Today, as part of our ongoing Women of Volue series, we meet Karoline Skatteboe, Head of Development for Data and Forecasts. Karoline brings a background spanning data science, startup leadership and a decade working in the United States — as well as a candid perspective on what good leadership looks like.
I suppose you could say that my route into energy wasn't conventional. I studied in Dallas and Boston — information engineering and mathematics first, then a master's degree in data science and business analytics — before spending years working in the US across different roles. When I moved back to Norway, after returning to Oslo, I joined Volue. I was drawn by the challenge of working in an environment that really matters across energy pricing, consumption, and demand. It's a domain where data science meets the very physical reality of energy, from markets to the grid itself. That combination hooked me quickly.
I live close enough to the office to commute easily, and that's a deliberate choice. There's something about being physically present that creates opportunities you can't schedule. I try to keep my office days relatively open, not packed with back-to-back meetings, so I can connect with people more naturally. That could be welcoming someone new or getting an update on a project. I've always put great importance on being approachable to my team without them having to book time with me.
My work itself covers a broad range of responsibilities. For example, I work closely with our product colleagues to make sure we're aligned on what's technically possible and where the real opportunities lie. I also spend a significant amount of time supporting our engineering managers, helping them grow as leaders, and supporting them to get the best from their teams.
I've always argued that visibility and mentorship matter, including from male colleagues who can actively support a more inclusive environment. Volue genuinely values diversity and inclusion, not as a compliance exercise, but because diverse teams think better, challenge assumptions more effectively, and build products that work for a wider range of people. In the energy sector, where the decisions we make impact communities and systems at scale, that breadth of perspective isn't just good practice, but essential.
We're at an interesting point with AI adoption in development and engineering. The early phase — where everyone experiments with different tools in different ways — is giving way to something that requires more coordination.
The challenge now is converging on shared practices and making sure what people are learning individually becomes collective knowledge across organisations. That means being intentional about how we capture and spread what's working, building common patterns that teams can build on rather than starting from scratch, and creating the conditions where good habits can actually take hold. Organisations like Volue that do this well won't just be faster; they'll compound their learning in ways that are hard to catch up to.
The combination of data-driven challenges and the real complexity of how energy systems work makes this one of the more genuinely interesting fields to be in right now. It's not a space where the problems are simple or the answers are obvious — which, if you're someone who enjoys getting into the detail, is exactly the point.
The energy transition isn't abstract. It's happening right now, and the people working on it matter. If you like working across teams, thinking carefully about hard problems, and knowing that what you're building has real consequences in the world, it's worth taking a career in energy seriously.
Explore our career opportunities: https://www.volue.com/careers