Lead Production Engineer - Wellsite Autonomous Operations

Entity:

Production & Operations

Job Family Group:

Engineering Group

Job Description:

Role Synopsis

The Enterprise Production Engineering Lead for Wellsite Autonomous Operations serves as the single production engineering authority for autonomous and semiautonomous production optimization across the enterprise. This role is accountable for ensuring production optimization logic delivers measurable value at scale, while remaining aligned with enterprise governance, process safety, and operating model standards.

The role has final decision authority for production optimization standards within delegated authority and escalates strategic or crosssystem changes as required. The position is a cornerstone of the Wellsite Automation Operations, converting fieldlevel innovation into repeatable, governed, enterprise advantage.

Scope & Accountability

• Own the enterprise production engineering standards that underpin autonomous and semiautonomous operations.
• Ensure optimization strategies deliver production uplift, deferral reduction, and reliability improvement across all business units.
• Serve as the production engineering counterpart to automation, facilities, and operations leadership within the autonomy governance model.

Performance Management & Learning

• Partner with WAO leadership to define success criteria, KPIs, and OKRs for autonomous production optimization initiatives.
• Establish clear, outcomebased measures for value delivery, reliability, and operational confidence.
• Lead or support root cause failure analyses (RCFAs) for material production, reliability, or autonomyrelated events.
• Ensure RCFA outcomes are translated into updated standards, control logic guardrails, and deployment criteria.

Standards & Governance

• Define, steward, and maintain production optimization standards, including:
• Dynamic gas lift optimization logic
• Autonomous and supervised restart strategies for ESPs and compression
• Operating envelopes and guardrails for autonomous control
• Establish clear criteria for:
• Standard application
• Approved deviations
• Required escalation for strategic or riskbased decisions
• Ensure production optimization logic is consistent with process safety, equipment protection, and cybersecurity requirements.

Value Delivery

• Deliver measurable production and reliability value through scaled deployment of autonomous optimization.
• Enable faster replication of successful optimization strategies across business units.
• Reduce variability in production outcomes by eliminating bespoke, nonstandard logic.

Lessons Learned & Continuous Improvement

• Capture positive and negative outcomes from autonomous optimization deployments.
• Convert lessons learned into updated standards, logic refinements, and deployment constraints.
• Ensure learning velocity outpaces deployment velocity to protect value and safety.

Enterprise Interface & Influence

• Act as the trusted production engineering authority for:
• Business Unit Production Engineering Leads
• Automation & Controls leadership
• Operations leadership (VP / Superintendent level)
• Influence outcomes without direct execution ownership.
• Provide clear, databased recommendations to senior leadership.

Essential Experience and Education

Experience

• 12+ years of Production Engineering experience in onshore oil and gas operations.
• Demonstrated enterprise or multiasset influence.
• Recognized internally as a technical authority and reviewer.

Technical Domain Expertise

• Deep expertise in gas lift design, surveillance, and optimization.
• Handson experience with:
• ESP systems and failure modes
• Compression systems and restart constraints
• Production instability, deferral, and optimization campaigns
• Strong production surveillance and diagnostics capability using realtime and historical data.

Automation & Autonomy Literacy

• Working knowledge of control philosophies, interlocks, permissives, and failsafe design.
• Clear understanding of assisted, supervised, and autonomous operating modes.
• Ability to translate production engineering intent into automationready, governable logic.

Technical Competencies

• Systemlevel optimization thinking (reservoir well surface compression sales).
• Ability to balance shortterm production uplift with longterm reliability and risk.
• Critical evaluation of rulesbased, physicsbased, and datadriven optimization approaches.

Governance & DecisionMaking

• Comfortable exercising final decision authority within delegation of authority.
• Disciplined escalation of strategic or riskbased issues.
• Strong understanding of operating model boundaries and decision rights.

Leadership & Influence

• Trusted advisor across Production Engineering, Automation, and Operations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to challenge constructively using data and firstprinciples reasoning.
• Emotionally mature approach to failure and learning.

How much do we pay (Base) $200,000-$235,000. Note that the pay range listed for this position is a good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible base compensation at the time of posting.

Why join us?

At bpx, we support our people to learn and grow in a diverse and challenging environment. We believe that our team is strengthened by diversity. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment in which everyone is respected and treated fairly.

We offer a reward and wellbeing package to enable your work to fit with your life. These can include, but not limited to, access to health, vision, and dental insurance, flexible working schedule, paid time off policy, discretionary annual bonus program, long-term incentive program, and a generous 401(k) matching program.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodations.

Discover your place with us and help our business meet the challenges of reimagining and reinventing the future of energy.

Travel Requirement

Up to 25% travel should be expected with this role

Relocation Assistance:

This role is not eligible for relocation

Remote Type:

This position is a hybrid of office/remote working

Skills:

Agility core practices, Agility core practices, Asset Availability Strategy, Asset health monitoring, Asset Life Cycle Management, Cost-conscious decision-making, Defect Elimination, Digital Analytics, Equipment criticality assessment, Equipment general, Equipment strategies, Facilitation, history and coding, Influencing, Maintenance, Maintenance fundamentals, Management of change, Plant Economics, Problem Solving, Process Safety Management, Production loss accounting or deferrals, Reliability analytics, Reliability Fundamentals, Reliability in Design, Reliability leadership and governance {+ 6 more}

Legal Disclaimer:

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, socioeconomic status, neurodiversity/neurocognitive functioning, veteran status or disability status. Individuals with an accessibility need may request an adjustment/accommodation related to bps recruiting process (e.g., accessing the job application, completing required assessments, participating in telephone screenings or interviews, etc.). If you would like to request an adjustment/accommodation related to the recruitment process, please contact us .

If you are selected for a position and depending upon your role, your employment may be contingent upon adherence to local policy. This may include pre-placement drug screening, medical review of physical fitness for the role, and background checks.