that the demand for their products is high. And we’ve also noticed that many companies that supply defence solutions are looking for more employees. So there’s expansion on all parameters.”
In February, the Confederation of Danish Industry held its annual defence conference, with almost 400 participants and 100 companies on the waiting list.
“We’ve never experienced that before. We’ve never experienced so much interest in meeting the Danish defence industry,” Joachim Finkielman says.
Do you have a sense of whether people have started to talk differently about the defence industry since war came to Europe?
“Definitely. People have begun to view the area of defence as a prerequisite for welfare and freedom to a greater extent. It was something that was said during the Cold War, but we’ve forgotten it since then. After all, we all thought we were living in a world based on international rules, trade, and peace. But now we can only conclude that geopolitics is back on the agenda. And we at DI think this has given a different tone to the discussion.”
The Confederation of Danish Industry is currently working to get a better overview of the industry’s movements towards defence, but it is difficult to get information from the companies in this area, as the industry is by its very nature shrouded in confidentiality agreements.
