In-depth | EMPLOYMENT


FEATURE THEME Offshore boost for naval architects


Mark Charman, group CEO of global recruiter Faststream, examines the key employment market trends for naval architects


energy and defence sectors for 12 years, but the past 12 months have seen an unprecedented demand for naval architects from the oil and gas industry to work on the growing number of floating production and storage vessels (FPSO) under construction and in operation worldwide. When Shell unveiled its revolutionary


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Prelude FLNG project in May last year, it marked an important milestone in the development of the offshore LNG industry, which to that point had lagged behind its oil counterparts. Mitigating the need to lay pipelines and build processing plants on land, FLNG will unlock offshore energy resources and radically change the way the industry produces natural gas. Crucial


to the development of this


industry will of course be naval architects with an LNG background. Employers are, however, fishing for talent in a very small pool. Whilst we have over 8,000 of these candidates on our database, finding experienced naval architects with experience of LNG, structural design and floating offshore production is far from easy. Coupled with the LNG developments


is the surge in FPSO and drilling projects from the oil sector. Whether based in yards in the Far East or managing newbuild or conversion projects for owners and operators, there is currently plenty of challenging project work available. It is the naval architect with between five and 12 years of experience, capable of taking a project from specification to completion, that is in particularly short supply. Many of these people are being sourced from the classification societies which, simply cannot match the salaries on offer from the oil majors and owners, who typically offer remuneration that is 30% higher. With their prestigious projects and the chance to be involved at the cutting edge of design and operations, the pull of the oil and gas majors is all too obvious. Class societies are


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working hard to ensure that their brightest and best have the autonomy, variety and responsibility in their day to day work to keep them from being tempted away. Offshore consultancies have been


constantly on the look-out for naval architects and will typically take on a couple of graduates every year as well as more experienced people. Consultancies, of course, offer a huge variety of challenging work where the answers are not always in the book, but involve forensic investigations and making judgments based on experience. People with an enquiring mind and a mix of commercial and common sense are always being sought aſter. For those willing to undertake contract


work in the UAE or Singapore yards, the financial rewards can be even higher with six-figure salaries the norm for practical, project based naval architects with 10 or more years of experience under their belts. But, it is not just the oil and gas sector which


is looking for experienced naval architects. Te hiring requirements of both the marine and defence sectors has been steady over the past 12 months, following a period of hiring freezes by many HR departments


in the wake of the global economic shocks of 2008/2009. The focus on developing a more sustainable maritime industry to meet environmental and fuel cost expectations means that R&D super-specialists in areas such as hydrodynamics and propulsion are in demand to create the new technologies and breakthroughs for the ships of the future. Also, following a year or two’s absence, Asian yards are back in the employment market and looking for naval architects to work on their newbuilds. The defence sector has always been a


steady employer of naval architects and the British government’s development of the next generation of nuclear submarines is going to mean more vacancies in the UK. However, candidates find moving in and out of the defence sector to be difficult, both from a security clearance and professional point of view. Attracting large numbers of senior naval architects from outside the sector is proving to be near impossible, so defence contractors have been relying on hiring more graduates. Outside of defence, however, the prospects


for many recent graduates are not so bright. Employers are looking for graduates who


The Naval Architect October 2012


aststream has been finding and placing naval architects on behalf of companies in the maritime,


Mark Charman, group CEO, Faststream see’s a shift in the market for naval architects


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