IT and tech recruitment: the people who build, secure and run what your business depends on

IT & TECH VACANCIES 

Your customers, your staff and your suppliers all depend on systems that someone built, someone secures and someone answers the phone about at 8am. Those people are in demand, and the best are usually already in a job.

Cathedral Appointments is a recruitment agency based in Exeter, with a presence in Plymouth and Taunton, recruiting for South West businesses since 1988.

Our IT and tech recruitment is led by Dan Martin on 01392 575697

What we recruit

Technology teams are built in layers, and every layer is hard to hire for. Cathedral Appointments recruits across all of them. Engineers sit on our Engineering page.

• Software and development. Software, front-end, back-end and full stack developers, mobile and DevOps engineers, and QA and test engineers. The ones who build and check what your business runs on.
• IT support and infrastructure. Service desk and desktop support analysts, field and support engineers, systems, network and cloud engineers, and IT managers. The ones who keep everyone else working.
• Data and AI. Data analysts and engineers, business intelligence developers, data scientists, and AI and machine learning specialists. The ones who turn your data into decisions.
• Cyber security. Security analysts and engineers, governance, risk and compliance specialists, and security managers. The ones who protect your systems, your data and your reputation.
• Business analysis and delivery. Business analysts, IT project and programme managers, product owners and delivery managers. The ones who turn what the business wants into what gets built.

Senior and leadership roles

The people who set the technology direction are leaders too, and Cathedral Appointments recruits them. These searches are often confidential.

• Technology leadership. IT directors, heads of IT, heads of AI and digital, CIOs and CTOs, and virtual or part-time CIOs for smaller businesses.
• Security and data leadership. Heads of information security and CISOs, heads of data and analytics, and virtual or part-time security leads.

Talk to Dan Martin on 01392 575697.

What’s shaping IT and tech hiring

Three things are shaping who employers need, and how they hire.

Hiring is picking up, and the best people are still scarce. The KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs for October 2026, covering September, found higher demand for permanent staff in half of the ten job sectors it tracks, led by IT & Computing and Engineering. It also found competition for highly skilled workers still adding upward pressure on starting pay, even as overall permanent salary growth slowed. Closer to home, a 2024 report led by the University of Exeter counted nearly 18,000 tech companies employing 170,000 people across the South West peninsula, called the lack of available talent the biggest barrier for tech employers, and put Exeter and Plymouth at almost half of the region’s demand for tech jobs.

Cyber security is now a board-level issue. Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025/26 found that 43% of UK businesses had suffered a cyber breach or attack in the previous 12 months, including 65% of medium and 69% of large businesses, yet board-level responsibility for cyber security sat in only 31% of businesses. Its cyber security skills report for 2026 found 57% of UK businesses with a basic technical skills gap in cyber security, up from 49% a year earlier. Many smaller businesses can’t justify a full-time specialist, which is where part-time, contract and managed expertise comes in.

AI is changing what employers ask for. PwC’s 2026 AI Jobs Barometer found UK specialist AI job postings up 61% to 180,000 in 2025, an average pay premium for AI skills of 34.2% (up from 11% a year earlier), and most of the growth coming from roles that use AI rather than build it. A survey by the recruiter Robert Half, reported by Staffing Industry Analysts on 30 September 2026, found 47% of UK employers planning to grow their permanent technology teams before the end of the year, with cyber security, agentic AI and generative AI the skills most sought.

Hire for good, or bring in skills for a project

Permanent. When you want people to build the team around, we search, screen and shortlist, so you only meet people who are right for the role.

Contract and interim. A developer, engineer or specialist for a defined project, a migration or upgrade, or to cover a gap while you recruit permanently, [on terms agreed with you at the start].

Who we recruit for

Technology people work in every kind of business. Cathedral Appointments recruits for:

• Software, SaaS and digital businesses
• IT services and managed service providers
• Healthcare and care providers
• Financial services and insurance
• Manufacturers and food producers
• Education, charities and the public sector
• Professional services, including legal and accountancy firms

How we understand the role

A good technical hire is partly about skill and partly about how someone works with your team. We look at both.

• We start with your stack and your team. The systems you run, the languages you use and how your support is organised, before we start looking.
• We speak tech. We ask what the role will build, fix or support, so you see people who match the work and not just the keywords.
• We screen before we share. Every candidate you meet has been interviewed by us first.
• We know the South West market. What roles pay, which employers are hiring and how far people will travel, including what remote employers elsewhere are offering for the same role.
• We stay with you to the start date. We advise on the offer, keep in touch with your new starter and with your other candidates, because good technical people often have more than one offer.

What moves pay

Pay in IT and tech varies with the role, the stack and the size of the business. The big factors are seniority and the scope of the role, the languages, platforms and tools involved, certifications such as cloud or security accreditations, whether the role is on call or customer-facing, where the business is, and whether the role can be remote or hybrid, because remote employers elsewhere compete for the same people. Contract rates move with the assignment. If you are about to advertise, ask Dan for a benchmark for your role.

Questions we get asked

Should we hire in-house IT support or use a managed service provider? It depends on the size of your team and how much your business depends on IT. A managed service provider gives you cover and specialist skills without a full-time hire; an in-house technician knows your people and your systems. Many businesses use both.

Could a virtual or part-time IT or security lead be enough? Often, for a smaller business. A virtual CIO or part-time security lead sets the direction and answers for the risk without a full-time salary, and you can move to a full-time hire as you grow. Talk to Dan about what the role should be before you write an advert.

How should we think about AI skills when we hire? Most employers need people who can use AI well in their job more than people who build it. PwC’s 2026 AI Jobs Barometer found that most of the UK growth in AI-related postings came from roles that use AI, not from developer roles. Tell us what you want the person to do with AI and we’ll tell you who is out there.

Do you recruit engineers, or digital marketing and web roles? Electronics, mechanical and automation engineers sit on our Engineering page, with Dan Martin, and digital marketing and web design roles on our Marketing & Creative page.

Do these roles work remotely or hybrid? Many technology roles can, and candidates often expect it. Service desk and field support roles are more often on site. If you are open to remote or hybrid working, say so in the brief: it widens the pool of people we can approach, though it also means you compete with employers outside the region.

Your contact

Dan Martin, Senior Consultant.

Dan leads our IT and tech team and works with IT and technology leaders across Devon, Somerset & Cornwall.

Dan Martin: 01392 575697 | dan@cathedralappointments.co.uk