Highlands and Islands Enterprise is to shed between 30 and 45 jobs as the agency attempts to make savings on its wage bill, prompting concern and criticism from north politicians.
The business agency is seeking voluntary redundancies from its 318 full-time staff by the end of March.
HIE chairman Willie Roe said the organisation wanted to improve its efficiency and effectiveness.
Bosses claim the cuts are necessary for reorganisation and would allow it to target a number of key areas, including renewable energy, universities, life sciences, tourism, food and drink, creative industries and business services.
Mr Roe added that HIE also wished to focus on social enterprise, increasing involvement in international markets, innovation, entrepren-eurship and a low-carbon economy.
Mr Roe said: “Like any modern business or organisation, HIE is always seeking ways to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
“By reorganising our workforce we can reduce our overheads and target more of our budget into direct investment in ambitious businesses and communities across all parts of the Highlands and islands, including our most fragile areas.
“Perhaps more than ever before, communities and businesses in this diverse rural region have real opportunities to be global models of excellence. We continually strive to ensure that our agency is absolutely fit for the purpose of helping them to achieve their potential.”
Local politicians last night claimed the job losses were a further blow to the Highland economy.
Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Peter Peacock said: “These further job losses come on top of very significant redundancies just a couple of years ago.
“This is another blow to the Highlands and islands economy and confirms the effect of the SNP government reducing the HIE grant by some 30% between 2007-08 and that for 2010-11, continuing the run-down of an organisation which once had the capacity to help drive improvement for our area.
“HIE has become a pale shadow of its former self and it is time the SNP government supported them and stopped attacking their budget."
SNP MSP Dave Thompson called on HIE to be “sensitive” and protect some of the country's most fragile communities from the cuts.
He said: “All public bodies are going through difficult times at the moment because of drastic cuts to the Scottish budget.
“Despite this, the figure of 30 to 45 jobs being cut out of a total of 300 seems a bit high. I hope the jobs to be cut are not coming from some of the remote and rural areas HIE looks after.
“I will be watching to see what progress is made on this and would be very concerned if it became clear that smaller communities were to bear the brunt of this cost."
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Liberal Democrat MSP Jamie Stone said: “It is wrong for HIE, a development agency, to be shedding jobs during a recession.
“It is right that they should be as efficient as possible, but this is not the time to cut jobs in the Highlands.
“The only silver lining here is that there will be no compulsory redundancies.”