Senior Process Engineer

Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC); Sharjah; On-site; AED 420,000 - 660,000; Full time

Job summary

Sharjah National Oil Corporation (SNOC) is seeking a Senior Process Engineer to lead process engineering activities for gas processing and hydrocarbon facilities. You will provide expert input on process safety, plant optimization, and project execution, ensuring safe, reliable, and profitable operations.

The role covers technical leadership in process design, safety studies, commissioning, and asset integrity support, with exposure to a range of unit operations and brownfield modifications.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering or Process Engineering (Master’s degree is a plus).
• Minimum 8 years of progressive experience in process engineering within oil and gas.
• Experience in hydrocarbon processing facilities and related units.

Responsibilities

• Lead plant performance monitoring and optimization across gas processing and hydrocarbon facilities.
• Provide process safety inputs to studies and projects; participate in PHA analyses.
• Lead commissioning activities and handover to operations; review start-up and performance tests.
• Develop and screen process options; lead conceptual studies and brownfield/greenfield feasibility.
• Draft scopes of work for consultants and EPC contracts; review FEED/EPC packages.

Skills

Process engineering

PSM / process safety

Project delivery

Operations support

Data analysis

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering

Tools

Aspen HYSYS

Aspen Engineering Suite

Job description

Job Scope

SNOC is seeking a highly motivated Senior Process Engineer to join our engineering team. The successful candidate will serve as a senior technical resource within the organization, providing expertise in process engineering, process safety, plant optimization, and project development and execution. The role requires a strong combination of operational support, engineering analysis, project delivery, and commissioning experience to ensure safe, reliable, and profitable operation of SNOC's gas processing and hydrocarbon facilities.

Main Responsibilities

Operations Support & Plant Optimization:

• Lead plant performance monitoring, including throughput, production losses, capacity utilization, energy intensity, flaring, emissions, bottlenecks and operating constraints.
• Support Operations in investigating plant upsets, quality deviations, equipment limitations, high energy consumption and abnormal process conditions.
• Identify opportunities to improve production, energy efficiency, emissions performance, and operating costs.
• Provide engineering assistance to develop operating procedures for ad-hoc activities and new projects.
• Analyze production data and identify areas of concern in metering, material balance, and recoveries.

Process & Process Safety:

• Provide process engineering and process safety inputs to engineering studies and projects.
• Conduct in-house process engineering studies, process simulations, engineering calculations, and technical evaluations to support plant operations and project development.
• Prepare and review process engineering deliverables, evaluate plant modifications, and review contractor deliverables to ensure technical integrity, operability, and compliance with company and industry standards.
• Participate in and facilitate Process Hazard Analyses (PHA) including HAZID, HAZOP, LOPA, SIL assessments, What-If reviews, and safeguarding studies.
• Review and approve process safety studies from external consultants such as QRAs, and Fire & Gas mapping as part of expansion projects.
• Support alarm rationalization, cause-and-effect validation, safeguarding verification and operating envelope management.
• Support Management of Change (MOC) processes, incident investigations, and the implementation and close-out of process safety actions.
• Assist the Health, Safety & environment team in incident investigations, and emergency response planning.
• Provide Asset Integrity management team with process engineering support such as consequence analysis review to determine frequency of inspection, intrusive inspection planning etc.
• Maintain Process Safety information, by ensuring that up to date engineering documentation, procedures and manuals are in place and maintained for the operation and maintenance of the Sajaa asset.

Commissioning Leadership:

• Lead or play a key role in pre-commissioning, commissioning, plant start-up, performance testing, and handover activities while ensuring compliance with safety, operational, and project requirements, overseeing the transition from mechanical completion to safe, steady-state operations.
• Review commissioning procedures, start-up procedures, operating manuals, trip testing plans and performance test procedures.
• Participate in commissioning readiness reviews and PSSR before introduction of hydrocarbons.
• Verify that process conditions, operating limits, safeguards and control logic are suitable for safe start-up and stable operation.
• Support performance guarantee verification and close-out of process-related punch items.

Conceptual & Feasibility Studies:

• Develop and screen process options using technical, economic, safety, environmental, operability and maintainability criteria.
• Propose plant modifications and expansions to maximize profitability.
• Lead conceptual studies and technology evaluations by performing in-house technical/economic/environmental feasibility assessments for brownfield modifications and greenfield expansions.

FEED & EPC Project Management:

• Provide inputs required to draft comprehensive Scopes of Work (SoW) for engineering consultants and EPC contractors. Review, challenge, and approve multi-disciplinary deliverables to provide technical assurance.
• Review and approve PFDs, P&IDs, heat and material balances, process simulations, control philosophies, operating manuals, cause-and-effect diagrams, relief system studies, and vendor packages.

Process Simulation Expertise:

• Utilize Aspen HYSYS and other Aspen Engineering Suite solutions to perform the job requirements.

Standards & Compliance:

• Ensure process engineering work complies with SNOC standards, UAE regulatory expectations and applicable international codes and standards.
• Apply relevant industry standards including API, ASME, NFPA, IEC and recognized oil and gas engineering practices.
• Ensure engineering assumptions, deviations and technical decisions are documented and approved through the appropriate governance process.

Knowledge Management

• Maintain process models, calculations, design assumptions, technical studies and lessons learned in approved SNOC repositories.
• Support engineering data quality, dashboarding, digital workflows and AI-enabled knowledge search.

Qualifications / Experience /Special Conditions or Requirements

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering or Process Engineering from an accredited university. (Master’s degree is a plus).
• Experience: Minimum 8 years of progressive experience in process engineering within the oil and gas industry, with hands-on exposure to the design, operation, troubleshooting, commissioning, or optimization of hydrocarbon processing facilities. Experience should include several of the following process units or systems:
• Gas receiving and compression facilities
• Gas dehydration and gas sweetening units; molecular sieves, Amine and glycol systems
• Hydrocarbon dew point control and cryogenic processing
• NGL/LPG recovery and fractionation
• Condensate stabilization and handling
• Storage, loading, and export facilities
• Utility and offsite systems
• Brownfield modifications and plant expansions
• Upstream surface facilities
• Simulation & Safety Tools: Expert-level proficiency in process simulation tools and a deep understanding of process safety management (PSM) frameworks.
• Project Delivery: Demonstrated experience managing engineering consultants, drafting detailed Scopes of Work, and reviewing FEED/EPC packages.
• Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills in English, with the ability to interface effectively with senior management and external contractors.