We recruit controls, instrumentation and controls, electrical and process design engineers for engineering firms and EPCs across North America, along with the project managers who take capital projects through to handover. We work on retained, contingency, embedded and contract terms, and embedded is the one most engineering firms use.
The design market has moved toward the work our engineers do. The ENR Top 500 Design Firms took $158.7 billion in 2025, up 7.4%, with power up 14.6% and telecom, driven by data centers, up 31.3%. Four US LNG projects took final investment decisions in 2025, adding 7.2 billion cubic feet a day of capacity, and pharma and semiconductor plants are being designed across the country. Several large engineering firms now appear on Control Engineering’s System Integrator Giants list in their own right, which shows how much automation work sits inside EPC projects. ARC expects automation spending in the Americas to grow at mid to high single digits in 2026, led by data centers, electric power, LNG, semiconductors and life sciences, which are the same capital projects engineering firms are designing.
Engineering firms hire in phases. A project wins, the design team needs to grow inside weeks, then construction and commissioning each need different people. Hiring one role at a time against that timeline falls behind, and every hire is a bet on a project schedule.
Embedded hiring is built for that. We put a dedicated team on your hiring for the length of the program, working alongside your own people, with weekly alignment meetings and timelines built around your program, so you always know where every hire stands. Jon led an embedded program for a global pharma engineering firm that placed 12 niche engineers across DeltaV, project management and process engineering in five months (Case 05 on our Results page). Pricing is scoped to the program, so you know the cost before it starts.
Contract covers the phases that end. We keep pools of controls, EC&I and commissioning contractors ready for project award, from a few weeks of commissioning cover to multi year engagements with several engineers on the same program.
The engineers who move between design firms and the plant side know both worlds, and they’re the ones most firms want. We find them by asking what they did on a project rather than what their title was, and we tell candidates the truth about site time and travel before they interview.
If you’re staffing a capital project, book a call and we’ll tell you how to phase the hiring and what each role will cost.
Questions
What is embedded hiring?
A dedicated team working only on your hiring for a set period, alongside your own people, with weekly alignment meetings and pricing scoped to the program.
Do you recruit EC&I and electrical design engineers?
Yes, permanent and contract, for capital projects.
Can you staff a project in phases?
Yes. We plan the hiring around your design, construction and commissioning dates and mix permanent and contract to fit.
Related
Sources: ENR, 2026 Top 500 Design Firms. US Energy Information Administration, LNG capacity. Control Engineering, 2026 System Integrator Giants. Control, Year of the pivot, citing ARC Advisory Group, October 2026.
