Boss's tactic adopted by engineers turning up (8)
I believe the answer is:
employer
'boss's' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'tactic adopted by engineers turning up' is the wordplay.
'tactic' becomes 'ploy' (I have seen 'Clever tactic' mean 'ploy' so perhaps 'tactic' could also mean 'ploy').
'adopted by' indicates putting letters inside (I've seen this in other clues).
'engineers' becomes 'reme' (I've seen this in other clues).
'turning up' says the letters should be written backwards.
'reme' in reverse letter order is 'emer'.
'ploy' going inside 'emer' is 'EMPLOYER'.
(Other definitions for employer that I've seen before include "One who engages workers" , "One's worked for" , "One hires staff" , "One paying staff" , "User; boss" .)