Australia’s energy transition is often spoken about through the lens of infrastructure, technology and capital. Transmission lines. Renewable Energy Zones. Batteries. Grid connections. Offshore wind. Firming. Storage. Electrification. Policy. Planning. Investment. All of these things matter. In fact, they are critical. But the more time I spend speaking with leaders across energy, renewables and infrastructure, the more convinced I am of one thing: The energy transition will not be delivered by infrastructure alone. It will be delivered by people. That is what I mean by The Human Grid . The physical grid will move electrons. The human grid will move the sector. It is the executives making decisions under uncertainty. The project leaders moving developments from concept to FID. The engineers solving grid, connection and system strength challenges. The commercial leaders structuring deals that can actually be financed. The construction teams delivering complex infrastructure in regional communities. The legal, regulatory, finance and policy professionals trying to make the system work. And it is the next generation of talent deciding whether energy is the sector they want to build their career in. When I started the Powering Your Career podcast, the opening line was simple: “The success of this shift hinges on the people driving it.” The more conversations I have had since then, the more true that feels. The scale of what needs to be delivered across Australia is enormous: AEMO’s 2024 Integrated System Plan projects that around 90% of the National Electricity Market’s coal-fired power stations could retire before 2035, with the entire coal fleet before 2040. AEMO has also highlighted that new generation, storage, firming and transmission need to be delivered before coal exits the system. Clean Energy Council commentary on workforce research shows the clean energy workforce for generation, storage and transmission may need to grow from around 21,500 workers to 59,300 workers by 2030. Jobs and Skills Australia has identified 38 critical occupations needed for the clean energy workforce and made 50 recommendations to support the transition to a net zero economy. The Australian Government’s National Energy Workforce Strategy highlights the need for workforce planning to be built into major clean energy projects and programs. These numbers tell an important story. This is not just an engineering challenge. It is not just a capital challenge. It is not just a policy challenge. It is a people challenge. One of the things I have noticed across the market is that many people talk about the physical grid: transmission, generation, storage, connections, system strength, investment and technology. And rightly so. But we do not talk enough about the human grid: the leadership, capability, careers, culture and talent that will determine whether the transition is actually delivered. A consistent theme from the podcast is that careers in energy are rarely linear. Many of the best leaders in the sector did not start with a perfect plan. They moved through different industries, took risks, backed themselves, learned from setbacks and stepped into opportunities before they felt completely ready. Guy Chalkley, who was my first guest on Powering Your Career , made a point that has stuck with me: “You don’t necessarily have to be an energy expert to be in the sector, but you need to be a good leader.” That matters. The energy transition is too complex to be solved by one type of person or one traditional career pathway. We need people from infrastructure, construction, finance, law, technology, mining, consulting, government, utilities and emerging industries. We need engineers, but we need more than engineers. We need commercial thinkers. Project leaders. Community engagement specialists. Policy people. Strategy leaders. Finance professionals. Legal and regulatory experts. Construction specialists. Operational leaders. Digital and technology talent. People who can work across complexity and bring others with them. Leadership also matters more than ever. This is a sector dealing with pressure from all sides: capital constraints, community expectations, policy change, grid congestion, supply chain challenges, delivery risk, cost escalation and the urgent need to move faster. In that environment, leadership is not just about technical capability. It is about judgement. Resilience. Communication. Trust. Values. Commercial discipline. The ability to make decisions with imperfect information. The ability to bring people with you. Another line from Guy that stayed with me was: “People are people in whatever sector you do it in, and it’s the people that are going to drive it.” That is the heart of The Human Grid. The energy transition needs major projects and major investment, but it also needs people who can build trust, lead teams, work with communities, influence stakeholders and keep moving through uncertainty. Jack Curtis from Neara also made a point on the podcast that I think applies well beyond technology: “People still deal with people. They still want relatability. They still want someone who can empathise with their problem statement.” That is a big part of the challenge. Technology will play a huge role in the transition. AI, digital twins, modelling tools, data platforms and automation will help the sector move faster and make better decisions. But technology will not remove the need for human judgement. It will not replace trust. It will not replace leadership. It will not replace the ability to understand people, communicate clearly and bring different groups together around a shared outcome. The other theme I keep hearing is courage. Courage to make decisions without every answer. Courage to change direction when something is not working. Courage to hire differently. Courage to build teams differently. Courage to bring people in from outside the traditional energy sector. Courage to admit that the transition is as much a human challenge as it is a technical one. For all the talk about megawatts, markets and major projects, the success of Australia’s energy transition will depend heavily on whether we can attract, develop and retain the right people. That includes CEOs and boards. It includes project directors, development leaders and commercial executives. It includes engineers, planners, grid specialists, construction leaders, finance professionals, policy experts, lawyers, community engagement teams and corporate functions. And it includes the emerging leaders who will carry this sector for the next 20 years. At Enertia Talent, this is the part of the transition we sit closest to. Our role is not to build the transmission line, develop the battery or finance the project. Our role is to help connect the people who can. That is why I believe the conversation needs to expand. Yes, we need to keep talking about the physical grid. We need to talk about infrastructure, investment, policy and technology. But we also need to talk about The Human Grid - the leadership, capability, culture, careers and talent that will determine whether Australia can deliver the energy transition at the pace and scale required. Over the coming months, I’ll be writing more about this theme, drawing on conversations with energy executives, podcast guests and leaders across the market. Because the transition will not just be powered by electrons. It will be powered by people. #thehumangrid #energytransition #renewables #energy #leadership #careers #executivesearch #enertiatalent #poweringyourcareer
Australia’s energy transition needs leaders with deep expertise. But it also needs people whose varied experiences have built the judgement, adaptability and range to solve problems the sector has not faced before. Yet when energy organisations hire senior leaders, the search often begins with the ideal career history: someone from the same part of the market, who has delivered the same type of asset, worked in the same regulatory environment, led a similarly sized team and preferably held an almost identical role elsewhere. There are positions where that depth of direct experience is essential. But after more than 20 years in executive recruitment and over 25 conversations with leaders on the Powering Your Career podcast, I have become increasingly convinced of something else: some of the most effective leaders in energy have not followed a conventional path. Their careers have moved across industries, functions, organisations and countries. They have taken risks, changed direction, experienced setbacks and stepped into roles before they felt completely ready. Their careers may not have been linear, but the capability they built along the way continued to compound. That is an important part of The Human Grid . The energy transition does not simply need more people. It needs leaders with the curiosity, courage and adaptability to navigate unfamiliar problems. Recruitment naturally begins with experience. What has this person done? Which organisations have they worked for? What projects have they delivered? How large were their teams and budgets? What outcomes did they achieve? These questions matter. Past performance provides evidence and, in technical, regulated or safety-critical roles, specific experience can materially reduce appointment risk. But experience should not be confused with capability. Experience tells us what someone has done before. Capability helps us understand what they may be able to do next. That distinction matters because the energy transition is not simply a repeat of the past. The system is becoming more decentralised, digitised and interconnected. Consumer behaviour is changing. New technologies, commercial models and sources of capital are emerging. Major infrastructure must be delivered at scale while navigating regulatory, political and community scrutiny. The leaders capable of operating in that environment may not always have the most obvious résumé. They may be a lawyer who developed strong operational and commercial judgement, an engineer who learned to lead capital, stakeholders and complex organisations, a banker who moved into project development and delivery, a military leader who learned to build teams and make decisions under pressure, or an executive from another regulated industry who brings a different perspective to energy. One of the clearest themes across Powering Your Career has been the variety of pathways into energy leadership. Daphne Yao began her career as a corporate lawyer before moving through energy retail, networks, transmission, green hydrogen and battery storage. David Griffin spent 13 years in the Army before building a career across renewable energy development and energy technology. Megan Fisher developed experience in product development and innovation across industries including telecommunications before moving into the energy start-up ecosystem. Mark Branson began as an ecologist before moving into consulting and renewable energy development. Kane Thornton studied and worked in information technology before spending more than two decades helping shape Australia’s clean energy sector. Gordon Taylor ’s career moved from electrical engineering and investment banking into construction and the leadership of major infrastructure delivery. Guy Chalkley took a different path again. He chose not to attend university because he wanted to enter London’s financial sector and start building practical experience immediately. By the time many of his peers graduated, he already had three years in the workforce - experience that became an early foundation for a career that ultimately took him from accounting and to leading major Australian energy networks. These careers look different on paper, but they share important qualities: curiosity, learning agility, commercial judgement, the ability to work across disciplines and the courage to enter unfamiliar territory. There is, however, a difference between a non-linear career and one that lacks direction. Changing roles or sectors regularly does not automatically build capability. The strongest non-linear careers usually have a connecting thread. Each move adds something meaningful: technical depth, commercial exposure, operational accountability, stakeholder management, capital allocation, governance, transformation or team leadership. The career may not follow a straight line, but the person becomes increasingly well equipped to solve more complex problems. That is what employers should be assessing—not whether every move appears conventional, but whether the journey has prepared the person for the challenge ahead. In a constrained talent market, many organisations respond by making selection criteria more specific. They look for someone from an exact competitor, with the same technology, asset class, market exposure and project phase. That can feel safer. It can also dramatically narrow the talent pool, encourage businesses to compete for the same small group of executives and reinforce conventional thinking at precisely the time the sector needs new ideas. We cannot build a larger Human Grid simply by moving the same experienced people between competing organisations. We need to broaden the pathways into the sector. That does not mean ignoring experience. It means becoming more precise about which experience is genuinely essential. One of the most useful questions at the beginning of an executive search is: What must this person already know, and what could the right person learn? Some roles require deep technical credibility, regulatory knowledge, market relationships or a track record delivering a particular type of project. Those requirements should remain. But many of the capabilities that determine executive success travel well across sectors: leading complex and multidisciplinary teams, managing major capital programs, operating in regulated and safety-critical environments, making decisions with incomplete information, balancing technical, commercial and stakeholder priorities, building organisational capability and influencing boards, investors, governments and communities. A candidate does not always need to have faced the identical problem. They need to demonstrate that they can understand complexity, learn quickly and lead effectively through it. Energy organisations now operate at the intersection of engineering, capital, policy, technology, customers and society. No single professional background provides every perspective required. The objective is not to replace sector expertise. It is to combine it with different experiences and ways of thinking. That is The Human Grid in practice: a connected network of complementary capabilities, rather than a group of people who have all followed the same career path. Employers also need to make cross-sector appointments work. It is easy to say an organisation is open to transferable talent. It is harder to support someone after they arrive. Executives entering energy need to learn its language, market structures, regulation and stakeholder landscape. They need deliberate onboarding, access to technical specialists, strong internal networks and clarity about where they are expected to bring a different perspective. Hiring for potential still requires investment. Candidates also carry responsibility. A non-traditional background is not enough on its own. Executives seeking to move into energy need to translate their experience clearly. What problems have they solved that resemble those facing an energy business? How have they operated in regulated, complex or safety-critical environments? Where have they balanced technical, commercial and stakeholder priorities? What evidence shows they can learn a new market quickly? Why energy, and why now? The strongest candidates do not simply say, “My background is different, so take a chance on me.” They explain how that difference can create value. As an executive recruiter, I regularly see the tension between minimising appointment risk and finding someone capable of creating a different future. The safest-looking candidate is not always the person best equipped for the job ahead. The central question should not only be: Has this person done this exact job before? It should also be: Does their career demonstrate that they can solve what comes next? Australia’s energy transition will require deep experience. It will also require curiosity, adaptability, courage and different perspectives. Many of the leaders who bring those qualities will not have followed a straight line. That is not a weakness in their story. It may be the reason they are ready to lead. Because The Human Grid will not be built from one profession, one industry or one conventional pathway. It will be built by connecting different experiences around a shared purpose. If you'd like to hear more about some of these non linear career journeys - have a listen to the Powering Your Career podcast - Watch - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCltgSF18qcOACdK8Ni30wSw Listen on Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1rQW7aX66ShTBiVb9rrFUX Listen Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/powering-your-career/id1791068047 Other platforms - https://lnkd.in/grwHuevj #thehumangrid #poweringyourcareer #enertiatalent
