High-Paying Jobs No One Wants: Hiring Challenges in Energy
2025-02-24T15:22:18Z
Oil and Gas
The oil and gas industry is a powerhouse of the global economy. This year, shifting geopolitical trends have caused a boom in the oil and gas job market. Companies are looking to hire a high volume of roles for crucial projects, and fast. Despite offering lucrative salaries, many roles go unfilled. The challenges of these positions can often cause candidate hesitation or a high turnover rate.
Organizations scramble to fill talent gaps without addressing the root cause of the issue: poor talent acquisition strategies. To succeed, there needs to be a tailored recruitment strategy and industry experts who drive efforts to attract professionals with specialized skills, and who fit company culture.
In this article, we'll highlight the top-paying oil and gas roles that go unfilled, and the biggest oil and gas recruitment challenges companies face when hiring for them. We'll also provide you with Brunel's solutions, and how 50 years in the recruitment game has made us experts at solving oil and gas hiring challenges.
25% of decision-makers site rising competition as their top issue related to workforce retention
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Top Paying Roles in Oil and Gas That No One Wants
Operators / Skilled trades in remote locations.
Operators and skilled tradespeople are the backbone of oil and gas operations, ensuring the safe and efficient running of equipment, pipelines, and drilling operations. In remote locations, they handle the day-to-day tasks that keep projects on schedule, prevent costly downtime, and respond to operational challenges in real time. Without them, production halts, maintenance issues escalate, and projects become unsustainable.
Project Engineers
Project engineers oversee the planning, execution, and completion of oil and gas projects, ensuring timelines, budgets, and safety standards are met. They bridge the gap between design and implementation, coordinating cross-functional teams to keep projects moving forward. Their role is vital for mitigating risks, optimizing workflows, and ensuring compliance with industry regulations, ultimately determining the project's overall success.
Process Engineers
Process engineers design and optimize the processes that extract, refine, and transport oil and gas, ensuring efficiency, safety, and environmental compliance. They play a key role in reducing costs, improving production rates, and implementing sustainable practices. Without their expertise, facilities risk inefficiencies, increased operational costs, and potential safety hazards.
I&C Engineers
I&C engineers are responsible for the automation and control systems that regulate critical operations in oil and gas facilities. They ensure precise monitoring and control of pressure, temperature, flow rates, and other essential parameters, directly impacting operational safety and efficiency. Their expertise minimizes equipment failures, enhances productivity, and ensures compliance with strict safety and environmental standards.
Each of these roles is indispensable to keeping oil and gas projects running smoothly, efficiently, and safely—without them, projects face delays, inefficiencies, and increased operational risks.
