ROSEN Group’s Michelle Unger and Jan Frowijn put pipeline industry recruitment under the microscope.
ROSEN Group presented a research paper at Clarion Technical Conferences’ Pipeline Pigging & Integrity Management 2026, which explored pipeline workforce trends, career perceptions, and the evolving skills landscape. By surveying 71 pipeline professionals and interviewing 25 seasoned leaders across multiple regions and roles, the study surfaces deep insights into how the industry can attract, retain, and develop talent. From Australia, these interviewees include APGA CEO Steve Davies, APA Group’s Allyson Woodford, independent consultant Susan Jaques, and Jan Hayes from RMIT. These case studies are each available in full from ROSEN upon request.
Pipeline work is essential to energy security, public safety, and infrastructure resilience, but it remains under-researched and poorly understood by potential entrants. Traditional recruitment messaging – relying on long tenure, pensions, and hierarchical ladders – no longer resonates with Millennials and Gen Z, who increasingly seek purpose, continuous learning opportunities, flexible careers, and clear societal impact. At the same time, rapid digitalisation, artificial intelligence, and the transition to low-carbon fuels are reshaping job competencies.
Survey and interview data reveal consistent themes that define how professionals experience and view pipeline careers.
Seasoned experts emphasise the importance of mentoring and coaching to guide early-career professionals through complex technical and judgment challenges. Networking accelerates learning, fosters cross-company collaboration, and bridges generational divides. Structured rotational programs broaden experience across functions and prevent siloed career paths.
Participants from all cohorts note that emerging technologies – including AI, digital twins, and hydrogen infrastructure – are central to future work and critical for reframing pipeline careers as innovation-driven and future-facing. Yet public perception remains a persistent barrier: pipelines are often overlooked or associated with negative narratives around safety and fossil fuels. Both seasoned and early-career respondents argue that authentic, engineer-led storytelling and ‘day in the life’ content are necessary to counter misconceptions and broaden appeal, especially among purpose-driven younger professionals.
Early-career voices in the survey underline several priority needs. Mentorship and coaching are seen as essential for confidence, technical growth, and navigation of career pathways. Transparent career ladders and progression frameworks give young professionals clarity on competency expectations and timelines.
Training and certification support – especially in digital, soft-skills, and emerging technology domains – is uneven, and financial barriers related to expensive courses and low starting salaries are frequently cited. Respondents also cited cultural and organisational barriers, such as male-dominated norms, referral-based hiring, and rigid entry requirements that may exclude capable candidates.
Work-life balance and mental health support emerged as important retention factors, with hybrid work options and supportive leadership valued alongside compensation. The survey also reflects continuing perceptions of the industry as outdated and manual, even as leadership highlights pilots in digital inspection and sustainable fuel transport. The paper argues that reversing talent challenges requires a wholesale shift in how the industry frames pipeline careers. Rather than static descriptions of infrastructure work, the sector needs coherent, purpose-led narratives that link career journeys to mission-critical outcomes like energy security, sustainability, AI-enhanced safety, and community well-being. Narrative theory underscores that stories shape how people imagine their futures, and translating abstract job descriptions into vivid career paths.
Drawing on best practices from other sectors that successfully reframed engineering careers, the authors propose a six-phase framework. This roadmap includes co-creating unified industry stories with cross-sector stakeholders, crafting authentic value propositions through multimedia and immersive experiences, activating multi-channel engagement with students and professionals, embedding flexible career pathways with structured rotations and credentialing, fostering mentorship and safe learning spaces, and measuring impact through targeted recruitment and retention metrics.
The paper asserts that recasting pipeline careers as dynamic, purposeful, and innovation-led journeys is essential for recruitment and workforce transformation. By embedding narrative principles into career development programs, the industry can cultivate cultures where professionals see their work as part of a larger purpose, strengthening engagement, accelerating capability building, and securing the talent needed to power energy systems safely and sustainably for decades to come.
For more information, contact Michelle Unger at rosen-group.com/en/global/general-contact-form
