What is a Project Manager at Equinor?

As a Project Manager at Equinor, you are at the forefront of the global energy transition. Whether you are driving complex offshore wind developments, optimizing traditional oil and gas infrastructure, or spearheading new low-carbon solutions, your role is pivotal to delivering on the company's strategic ambitions. You are the vital link between engineering, supply chain, commercial teams, and external stakeholders, ensuring that massive capital investments translate into safe, sustainable, and profitable operations.

The impact of this position cannot be overstated. Equinor operates some of the most technically demanding and scale-intensive energy projects in the world. As a Project Manager, you will navigate highly regulated environments, manage multimillion-dollar budgets, and lead diverse, cross-border teams. Your decisions directly influence project viability, environmental safety, and the company's long-term profitability.

Expect a role that balances rigorous technical oversight with high-level strategic leadership. You will be expected to champion Equinor’s core values—Open, Collaborative, Courageous, and Caring—while relentlessly driving progress. This is not just about tracking milestones; it is about inspiring teams, mitigating complex global risks, and delivering critical energy infrastructure that powers societies worldwide.

Common Interview Questions

The questions below represent the types of scenarios you will face during your Equinor interviews. They are drawn from actual candidate experiences and are designed to test both your technical project management acumen and your alignment with the company's culture. Use these to practice structuring your responses using the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method.

Project Execution & Problem Solving

Interviewers want to see your practical toolkit for keeping projects on track despite inevitable hurdles.

• How do you establish a project baseline, and how do you monitor deviations from it?
• Tell me about a time your project faced a critical delay. How did you re-sequence activities to minimize the impact?
• Describe a situation where you had to manage a project with a constantly changing scope.
• How do you balance the trade-offs between cost, schedule, and quality when a project is under pressure?
• Walk me through your process for closing out a project and capturing lessons learned.

Risk Management & HSE

These questions assess your proactive mindset and your commitment to safety.

• Tell me about a time you identified a hidden risk in a project plan. What did you do about it?
• How do you ensure that a culture of safety is maintained when project deadlines are tight?
• Describe a time you had to deal with a significant safety or environmental incident on your project.
• How do you approach risk management when dealing with new, unproven technologies?
• Give an example of how you have integrated sustainability or carbon-reduction goals into your project execution.

Stakeholder & Matrix Leadership

These questions evaluate your emotional intelligence and ability to influence others.

• Tell me about a time you had to lead a team through a period of significant ambiguity or organizational change.
• Describe a situation where you had to persuade a senior stakeholder to adopt a strategy they initially opposed.
• How do you build trust and collaboration in a geographically dispersed, multicultural team?
• Give an example of how you handled an underperforming team member who did not report directly to you.
• Tell me about a time you made a mistake that impacted multiple stakeholders. How did you handle the communication and recovery?

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparing for an interview at Equinor requires a holistic understanding of both traditional project management methodologies and the unique demands of the global energy sector. You should approach your preparation by reflecting on your past experiences through the lens of large-scale execution, safety, and human-centric leadership.

Project Delivery & Execution – You must demonstrate a proven ability to manage complex scope, schedule, and cost parameters. Interviewers evaluate how you establish baselines, monitor progress, and intervene when projects deviate from the plan. You can show strength here by discussing specific frameworks you use to maintain control over capital-intensive projects.

Risk Management & HSE (Health, Safety, and Environment) – In the energy sector, safety is non-negotiable. Equinor rigorously evaluates your proactive approach to identifying hazards, managing environmental risks, and fostering a deep-rooted safety culture. You will stand out by providing examples of how you integrate HSE into every phase of project planning and execution.

Stakeholder Management & Leadership – As a Project Manager, you will operate in a heavily matrixed, international environment. Interviewers look for your ability to influence without direct authority, align competing interests, and communicate transparently across disciplines. Demonstrate this by sharing stories of how you have navigated conflicts and built consensus among diverse groups.

Culture Fit & Values Alignment – Equinor places a massive emphasis on its caring and collaborative culture. Interviewers actively look for empathy, professional integrity, and a team-first mindset. Showcasing how you support your team's well-being while achieving ambitious goals will strongly resonate with the hiring panel.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process for a Project Manager at Equinor is designed to be thorough, highly professional, and deeply reflective of the company's caring culture. Candidates consistently report that interviewers are respectful, welcoming, and genuinely interested in their well-being. However, because you will be interacting with multiple layers of leadership—often across different time zones—the process can be structurally complex and sometimes lengthy.

Typically, you will progress through three main stages. It begins with a comprehensive screening by Human Resources to assess your baseline qualifications, language skills, and initial cultural alignment. This is followed by an in-depth interview with your prospective direct leader, focusing heavily on your technical project management background and leadership style. The final stage often involves a broader panel or Area Manager, where the focus shifts to strategic alignment, complex scenario handling, and cross-functional integration.

Because Equinor involves numerous stakeholders in hiring decisions, scheduling can occasionally cause delays. Depending on the time of year and the availability of global managers, the end-to-end process can take up to two months. Patience and consistent, professional follow-up are key to navigating this timeline successfully.

The visual timeline above outlines the typical progression from initial screening to the final leadership panel. Use this to pace your preparation, ensuring you are ready for high-level cultural discussions early on, and saving your most detailed, complex project execution examples for the deep-dive rounds with hiring managers.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed, you must understand exactly what the hiring panel is looking for across several critical dimensions. Equinor relies on structured behavioral interviewing, meaning your past behavior is evaluated as the best predictor of your future performance.

Project Execution and Control

Your ability to deliver on time, within budget, and to the required quality standards is the core of this role. Equinor projects are highly complex, often involving new technologies or harsh environments. Interviewers want to see that you have a structured, disciplined approach to project lifecycles.

Be ready to go over:

• Scope management – How you define boundaries, manage change requests, and prevent scope creep.
• Cost and schedule forecasting – Your experience with Earned Value Management (EVM) or similar methodologies to track performance.
• Contractor and supply chain integration – How you ensure third-party vendors deliver according to Equinor standards.
• Advanced concepts – Navigating supply chain bottlenecks in global markets, executing capital projects (CAPEX) vs. operational projects (OPEX).

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Walk us through a time when a major project you were managing was significantly delayed. What steps did you take to recover the schedule?"
• "How do you handle a situation where a key contractor is failing to meet their deliverables?"
• "Describe a scenario where you had to manage a major change in project scope mid-execution."

Risk and HSE Leadership

Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) is a core pillar of Equinor's identity. You will be evaluated not just on your knowledge of risk matrices, but on your personal commitment to safety culture. Strong performance here means showing that you prioritize human life and environmental protection above project deadlines.

Be ready to go over:

• Proactive risk identification – How you facilitate risk workshops and create robust mitigation plans.
• Safety culture promotion – How you encourage teams to report near-misses and halt unsafe work.
• Crisis management – Your framework for responding to unexpected environmental or safety incidents.
• Advanced concepts – Integrating sustainability goals and carbon-reduction targets into traditional project execution.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell us about a time you had to halt a project or delay a milestone due to a safety concern."
• "How do you ensure that safety standards are upheld by external contractors who may have different internal cultures?"
• "Describe your approach to building a comprehensive risk register for a high-stakes infrastructure project."

Stakeholder Management and Matrix Leadership

Equinor operates in a matrix structure. You will rarely have direct HR authority over the engineers, geologists, or commercial analysts working on your project. Success requires exceptional communication, empathy, and the ability to build trust across borders.

Be ready to go over:

• Cross-functional alignment – How you bring diverse disciplines together to solve a shared problem.
• Conflict resolution – Your approach to managing disagreements between technical teams and commercial stakeholders.
• Upward communication – How you report progress, risks, and bad news to steering committees and senior management.
• Advanced concepts – Navigating local regulatory bodies, government stakeholders, and joint-venture partners.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Describe a time when you had to align two departments that had completely conflicting priorities for your project."
• "How do you manage a stakeholder who is highly influential but resistant to the project's goals?"
• "Tell us about a time you had to deliver difficult news to a steering committee. How did you prepare, and what was the outcome?"

Key Responsibilities

As a Project Manager at Equinor, your day-to-day work is a dynamic mix of strategic planning and tactical problem-solving. You are responsible for leading a project team through all phases of the development process, from early concept and feasibility studies through detailed engineering, construction, and final handover to operations. You will define project execution strategies, establish rigorous baselines for cost and schedule, and ensure that all activities comply with the company's stringent safety and quality standards.

A significant portion of your time will be spent collaborating with adjacent teams. You will work closely with supply chain managers to negotiate and manage large contracts, liaise with engineering leads to resolve technical bottlenecks, and coordinate with commercial teams to ensure the project meets its financial targets. You are the central node of communication, responsible for translating highly technical challenges into clear business impacts for senior leadership and joint-venture partners.

You will also drive the rhythm of the project. This involves facilitating weekly progress meetings, leading risk assessment workshops, and continuously updating the project risk register. Whether you are managing the installation of an offshore substation or upgrading a refinery's digital infrastructure, your ultimate responsibility is to maintain momentum, foster a collaborative team environment, and deliver the asset safely.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be a competitive candidate for the Project Manager role at Equinor, you must bring a blend of hard execution skills and refined soft skills tailored to large-scale, complex environments.

• Must-have skills – Proven experience in managing large capital projects (CAPEX), deep understanding of project control methodologies (cost, schedule, risk), and demonstrated capability in cross-functional stakeholder management. A strong, unwavering commitment to Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) principles is absolutely essential.
• Nice-to-have skills – Familiarity with the energy sector (oil & gas, offshore wind, or solar), formal project management certifications (PMP, PRINCE2, or Agile frameworks), and experience working in global, matrixed organizations.
• Experience level – Typically requires significant professional experience (often 7-10+ years depending on the seniority of the specific role), with a track record of taking projects from the conceptual phase through to successful operational handover. An educational background in engineering, business, or a related technical field is highly preferred.
• Soft skills – Exceptional communication abilities, cultural intelligence to work across international teams, and the courage to make difficult decisions when safety or quality is at risk. Empathy and a caring leadership style are heavily scrutinized and highly valued.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How difficult is the interview process for a Project Manager at Equinor? The difficulty is generally considered average to challenging. The complexity comes less from "trick" questions and more from the depth of behavioral probing. Interviewers will push for specific, detailed examples of your past work, expecting you to articulate your exact role, the frameworks you used, and the measurable outcomes.

Q: How long does the hiring process typically take? Due to the involvement of multiple stakeholders—including HR, direct leaders, and area managers—the process can be lengthy. Candidates often report the end-to-end timeline taking anywhere from four weeks to over two months, especially during summer holidays or end-of-year periods when scheduling global panels is difficult.

Q: What is the company culture like during the interviews? Candidates overwhelmingly report a positive, professional, and caring environment. Even when the questions are rigorous, interviewers at Equinor are known to be friendly and genuinely interested in you as a person. They want to see that you align with their values of being Open, Collaborative, Courageous, and Caring.

Q: Do I need a background in the energy sector to be hired? While a background in energy (oil, gas, or renewables) is a strong advantage due to the specific regulatory and safety contexts, it is not always strictly mandatory. Exceptional project managers from other heavy industries, infrastructure, or complex engineering sectors who demonstrate strong adaptability and safety focus are frequently successful.

Other General Tips

• Master the STAR Method: Equinor relies heavily on behavioral questions. Structure every answer with Situation, Task, Action, and Result. Spend 70% of your time detailing the Action—specifically what you did, not what "we" did.
• Lead with Safety: Whenever applicable, weave HSE considerations into your answers. If asked how you plan a project, explicitly mention integrating safety reviews and risk assessments into the early scheduling phases.
• Showcase Empathy: The "Caring" value is critical. When discussing leadership or team challenges, highlight how you considered the well-being, mental health, or professional development of your team members.
• Prepare for Matrix Scenarios: Have at least two strong examples ready that demonstrate how you achieved a major project milestone by influencing people over whom you had no formal authority.

Summary & Next Steps

Securing a Project Manager role at Equinor is an opportunity to shape the future of global energy infrastructure. The role demands a unique combination of rigorous execution, unwavering commitment to safety, and deeply empathetic leadership. By preparing thoroughly for behavioral questions and understanding the complex, matrixed nature of their global projects, you position yourself as a mature, capable leader ready to take on their most pressing challenges.

Focus your preparation on crafting clear, structured narratives about your past experiences. Highlight your ability to navigate ambiguity, manage diverse stakeholders, and keep safety at the forefront of every decision. Remember that Equinor is looking for more than just a taskmaster; they are looking for a collaborative partner who embodies their core values and can inspire teams to deliver excellence.

The compensation data above provides a baseline for what to expect, though exact packages will vary based on your location, the specific business unit (e.g., Renewables vs. Oil & Gas), and your level of seniority. Use this information to ensure your expectations are aligned and to navigate offer discussions with confidence.

You have the experience and the strategic mindset required for this role. Take the time to refine your stories, lean into your leadership strengths, and approach the process with patience and confidence. For further insights and community experiences, you can explore additional resources on Dataford. Good luck—you are well-equipped to succeed!