Illustration: an executive walks across an unfinished bridge from an industrial plant to a construction site where a site manager is waiting
Posted on by Thimon Radtke

Headhunter for the construction industry: how construction companies find executives despite the shortage

Headhunter for the construction industry: how construction companies find executives despite the shortage

At the end of 2025, an average of 58,392 people in engineering and IT occupations were registered as unemployed, more than at any time since the VDI/IW Engineering Monitor began in 2011. In the same quarter, there were 314 vacancies for every 100 unemployed people in civil engineering occupations. No other engineering field was as short of staff.

In short: A headhunter in the construction industry pays off when a leadership position cannot be filled through job advertisements or your own network. For site management, project controls and technical management, that is currently the rule rather than the exception. With the special infrastructure fund, demand continues to grow. Executives from industry and plant engineering can close part of the gap, but not every role.

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Why is the construction industry short of executives right now?

Two developments are coming together. The first is political: under the Act Establishing a Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality of 30 September 2025, up to 500 billion euros are available for additional investment, including up to 100 billion euros for the federal states. In addition, the Public Procurement Acceleration Act has been in force since 1 July 2026 and is intended to get public contracts moving faster. The federal government, for example, may now award contracts directly up to a value of 50,000 euros.

The second development concerns people, and it was there even before the special fund. In September 2025, the German Economic Institute (IW) worked out who is actually supposed to turn those billions into construction. The findings of the IW study:

  • Even then, around 10,000 specialists for planning construction projects were missing.
  • For civil engineers, structural check engineers and site managers, 81 percent of vacancies could not be filled because there were no suitably qualified unemployed people anywhere in Germany.
  • In heavy civil engineering, capacity would have to grow by around 18 percent to renovate roads, railways and bridges. At the time of the study, more than 4,000 skilled workers were missing there, from tradespeople to engineers.
  • The number of first-year students in the relevant subjects is falling.

The development is slowly reaching order books, albeit with fluctuations. According to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), real incoming orders in the main construction trade were 11.3 percent higher in June 2026 than in the same month of the previous year, and as much as 17.8 percent higher in heavy civil engineering. July then saw a decline of 9.2 percent compared with the previous month. For workforce planning, the direction matters more than any single month: anyone who wants to deliver public infrastructure projects in 2027 and 2028 needs the project management for them now. Because of notice periods, an executive who signs today will usually not start until the new year.

On top of this comes an observation recorded by the German Construction Industry Federation (HDB) in its Labour Market Report 2026: construction companies continue to complain a great deal about poaching. In other words, the industry is pulling scarce people away from one another instead of attracting new ones.

Which positions are particularly hard to fill?

The statistics do not distinguish between hierarchy levels. From search practice, however, it is possible to say where mid-sized companies struggle most. It is almost always the roles that require technical expertise, contract law and people management at the same time:

  • Senior site management and project management in heavy civil engineering, road and bridge construction
  • Head of estimating and work preparation, because in public tenders the bidding phase decides the profitability of the entire project
  • Technical management in building services (MEP), i.e. heating, ventilation, plumbing and electrical
  • Branch management, when a company wants to grow regionally
  • Technical or commercial managing director, often in connection with a succession

For building services, the Engineering Monitor gives a clear indication: after civil engineers, engineering occupations in energy and electrical engineering are the second scarcest, with 246 vacancies per 100 unemployed. Anyone looking for a technical manager for electrical or energy projects is therefore competing not only with other construction firms, but also with grid operators, municipal utilities and plant engineering companies that need the same people.

The bottleneck at the top has knock-on effects further down. Without experienced senior site managers, young site managers can hardly be trained, and without a head of estimating, bids go out too late or too expensive. A construction company with ten engineers and one vacant leadership position therefore often has a bigger problem than one with three vacant specialist positions.

Career changers from automotive and mechanical engineering: where it works

This is where a second look at the Engineering Monitor 2025/IV pays off, which the IW published for the VDI in August 2026. Unemployment in civil engineering occupations rose by 5.8 percent within one year. In mechanical and automotive engineering occupations it was 34.0 percent, and in technical research and production control 32.9 percent. The figures rose most sharply in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, where vehicle manufacturing carries particular weight.

Two labour markets for engineers are therefore currently moving in opposite directions. Our assessment: construction companies that look for executives exclusively within their own industry miss out on the part of the market where things are currently moving. That does not mean a programme manager from an automotive supplier can run a major construction site. For each role, however, it is worth honestly examining which experience really has to come from construction and what can be learned in the first few months.

The following overview is an assessment based on consulting practice, not a statistic. It shows in which functions a move from industry is realistic:

Function Career change from industry What usually has to be learned
Site management, senior site management hardly realistic Construction workflow, VOB/B (German construction contract rules), managing subcontractors, authority on site
Project controls, head of work preparation quite possible Construction contract logic, change order management
Technical management MEP partly, from plant and electrical engineering Standards, acceptance inspections, interfaces between trades
Commercial management, controlling quite possible Construction accounting, joint ventures
Plant management for precast concrete or building materials quite possible Little, series production remains series production
Digitalisation, BIM coordination quite possible Hands-on experience on site

What executives from automotive and mechanical engineering bring with them is process discipline. Anyone who has been responsible for a production launch with suppliers from several countries knows schedules with a critical path, escalation rules and quality reviews. In many mid-sized construction companies, such routines are less established. What is missing is a feel for how a construction site works: the weather, changing subcontractors, a foreman with 30 years of experience who does not respond to slide decks. That can be learned, but not in four weeks.

An example from consulting practice

Anonymised and for illustration: an owner-managed civil engineering company in the Lower Rhine region wins several framework contracts for sewer and bridge rehabilitation. It is looking for a head of project controls to plan schedules, costs and staff deployment across more than a dozen parallel sites. The company's own job advertisement mainly attracts site managers who are a good technical fit but have never managed more than two projects at the same time. For the direct approach, the search radius is therefore deliberately widened: half of the target companies come from construction, the other half from plant engineering and automotive suppliers. The eventual appointee comes from programme management at a supplier. For the first year, the owner assigns her an experienced senior site manager as a permanent point of contact for all construction contract matters.

Without this tandem, the appointment would probably have failed during the probationary period. Anyone bringing in career changers should therefore plan the support before the first approach, not once things start to grind on site.

How does a headhunter in the construction industry work?

At its core, it is the same method as in any other industry: the consultant identifies people who already fill a comparable role today and approaches them personally and confidentially. Our article on the direct approach to candidates describes how this process works, from the target company list to the first conversation. In construction, three particularities come into play.

First, the market is regional. Many site managers and project managers only change jobs if their commute stays the same or gets shorter, because they already drive to changing sites every day. A good target company list therefore starts with a map, not with a list of industries.

Second, the type of construction matters. A project manager from turnkey building construction is not automatically right for bridge construction, and someone who has managed MEP projects in hospitals thinks differently from someone in residential construction. A headhunter has to know these differences, otherwise they present CVs that only fit on paper.

Third, the change of industry becomes an assessment task in its own right. With career changers, the CV says even less than usual. Structured management diagnostics help here, for example with semi-structured interviews and personality assessments, to judge whether someone can cope with the blunt communication on construction sites. And after the contract is signed, a planned onboarding for executives is needed so that the first 90 days are not lost idling between the office and the site.

Before you hire a headhunter or place a job advertisement, a few decisions will save a lot of time later:

  1. Which experience really has to come from construction? Write down for the role what someone must be able to do on day one and what they can acquire within six months. Only this distinction makes career changers assessable at all.
  2. Who will support the new executive? Especially with people switching industries, it should be clear before the contract is signed who will cover construction contract matters until the person has settled in.
  3. Does your salary band match the market? With 314 vacancies per 100 unemployed, experienced civil engineers negotiate from a strong position. A band that is consistent internally may be too low externally.
  4. How quickly do you decide? Good candidates usually have several conversations running in parallel. Block your management's calendars for the interview phase in advance.
  5. How far does your search radius extend? Decide whether relocation or a second home is an option, and whether candidates from neighbouring industries are explicitly welcome.

Clarifying these points in advance usually shortens the search more than any additional job advertisement. If you want to know why rising unemployment still does not make the search for key people easier, read our article on the executive labour market in Munich. The mechanism behind it applies to construction just as much.

Frequently asked questions about headhunters in the construction industry

How much does a headhunter for the construction industry cost?

The fee is always paid by the client company, never by the candidate. It is usually based on the target annual salary of the position and, for executive search mandates, is generally paid in instalments over the course of the project. Have the fee, payment schedule and any replacement guarantee confirmed in writing before you start.

How long does it take to fill a site management or project management position?

At Schlagheck + Radtke, the search itself, up to the first assessed candidates, usually takes four to six weeks. After that, the timeline depends mainly on your decision-making process and the notice period, which for executives is usually several months. For a project manager who is to take over a project in spring, the search should therefore start in autumn.

Can engineers from mechanical engineering take on leadership roles in construction?

In many roles, yes, especially in project controls, plant management, controlling or digitalisation. For direct site management, they usually lack experience with construction workflows, VOB/B and subcontractors. An experienced in-house point of contact for the first year significantly reduces the risk.

Is a headhunter also worthwhile for smaller construction companies?

For specialist positions, usually not. For the managing director, a branch manager or a key position on which contracts depend, often yes. Weigh this against the cost of a project that cannot be accepted, or can only be delivered late, without the right management.

Discuss your construction vacancy

Are you looking for a site manager, a head of project controls or a technical manager, and the usual channels are not bringing in the right people? Our headhunters for the construction sector, Anna Csuti and Christian Wolfrum, know the construction and MEP market and, on request, also search specifically in neighbouring industries. You can find out more about our work on our construction industry page. The first conversation is non-binding, and we give a guarantee of up to 24 months on every placement.