Scatec and EDF lead renewables hiring

From the newsletter

At least 448 new senior hires joined 10 renewable energy companies in Africa in the past one year. Global giants Scatec and EDF added 156 and 150, respectively, accounting for two-thirds of all hires. South Africa-based Mulilo Energy onboarded 58 new staff, marking an aggressive period in which its new additions make up a third of its total employees.

• In July, the top ten firms added 26 senior staff. That brings the total number of senior employees to 2,297. The analysis is based on LinkedIn data collected by Renewables Rising.

• Globeleq, sixth on our list, stands out for its resurgent momentum: It registered the steepest monthly positive shift among its peers. This reflects increased project activity, notably across southern African utility-scale solar and wind portfolios.

More details

• Scatec continues its reign as a top renewables employer, adding 13 staff during the past month. While its rate of senior hiring tempered from earlier months after an aggressive annual ramp-up of 156 hires, the company appears to be reallocating talent to operationally intensive roles supporting its ongoing solar and battery projects in South Africa and Egypt. Just last week, it advertised for five roles in Tunisia.

• Meanwhile, EDF Renewables' remarkable 150 senior additions over the year remain the most academically credentialed, with 65% holding master’s qualifications. EDF’s rapid expansion has been underpinned by its entry into flagship projects in Morocco, Egypt, and Kenya, for which the firm has targeted highly experienced, well-educated hires.

• Elsewhere, despite onboarding 58 new staff within 12 months, Mulilo Energy’s July hiring tapered to just a single new addition. This sharp slowdown suggests that most of Mulilo’s hiring needs for its South African grid-scale battery and renewable projects are now satisfied, and the company is settling into a phase of operational optimisation. Mulilo’s workforce is well-balanced with significant industry experience and a third holding master's level degrees.

• ACWA Power also experienced robust month-on-month gains, bringing in six new senior staff in July. Its hiring has tracked closely to project wins and portfolio expansions in North Africa, especially in Egypt and Morocco. ACWA’s talent pool is one of the most mature and stable in the industry, with average tenure over three years and the highest share of master’s-qualified staff outside EDF.

• Husk Power, primarily leading off-grid and mini-grid solutions in West Africa, particularly Nigeria, ranks fifth. The company has hired 20 new seniors over the past twelve months and could continue to rapidly expand depending on the market dynamics, especially as it has consistently posted job ads on sector job boards.

• JA Solar, which recently partnered with South Africa’s Juwi for a 420,000-panel deal, onboarded five senior staff in the same period. The company’s partnerships for solar manufacturingrecently with ARTSolar, are a key hiring driver. JA Solar, combining project delivery with local manufacturing, remains a nimble operator in the market.

• AMEA Power and Jinko Solar followed, onboarding 13 and 8 new seniors, respectively, in the past year. Both companies have pursued region-specific growth strategies but faced a challenging July, with small staff changes accompanied by substantial drops in company rankingreflecting possible project stalls or quieter orderbooks.

• Kenya’s PowerGen Renewable Energy hired three new seniors, showing steady but modest expansion as it pursues distributed generation opportunities in East Africa.

Our take

• It is clear that hiring momentum will continue, though as the data shows, growth is becoming more selective. Battery energy storage (BESS) projects, as evidenced by hiring patterns at Scatec and EDF, are now taking centre stage and driving new talent needs across the continent. 

• The competition for senior expertise is expected to intensify further as more companies look to secure stakes in a crowded sector and as public-private partnerships (PPP) become more prominent and complex.

• Local companies, though persistent, are still trailing behind their multinational counterparts. This is largely due to a lack of large-scale project wins and the vast international pools of capital and expertise the global players can leverage. Local firms also face higher staff turnover, greater talent shortages, and less predictable funding pipelines.