Who Will Build Deep Tech?
From Competing for Talent to Building the Pipeline
A practical discussion about widening the deep-tech talent pool without asking individual companies to carry all the cost, supervision and risk.
Building the pipeline
Deep-tech companies need highly specialised people, but continually recruiting experienced talent from one another does not increase the overall supply.
At the same time, experienced engineers, scientists, technicians and technical professionals in adjacent industries could potentially move into deep tech with focused domain upskilling, relevant project experience and access to experienced mentors.
Smaller companies face a particular challenge. They need people who can contribute quickly, but often cannot carry the full cost, supervision burden or delivery risk involved in developing someone independently.
This live panel will bring together perspectives from a major aerospace employer, a deep-tech startup, a regional advanced-manufacturing ecosystem and practical technical project leadership. The discussion will examine what employers actually need, why capable people still struggle to enter specialist roles, and what would make alternative talent pathways commercially credible.
The panel will also consider the challenge of developing and redeploying existing employees as technologies, processes and roles change. Replacing an established workforce is slow and expensive, making effective reskilling an essential part of the discussion.
Hosted and moderated by Deep Tech Education during Deep Tech London. Listed on the Deep Tech Week London calendar.
What the panel will explore
- Which specialist roles and capabilities are hardest to find
- Why recruiting experienced people from one another does not solve the wider shortage
- What employers need to see before considering candidates from adjacent industries
- When targeted upskilling can make transferable skills genuinely useful
- How supported placements and project-based experience can reduce hiring risk
- Where apprenticeships and early-career pathways fit
- When reskilling an existing employee is more realistic than recruiting externally
- How SMEs can develop people without taking unacceptable commercial or delivery risks
- What universities, larger employers, clusters and workforce partners could contribute
- Where responsibility for the cost, coordination and supervision should sit
Speakers
Greg Mekkes
Greg brings practical experience of developing emerging technical talent through meaningful project work, combining early-career specialists with experienced experts, and creating the supervision and structure required to develop capability without compromising technical standards.
John Chinner
John brings the large-employer perspective, including apprenticeships, outreach, early-career development and the long-term pathways that help people progress from initial engagement into specialist engineering careers.
Paul Marshall
Paul brings the direct deep-tech startup perspective. Rapid Fluidics works in microfluidic design, rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing across areas including life sciences and space. He will explore the practical decisions smaller companies face when recruiting, developing or upskilling specialist talent.
Stuart Armstrong
Stuart brings insight into recurring skills and capability challenges across advanced-manufacturing and electronics SMEs, including mismatches between training and business demand, reskilling existing employees and maintaining delivery while developing people.
Ruta Kuisyte
Founder, Deep Tech Education
Ruta will host and moderate the panel. Deep Tech Education works to connect real employer capability requirements with practitioner-led learning, relevant project experience and more credible routes into specialist technical work.
Who should attend
- Founders and operators in deep-tech startups and SMEs
- CTOs, engineering directors and technical team leaders
- People, talent, learning and workforce-development leaders
- Employers struggling to fill specialist engineering or technical roles
- Universities and technical education providers
- Larger employers and primes
- Regional clusters and economic-development organisations
- Engineers and technical professionals considering a move from an adjacent industry
- Organisations funding or supporting workforce development
What you will take away
Attendees should leave with a clearer understanding of:
- Why capable people still struggle to move into deep-tech roles
- What employers need to see before considering talent from adjacent industries
- How upskilling, placements and supported project work could reduce hiring risk
- Where reskilling existing employees fits alongside external recruitment
- What employers, universities, larger organisations and ecosystem partners can each contribute