Beyond the CV: Where do you find field engineers for combined heat and power? The military

Our client is a leading manufacturer of combined and heat and power (CHP) plants. They needed Field Service Engineers, who were committed and motivated to progress with a clear path from Junior to Senior to Commissioning Engineer and beyond.

The client had already hired well recently. Their real problem wasn't finding capable people, it was finding people who actually wanted the long travel that come with the job.

Most candidates said yes to the role and no to the lifestyle.

What the client needed was someone who saw those demands not as a drawback, but as normal.

Among our placements were a US Navy Leading Petty Officer who spent years responsible for three engine rooms staying mission-ready around the clock, and a US Navy Division Officer who served aboard a fast attack submarine, completing two deployments.

Neither had built their career around convenience. Both had built it around reliability and being where the mission needed them.

That's what carried them past the skills gap. Full technical training happens in the first six months on the job. What can't be trained is someone who treats travel and unpredictable hours as part of the job's identity.

That mindset was already built long before either of them saw a CHP plant and it's what made them the right fit.

What employers can learn from this?

The lesson isn’t that every veteran wants a travel-heavy role. It’s that relevant experience doesn’t always come with a familiar job title. For employers hiring field engineers, that means looking beyond direct industry experience and understanding both what a candidate can do and what they want next.

• Look beyond military titles. Ask about the equipment candidates maintained, the faults they diagnosed and the teams they led. Connect that experience to your operational needs rather than expecting an exact match on a resume
• Separate essential skills from trainable gaps. In this case, the client could provide CHP-specific training. Identify what someone needs on day one, what you can teach and which qualifications are mandatory.
• Make progression tangible. Explain what the route from junior to senior to commissioning engineer involves, including training, responsibilities and the milestones needed to advance. 

At Rise Technical, we help clients find engineers who are right for the job—and motivated to stay. Through motivational matching, we look beyond technical skills to understand what candidates want from their work, whether that’s travel, progression, responsibility or stability. By aligning those priorities with the reality of the role, we help clients build teams with a stronger long-term fit.