Europe is hiring. And it's not just tech.
A £1 billion British-German defence contract just dropped — and with it, 500 skilled jobs across the UK. 100 at a Rheinmetall manufacturing facility in Telford. 100 more at KNDS in Stockport. 300 across the supply chain. The steel is coming from Sheffield Forgemasters, a company the UK government injected £420 million into specifically to rebuild sovereign manufacturing capability.
That's one contract. One announcement. One week.
And if you've been sitting on a move to Europe because you can't figure out where the work is — this is your data point.
£1bn contract value — one deal, announced May 2026500 skilled positions created or supported across the UK£420m in UK government investment into domestic steel manufacturing. First deliveries of the RCH 155 systems expected 2028 — this hiring runs for years
Europe is in a spending cycle. That has a ripple effect.
When a government spends a billion pounds on domestic manufacturing, it doesn't only hire people who work on factory floors. It hires project managers, procurement leads, supply chain analysts, logistics coordinators, finance and compliance professionals, HR teams, technical writers, and engineers across every discipline. It triggers vendor contracts. It expands facilities. It creates multi-year demand.
And this isn't isolated. Across the EU and UK right now, defence budgets are expanding, green infrastructure is being built at scale, semiconductor production is being reshored, and energy systems are being overhauled. Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and the UK are all in active investment mode — simultaneously.
The UK-German collaboration on this particular programme is also a NATO interoperability project. That means joint training, shared logistics, cross-border coordination. The European job market — especially in skilled trades, engineering, and project delivery — is increasingly transnational. Borders matter less when the contracts span multiple countries.
If your skills are in any sector Europe is currently scaling, the demand is real. The question is whether your application looks like it belongs here.
Stop treating the job piece like a fixed obstacle.
It's not. That's the most important thing I can tell you.
The Americans I work with who stall out on the move aren't stalling because they're unqualified. They're stalling because they're using a playbook built for a completely different market. American resumes don't read the same way here. LinkedIn networking works differently across Europe. The application process for skilled roles in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, and beyond has its own rhythm — including what language to write in, how to present self-employment history, what hiring managers actually look for when they see a non-EU applicant, and when to use a recruiter versus going direct.
Most people trying to make this move solo spend months sending applications into nothing. Not because they don't have the experience. Because they're presenting themselves in a format that doesn't translate.
The European job market isn't closed to you. It's unfamiliar to you. Those are not the same problem — and they don't have the same solution.
One requires luck. The other requires a strategy.
What's actually hiring across Europe right now.
To make this concrete — here are the sectors with active pipelines and real budget behind them:
→Defence and advanced manufacturing — UK, Germany, and Poland are scaling fast with multi-year contracts already in place. This is years of demand, not a short burst.
→Heavy equipment and construction — Infrastructure projects across the Netherlands, Germany, and Scandinavia have consistent demand for experienced operators, site managers, and project leads.
→Engineering and project delivery — Civil, mechanical, automation. European firms are expanding and need people who can execute, not just credential.
→Supply chain and logistics — The reshoring trend across Europe has created serious gaps in procurement and operations. US corporate experience in this space translates directly.
→Finance, compliance, and HR — Every large programme creates back-office need. If you've worked in US corporate environments, the functional experience carries.
These aren't "maybe someday" sectors. These are active hiring pipelines with government and private capital behind them right now.
What I do.
I'm not a recruiter. I don't place you in a job.
What I do is build you the map — identifying which European markets align with your specific background, translating your experience into the format and language that gets responses here, and giving you a repeatable process you can run before you ever book a flight.
I relocated from California to the Netherlands. My husband works in heavy equipment. I know what the European job search looks like from this side — what works, what wastes time, and what stops most Americans before they even start.
If you've been sitting on the move because you can't see how the job piece fits together, that's exactly the problem I solve.
Let's figure out your job piece.
Start with a Compass Call — 60 minutes to map your background against the European market and leave with a clear next step.
I don't place you in a job — I build you the map.
