Defence is growing. But where will the people come from?
Defence companies often grow faster than their name recognition. Where the people are meant to come from, and why career changers are currently the biggest lever.
On 6 August 2026, the German Federal Prosecutor took over the investigation into a drone carrying an explosive device at Leipzig/Halle airport. At almost the same moment, a company in Hanover opened new production halls for exactly the technology meant to stop drones like that: high-power lasers from FiberBridge Photonics.
The company that is taking off right now
FiberBridge Photonics in Hanover does not build complete weapon systems. It supplies the laser source - the core component that larger defence companies then combine with target acquisition, control systems and a vehicle or ship to form a finished counter-drone system.
And development is turning into production.
Series manufacturing has started. Today around 50 to 60 people work at FiberBridge. Over the next few years that number is meant to reach 200 to 300. Within a few years, in other words, three to six times as many employees as today.
(Handelsblatt, 7 August 2026)
That is exactly what makes FiberBridge so interesting to me.
Because the build-up of the European defence industry is not happening only at Rheinmetall, MBDA or Airbus. A large part of it is happening one level below: at companies in photonics, sensors, electronics and optics that are suddenly expected to deliver in volumes, having built prototypes or small series only a few years ago.
Technically, many of these companies can do precisely what is now needed.
From a recruiting point of view, that creates a very different problem: teams have to grow within a short space of time - often considerably faster than the company's name recognition in the labour market.
There are plenty of applications. Just not everywhere.
The defence labour market has turned noticeably.
Labour market economist Dr Virginia Sondergeld analysed the sector's job postings for Indeed. By April 2026, postings at European defence companies were 65 per cent above their 2021 level. The job market as a whole was around 15 per cent below it.
In Germany, another 22 per cent came on top between April 2025 and April 2026.
(Indeed, 10 June 2026)
Something has shifted on the candidate side too.
Search interest in defence industry jobs has more than tripled in Germany since 2021. What stands out is what people search for most: "apprenticeship", "internship" and "working student".
Part of the new interest, in other words, comes from people just starting out.
At the same time the market is opening up to other groups. People from sectors such as automotive are looking for new prospects. Others are looking for more stable employers. And for others again, defence simply reads differently today than it did a few years ago: security, European defence capability and the protection of critical infrastructure are on the evening news every day.
The sector has become more visible - and so have its employers.
Not everyone benefits equally, though.
Rheinmetall received more than 300,000 applications last year. At the annual general meeting in May 2026, supervisory board chairman Ulrich Grillo put it plainly: the company, he said, is not aware of any shortage of skilled workers.
I believe that immediately.
So the problem is not necessarily that nobody wants to work in defence. The problem is where those applications land.
Anyone who knows Rheinmetall from the news applies to Rheinmetall.
Anyone who has never heard of FiberBridge Photonics may not even search for it - even when the role would be a perfect fit.
That leaves two entirely different recruiting realities:
The well-known companies have to sort applications.
The others first have to get candidates to consider them at all.
And suddenly it is not only about engineers
It gets interesting the moment development turns into series production.
A company building a prototype needs different structures from one that suddenly has to deliver volume.
The Indeed data shows it too: 14.7 per cent of advertised defence roles are in software development. Right behind, at 14.6 per cent, come production, engineering trades and mechanics. A further 11.5 per cent are in engineering.
Production is therefore practically level with software.
And that is exactly where recruiting gets difficult.
According to the DIHK, 57 per cent of companies that cannot fill open positions find no suitable candidates with vocational training. Overall, 36 per cent of businesses cannot fill open positions, at least in part.
(DIHK skilled labour report 2025/2026, close to 22,000 companies surveyed)
If an entire industry now ramps up its production capacity on top of that, an already tight market will not get any easier.
An example we really like
FiberBridge has a fairly pragmatic answer to this.
On its own careers page, the company explicitly addresses career changers with technical vocational training.
One production role was even posted on a job board for dental assistants - deliberately aimed at people who could move into laser manufacturing as career changers.
And approaches like that are exactly what is needed more of right now.
Because someone who can work cleanly, with concentration and patience on very small components does not necessarily have to have learned that skill in an arms factory.
And anyone who looks for candidates where hardly any other defence company looks is suddenly no longer competing with ten well-known employers for the same profiles.
That sounds obvious. In practice it is a considerable lever.
Companies growing quickly right now should therefore ask one very sober question about every position:
Do we really need experience in the defence industry here?
Or do we need someone who brings certain skills and can learn the rest with us?
For many production roles, the latter should be enough.
And at that moment, a very small candidate market suddenly becomes a much larger one.
If you are building your team right now and want to know how many suitable people for your profiles are actually available in the market, we are glad to look at that together with you.