A man standing outside in the garden wearing black clothes
Meet Vegard

A career shaped by curiosity, integration and change

Over nearly two decades, Vegard Spiten Engh’s journey has evolved alongside the company itself, from hands‑on engineering to leading complex, integrated innovation through people and technology. 

  • Text:Christine Oulie

    Photo:Andres Vargas

From systems to synergy 

When Vegard Spiten Engh joined us in 2008, his role was firmly rooted in operations. As a young service engineer working with dynamic positioning (DP) systems, his days were spent close to the technology, travelling, commissioning systems onboard vessels, and taking responsibility early in his career. 

More than eighteen years after joining Kongsberg Maritime, he sees a clear parallel between his own development and the evolution of the company itself. 

“If I look at the big picture, my journey has followed much of the same path as the company’s,” he says. “We’ve moved from clearly defined systems to increasingly integrated solutions, and my role has evolved in the same direction.” 

When asked what has kept him here for so long, Vegard points to the opportunities he has had to grow, and the pride he feels in the company’s direction. “I feel a huge sense of loyalty,” he says, describing how varied roles and trusted responsibility have shaped that loyalty over time. He also links his motivation to purpose: being proud of what the company works toward, including emissions reduction and shaping the maritime future. 

From specialist to integrator 

After starting out as a service engineer within DP, Vegard later spent two years in China, helping build up the DP application organisation as a technical manager. The experience expanded his perspective professionally, culturally, and personally. 

He traces that comfort with complexity back to his early years as a DP service engineer. In commissioning and offshore work, you are forced to make decisions with real consequences from the very start. 

When he returned to Norway, he transitioned into project management, working on large, integrated projects within drilling and automation. Over time, these projects became increasingly complex, involving more technologies, interfaces, and stakeholders. That shift suited him well, and it also explains why he is comfortable moving between technology, people and organisation. 

“I was never motivated by becoming an expert in just one system,” he says. “What interests me is how systems interact, how technology, people and organisation come together to create something larger.” This interest in integration eventually led him to our division Emerging Solutions, where projects often begin as loosely defined ideas rather than clearly scoped deliveries. 

Navigating complexity through people 

In Emerging Solutions, technical complexity is only part of the challenge. More often, the hardest part is alignment, bringing people from different disciplines, units and backgrounds together around a shared direction. 

Technology can usually be solved,” Vegard says. “Getting people to pull in the same direction is much harder.” That insight became a turning point. He became increasingly interested in knowledge management, how competence is shared, developed and put to work in practice. 

The interest was reinforced when Vegard enrolled in an Executive MBA at the University of South Eastern Norway. One module on knowledge management proved particularly influential. 

“I expected practical tools, templates for lessons learned, that kind of thing,” he says. “Instead, I was introduced to a way of leading by asking more questions rather than providing the answers, listening rather than telling” 

 

Knowledge management, as Vegard sees it, starts with a simple premise: in a knowledge company, people are the most important resource. Results are created not through control, but by enabling individuals to use and share what they know.

Much of that knowledge is tacit, difficult to document, but visible in action. How someone handles a difficult customer conversation. How a team navigates uncertainty. How decisions are made when information is incomplete.

“You can’t capture that in a document,” he explains. “You have to create arenas where people can experience, observe and reflect together.” 


In practice, this has led to concrete initiatives in Emerging Solutions. Workshops are designed not around presentations, but around dialogue. New employees are encouraged to point out invisible barriers, mental or organisational, that long-time employees may no longer see. 


One insight proved particularly valuable. “We realised we talked so much about ‘breaking down barriers’ that we were actually reinforcing them,” Vegard says. “We expected resistance before we even encountered it.” The team changed its language, shifting focus from reducing organisational boundaries to building bridges, a subtle change that had a tangible impact on collaboration. 

Another key practice is peer guidance, where colleagues bring real challenges into structured conversations. The rule is simple: participants may ask questions but not offer solutions. “Very often, just being asked the right questions makes people realise what they already know,” Vegard explains. “The solution emerges from the conversation itself.” 

Psychological safety is crucial. Without trust, knowledge sharing stops, not because people lack ideas, but because they stop taking the small interpersonal risks that learning depends on. 

“People have to feel safe saying ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I’m unsure’,” he says. “Otherwise, learning doesn’t happen.” In practice, that means creating a culture where questions are valued, uncertainty can be discussed openly, and mistakes are treated as information, something to reflect on and learn from, not something to hide. 

A man sitting at a table reading a book

Welcoming change 

Vegard describes himself and his team as change agents. “We welcome change,” he says. “Change creates movement. Sometimes things get better, sometimes worse, but without change, nothing develops.”  

That mindset connects his personal journey, and his approach to leadership. Looking back, Vegard describes a career shaped by curiosity, trust, and a willingness to learn in complex environments. “For me, development has never been about individual advancement” he reflects. “It’s been about understanding more, about systems, people and how they work best together.”