Regional Chief Human Resources Officer — Upstream Portfolio

The mandate

A listed upstream portfolio in Norway is shifting its regional operating model while delivering a major project whose engineering, construction and operating interfaces demand deliberate leadership capacity. Scarce technical experts are spread across project delivery and producing assets, and future roles remain unclear. The board seeks a Regional CHRO who can redesign leadership, workforce supply and employee transition to support the operating-model shift.

The perimeter covers approximately NOK 29,150 million in operated assets and portfolio and 700 employees and material partners. Accountability includes organisation design, strategic workforce planning, leadership, succession, capability, rewards, mobility, employee relations, contractor workforce and people operations. Business leaders own delivery and technical authorities retain professional decisions. The CHRO owns whether the region can field competent leaders and specialists through recovery and the future model.

Norwegian upstream work combines offshore rotations, onshore support, projects, operations, partners and regulated employee dialogue. Workforce choices must respect safety, competence, working-time, consultation and local employment requirements while responding quickly enough to protect the recovery path.

Why this seat is open

The previous leader is leaving through an accelerated but professional transition. Interim HR coverage protects employee processes, but the operating-model and project decisions need permanent authority within six to eight weeks. No concealed employee or conduct matter prompted departure.

What you will own

• Design the future regional organisation around work and authority.
• Build project and asset workforce demand and supply plans.
• Secure critical technical capability, mobility and knowledge transfer.
• Lead consultation, employee relations and fair transition.
• Align rewards and leadership measures with recovery outcomes.
• Develop regional people leaders and successors.

Organisation design will start with decisions across project, asset, technical and regional layers. Roles will state accountability, interfaces and time horizon. Temporary recovery positions will carry milestones and exit dates. The CHRO will prevent the enduring model from being built around current incumbents or emergency committees.

Workforce planning will map engineering, commissioning, drilling, integrity, maintenance, operations and commercial capability by project stage and asset need. Named proficiency, location, rotation and availability will replace headcount totals. The CHRO will decide when to redeploy, develop, hire, retain or contract, making opportunity cost visible across assets.

Critical expertise will be transferred deliberately. Paired assignments, technical reviews, simulation and observed work will test successor readiness. Retention arrangements may protect a defined project gate, but cannot substitute for a credible future role. Contractors will have competence, supervision, fatigue and knowledge obligations.

Employee dialogue will begin from reliable facts. Representatives and affected employees need a clear rationale, alternatives and timing consistent with law and agreements. Confidential project or leadership information will be protected, but not used to postpone preparation until outcomes are irreversible. Redeployment and reskilling will be assessed before external hiring or redundancy.

Leadership measures will connect safe recovery, decision quality, cross-asset talent sharing, cost and successor development. Leaders releasing scarce people to a priority project should not be penalised through narrow asset metrics. Persistent avoidance of enterprise decisions will be treated as a performance issue.

Workforce analytics will remain explainable. Skill supply, overtime, rotation, fatigue, absence, contractor use and attrition will be joined at team level without using personal data beyond a lawful purpose. The CHRO will ensure predictive tools support human decisions rather than label employees opaquely. Employee representatives will be involved where monitoring or automated inference changes established practice.

People operations must work for offshore and project realities. Mobilisation, medical clearance, competence records, travel, payroll and allowances need reliable service during organisational change. Errors affecting rotation or pay can quickly undermine recovery trust. The CHRO will establish field escalation, service ownership and root-cause removal instead of relying on repeated manual exception handling.

The first 12 months

Within 75 days, the CHRO will map the 25 most consequential role and capability risks, assess leadership and identify urgent employee-relations issues. The sponsor will receive an organisation and workforce sequence aligned to project gates.

By month eight, three critical workforce groups should operate stage-based plans, 75 employees should complete priority deployment or development assignments and key transition roles should have dated exits. Consultation and reward principles will be active.

At year-end, pivotal-role coverage should exceed 85%, critical fill time fall 20% and regretted attrition remain below 8%. Ninety per cent of recovery milestones should carry verified workforce readiness, while ready successors cover 70% of pivotal regional roles.

What the board will measure

• Leaders and capability available before recovery gates.
• Fair organisation choices grounded in future work.
• Scarce talent shared without weakening safe operations.
• Employee trust and consultation through transition.
• Strong regional people succession.

The person

You are a Regional CHRO, upstream people executive or workforce leader with 18–22 years of experience. You have carried accountable scope above NOK 16,900 million and led at least 500 people. Your record includes offshore workforces, major projects and regulated employee relations.

The board will test a temporary role you closed, a scarce-skill redeployment and a consultation that changed the plan without derailing delivery. Corporate HR without field and project consequence will not qualify.

This onsite Stavanger role requires asset, project and offshore-interface travel.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is NOK 3.0–4.0 million plus annual incentive. Measures include recovery readiness, retention, mobility, employee relations and succession.

Confidentiality

The company, project, assets, employees and organisation choices remain confidential. Further detail follows qualification and an undertaking. Composite circumstances prevent identification.