Permanent hiring data tells you where a market has been. Interim and contract demand tells you where it is going. In energy and infrastructure, where projects move from approval to construction on long but fairly predictable timelines, the gap between the two is usually around six months. We have learned to watch it closely.
Why interim moves first
When a developer, utility or infrastructure fund wins consent, closes financing or takes a final investment decision, the first hires are rarely permanent. Boards do not want to commit to a full leadership structure until the project is real. So they bring in interim project directors, commercial managers, programme controls leads and grid specialists, usually on six to twelve month assignments.
If the project proceeds, those roles become permanent. If it stalls, the interims leave and nobody has to manage a restructuring. For a client it is the sensible order of things. For us it is a forecast.
The pattern we see
We have tracked interim and permanent briefs in our Energy & Infrastructure practice since 2017. Over that period, a sustained rise in interim requests has preceded a rise in permanent briefs in the same sub-sector on five occasions. The median lag was two quarters.
Three recent examples:
US transmission, 2024 to 2025. Interim requests for transmission project directors rose 40% in the second half of 2024, as several regional projects moved through permitting. Permanent briefs in the same area rose 26% in the first half of 2025.
UK grid connections, 2025. Once connection queue reform was confirmed, interim demand for connections and consenting specialists roughly doubled within a quarter. Six months later, four of the developers we had supplied with interims briefed us on a permanent head of grid.
US offshore wind, 2023. The signal ran the other way. Interim extensions were cut short and new requests dried up in the second quarter, two full quarters before the permanent market contracted and several clients paused leadership hires.
Reading the signals
Volume alone can mislead, because a single large programme can distort a quarter. We look at four measures together.
New interim requests, by sub-sector, against the same quarter a year earlier.
Assignment length. Briefs that start at three months and are extended twice mean something different from briefs that start at twelve.
Day rates. When interim rates rise faster than permanent base pay, supply is tight and permanent demand usually follows. In New York, senior interim project director rates moved from around $1,700 to $2,100 a day between early 2025 and mid 2026.
Conversion rate. The share of interims offered a permanent role at the end of an assignment. Across our practice it has averaged 27% since 2019, and reached 38% in the twelve months to June 2026.
When all four rise together, we tell permanent clients to expect competition for the same people within two quarters.
What it is telling us now
The current picture is mixed, which is itself useful.
Interim demand in US grid, transmission and battery storage is still climbing. New requests in the second quarter of 2026 were 31% higher than a year before, assignment lengths are getting longer, and conversion is at a high. We expect permanent hiring for project and engineering leadership in those areas to stay strong well into 2027.
Hydrogen and carbon capture look different. Interim requests have fallen for three consecutive quarters, and several assignments ended early. We would be cautious about committing to permanent leadership structures there without a clear funding decision behind them.
In the UK, interim demand in water has picked up sharply since the current regulatory settlement took effect, mainly for capital delivery and programme controls. If the pattern holds, permanent demand for those roles will follow in the first half of 2027.
Using it as a client
For a hiring manager, the practical lesson is about timing. If you are planning to build a permanent team in a sub-sector where interim demand is already high, start the search earlier than you think you need to.
The people you want are probably already on assignment somewhere. The best of them will have a permanent offer from their current client before you call, and the conversion figures suggest more of them are accepting it.
