Recent off the again of Saudi Aramco’s lately launched third quarter 2025 outcomes, Rigzone related with Faisal A. Al-Hajji, Aramco Senior Vice President (SVP) of Human Assets, for a deep dive into a spread of employment associated matters.
On this unique Q&A session, Al-Hajji talks about profession development at Aramco, which abilities he thinks can be most in demand over the following 5-10 years, and the impact of automation and synthetic intelligence on jobs on the firm, amongst a bunch of different topics.
Rigzone: What does Aramco search for in an worker? How many individuals does Aramco make use of in the mean time?
- Advertisement -
Al-Hajji: At Aramco, we’re lucky to have a wealth of outstanding expertise, each domestically and internationally. Our strong expertise pipeline is especially robust inside Saudi Arabia, the place we persistently appeal to excellent people from top-tier universities. These candidates sometimes boast excessive evaluation scores, robust GPAs, and accredited certifications, making certain a extremely certified and engaging expertise pool, reaching a mean 200+ of Saudi candidates day by day.
This nice pool is completely reviewed via rigorous evaluation processes and standardized interviews. At Aramco, we’re in search of proficient people who can thrive in a dynamic and various vitality firm. Whereas particular abilities and {qualifications} differ by place, we prioritize candidates who’re well-rounded, academically robust, and possess a optimistic and adaptable mindset. We search professionals who’re desperate to study, embrace new applied sciences, and contribute to a collaborative and progressive work setting.
We at the moment make use of over 75,000 staff with various backgrounds, experiences, ages, and nationalities. Over 90 % of our workforce is Saudi, whereas staff from greater than 90 different nationalities make up the rest, underscoring the outstanding range inside our firm. And that’s why we all the time search for candidates who’re in a position to work seamlessly as a part of a various, world staff.
Rigzone: What does profession development, coaching, and improvement appear to be at Aramco?
Al-Hajji: Aramco has a proud historical past of offering alternatives for coaching and schooling over many many years, and I’m a testomony to that, having benefited from the corporate’s scholarship program myself. For practically three many years, our flagship initiative has enabled greater than 8,000 college students to attend high universities after which construct their careers at Aramco.
We provide a spread of applications to assist the event of non-employees, comparable to sponsored college students, together with scholarship applications, internships, mentorship, and profession improvement workshops. For our industrial {and professional} workforce, we now have full-career path improvement applications that nurture each specialists and leaders, with hundreds of customizable coaching and improvement choices.
Our improvement Journey focuses on growing newcomers from day one, with foundational coaching and tailor-made applications that develop into extra intense and centered as careers progress. We even have management improvement applications that improve strategic considering, innovation, and world management abilities, together with government improvement applications, management competency improvement, and mentorship.
What’s distinctive about our method is that we don’t do it alone. We companion with world-class instructional and improvement establishments from around the globe to carry the perfect practices, newest applied sciences, and cutting-edge analysis to our coaching applications. This collaboration allows us to supply our staff with world-class improvement alternatives, keep forward of the curve, and drive innovation within the vitality business.
Total, our coaching and improvement applications are designed to draw, retain, and develop a proficient and various workforce, offering staff with the talents, information, and alternatives they want to achieve their careers and contribute to the corporate’s success.
Rigzone: How does Aramco deal with cultural integration and office range?
Al-Hajji: Aramco has been a multicultural workforce for over 90 years, so inclusivity is a part of our DNA. This long-standing dedication was mirrored within the current Excessive Performing Worker Expertise Award and designation Aramco obtained by Willis Towers Watson, which places Aramco as the primary main oil and gasoline firm, and the primary firm headquartered within the Center East, to attain this distinction.
Constructing on this, our fairness and inclusion applications cowl a spread of specifically developed and recurrently up to date on-line programs and in-person workshops designed to supply a cross-company introduction to, and reinforcement of, key fairness and inclusion ideas. In reality, over the previous 5 years we have been in a position to virtually double the variety of females within the workforce, and we tripled the variety of females in management positions.
Rigzone: Which abilities can be most in demand over the following 5–10 years? How can candidates put together?
Al-Hajji: The talents in highest demand over the following 5 to 10 years can be a mix of foundational and rising capabilities. We’ll proceed to wish our conventional choices, as they continue to be foundational to many industries and supply important information and abilities that underpin our operations. Nevertheless, because the world evolves, there may also be rising demand for rising majors, notably in areas like knowledge analytics, synthetic intelligence, machine studying, cybersecurity, and sustainability-related disciplines.
Candidates can greatest put together by constructing a robust base via conventional fields of examine, whereas additionally exploring interdisciplinary pathways and rising areas that align with future developments. Emphasizing STEM schooling, digital literacy, and acquiring related skilled certifications will additional equip them to thrive in a quickly altering job market.
On the identical time, Aramco is investing closely in constructing Saudi Arabia’s future expertise pipeline. Our Nationwide Coaching Facilities throughout the Kingdom educate and empower a extremely skilled, aggressive workforce. These applications are collectively funded by authorities and business, making certain Saudi residents are geared up for high-skilled jobs that can assist future-proof the financial system. For practically a decade, we now have collaborated with strategic companions to ascertain 16 Nationwide Coaching Facilities in 10 cities throughout the Kingdom, protecting 80 disciplines. Up to now, these facilities have benefited over 60,000 people, and we aspire to achieve 100,000 beneficiaries by 2030, aligning completely with the Kingdom’s aim to extend employment. We additionally sponsor hundreds of Saudi college students at top-tier universities worldwide, making certain they return with the superior STEM abilities wanted to contribute to a globally aggressive workforce.
Rigzone: How is Aramco HR balancing conventional oil and gasoline roles with newer alternatives (renewables, hydrogen, AI)?
Al-Hajji: To steadiness conventional oil and gasoline roles with newer alternatives in renewables, hydrogen, and AI, Aramco HR is specializing in a number of key methods. We’re upskilling and reskilling our current workforce, recruiting new expertise with experience in rising applied sciences, and redesigning conventional job roles to include new abilities and duties.
We’re additionally dedicated to range and inclusion, recognizing {that a} various workforce is important for driving innovation and success. By strategic partnerships with exterior organizations, startups, and academia, we’re staying on the forefront of rising applied sciences and figuring out new alternatives for collaboration and innovation.
As a part of my function, I lead and assist these efforts, by working carefully with the enterprise to determine expertise gaps, develop strategic workforce plans, and implement initiatives that drive enterprise outcomes and assist the corporate’s general technique. By taking a proactive and strategic method to workforce improvement, we’re positioning Aramco for long-term success in a quickly altering vitality panorama.
Rigzone: How will automation and AI change jobs at Aramco?
Al-Hajji: Expertise is deeply embedded in every little thing we do at Aramco. We’ve got deployed superior applied sciences supported by world-class computing energy, demonstrating our dedication to pushing boundaries. Our progressive tradition is mirrored in practically 1,000 patents granted, standing tall amongst our friends. AI is an enabler, not a alternative. It permits individuals to work smarter and make higher selections. Count on to see extra data-driven roles – in predictive upkeep, analytics, and digital twins – and extra coaching for engineers and operators to make use of superior instruments successfully. The end result isn’t fewer alternatives, however new kinds of alternatives that mix human experience with digital functionality.
Whether or not it’s for preventative upkeep, enhancing security, optimizing our operations, or extra, there’s a large future for digitalization and AI at Aramco. Whereas we’re already an business chief in digital maturity, we now have taken daring strikes to speed up and intensify our work to maneuver to the following stage, notably with generative AI.
Al-Hajji was appointed Aramco Senior Vice President of Human Assets in 2023. Previous to this, he served as Vice President of Human Assets, from April 2022 to November 2023, and Government Head of Human Assets from Aug 2021 to March 2022. Al-Hajji’s Aramco profession started in 1998 as an engineer within the Ghawar subject.
In his function as SVP of HR, Al-Hajji is accountable for offering strategic management and operational administration of all HR capabilities at Saudi Aramco. Along with overseeing the each day HR operations for over 75,000 staff from over 90 nationalities, he’s accountable for applications that serve greater than 410,000 dependents and retirees of Saudi Aramco and supply assist and oversight to Saudi contractors and associates.
To contact the writer, e mail andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
