Offshore wind jobs

Offshore Wind Jobs in Renewable Energy

Offshore wind covers the development, construction, and operation of wind farms at sea, from seabed surveys and consenting through foundation, turbine, and export cable installation to decades of maintenance from service vessels and port bases. The industry is still small relative to onshore but growing fast: GWEC counts 92.5 GW installed worldwide at the end of 2025, only 7.1% of all wind energy capacity, with more than 50 GW under construction and annual installations expected to double in 2026.

Where the jobs are

China installed 6.6 GW of the 9.3 GW connected in 2025 and has led every year since 2018, but those jobs sit almost entirely with domestic developers, state utilities, and turbine makers that rarely recruit internationally. For a European candidate the market is Europe and, increasingly, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, where European developers and contractors build with local partners; Taipei is the only city outside Europe among the ten largest hiring locations.

Within Europe, hiring follows headquarters and ports. Hamburg is the largest single location by a wide margin, followed by Copenhagen, London, Aberdeen, and Zoetermeer, then Glasgow and the Danish hubs of Esbjerg and Vejle. The UK is the largest national market: RenewableUK and the Offshore Wind Industry Council put UK offshore wind employment at nearly 40,000 in 2025, up 24% in two years, and estimate that 75,000 to 94,000 workers will be needed by 2030.

Who is hiring

Ørsted posts the most, followed by RWE, Vattenfall, and Scottish Power on the developer side and Vestas among turbine makers. Contractors account for much of the rest: Semco Maritime for offshore substations and service, Deutsche Windtechnik and KODIAK for operations and maintenance and technical personnel, and Seaway7 for foundation and turbine installation. The mix of titles reflects that spread: Lead and Senior Project Engineers, offshore turbine design engineers, electrical and power systems engineers, contract managers, originators, and on the operational side Offshore Service Technicians, High Voltage Technicians, and rope access technicians.

What sets offshore apart

Everything offshore happens around weather windows and vessels, and that shapes the work. Engineers plan campaigns around jack-up and cable-lay vessel slots booked years ahead, and marine and offshore engineering disciplines such as foundation design, subsea cables, and marine coordination are routine rather than exotic. Technicians need GWO sea survival and working at height certificates on top of their trade, and typically work rotations of one or two weeks on a vessel or platform; the wind turbine technician route is the most common way in. Oil and gas remains the largest source of experienced hires for vessel operations, subsea work, and HSE, particularly in Aberdeen and Esbjerg.

Grid work is the other distinct skill set. Far-offshore projects export power through HVDC transmission links and converter platforms, and the engineers who can design, commission, and maintain them are among the scarcest in the sector.

Outlook

The UK auction pipeline sets the pace in Europe. The seventh contract for difference round secured a record 8.4 GW of offshore wind at £91/MWh, more than half the capacity of all six previous rounds combined, and those projects move into construction hiring in the second half of the decade. Floating foundations, still at pilot scale, will open deeper waters off Scotland, Norway, and the Mediterranean once costs fall.