Senior Drilling Engineer

Fervo Energy Co.; Houston (TX); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Fervo Energy Co. in Houston seeks a Senior Drilling Engineer to design and execute advanced geothermal drilling programs. You will lead well planning, design, and on-site operations with a focus on safety and efficiency.

This role requires a deep drilling background, hands-on field experience, and the ability to adapt conventional oilfield playbooks to geothermal projects. You will collaborate across functions, manage contractors, and drive cost, time, and performance improvements for critical

Qualifications

• 10+ years of drilling engineering/operations experience, incl. 5+ years with an operator in US onshore horizontal drilling.
• Core well engineering fundamentals: casing design, directional drilling, drill string/BHA design, fluids, cementing, contingency planning.
• Proficient in standard well engineering design software.
• Experience in risk assessment and in estimating well time and cost.
• Planning complex drilling operations and budgets.

Responsibilities

• Detailed well planning including design, engineering, and drilling procedures.
• Provide drilling engineering support for all well operations within a cross-functional team.
• Coordinate recovery plans during NPT events and manage risk mitigation.
• Prepare detailed time and cost estimates and track plan vs actual.
• Coordinate and manage drilling contractors for planning and execution activities.
• Oversee budgeting, AFEs, and cost control throughout operations.
• Track performance with micro-KPIs and drive cost/time improvements.
• Post well closeout, report lessons learned, and share best practices.

Skills

Drilling engineering

Horizontal/unconventional drilling

Risk assessment

Cost estimation & budgeting

Field operations

Cross-functional collaboration

Drilling software

Contract management

Safety & HSE

Job description

The Senior Drilling Engineer is responsible for well planning, design, engineering, and daily operations support.

Fervo is working to build the most cost-effective, repeatable geothermal power plants in the world. Delivering on this mission requires first-of-a-kind well architectures, disciplined drilling execution, and continuous learning across each phase of well construction. Joining Fervo’s Operations organization means operating where subsurface innovation meets real-world execution, with safety, reliability, and capital efficiency as non-negotiables.

Description

We are seeking a Senior Drilling Engineer who is excited by Fervo’s mission and motivated to design and execute advanced geothermal drilling in a highly dynamic environment. This role is ideal for an engineer with strong drilling engineering background, deep drilling experience, and the ability to operate effectively where standard oil and gas playbooks must be adapted—or reinvented—for geothermal applications.

TheSenior Drilling Engineeris responsible for well planning, design, engineering, and daily operations support. The SeniorDrilling Engineerwill also support contract management and work with partners and suppliers to deliver continuous improvement in drilling performance.

Responsibilities

• Detailed well planning including design, engineering, and drilling procedure
• Provide drilling engineering support for all well operations within a cross-functional operations team and coordinate recovery plans during NPT events
• Conduct risk assessments for all operations and prepare mitigation plans to ensure safe and effective delivery
• Prepare detailed time and cost estimates and ownership of tracking plan vs actual
• Coordinate and manage drilling contractors supporting planning and execution activities, including NPT resolution and technical review
• Budgeting, building AFEs, and managing cost throughout operations
• Tracking performance with micro-KPI’s and driving continuous improvement initiatives in well cycle time and cost
• Post well closeout and reporting including lessons learned and best practices to implement in future wells

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of experience in drilling engineering / operations (minimum 5 years with an operator in US Onshore horizontal drilling)?
• Ability to demonstrate competency in core well engineering fundamentals, including casing design, directional drilling, drill string / BHA design, drilling fluids, cementing, and contingency planning
• Proficient in standard well engineering design software
• Experience in risk assessment and well time / cost estimates
• Planning complex drilling operations
• Experience in executing horizontal drilling in unconventional wells
• Experience with supply chain and cost management
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills (a team player)
• Ability to develop ideas and technical proposals with aligned organization intent.
• Strong problem solver committed to continuous improvement
• Hands-on field experience across drilling operations
• Unwavering commitment to protecting Health, Safety, and Environment in all aspects of design and operations

Preferred

• Experience mentoring or supporting early-career engineers
• Experience working on first-of-a-kind, non-standard, or technically complex well designs

Location

Fervo Energy has offices in Houston, TX, Golden, CO, Reno, NV, Oakland, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT. This position will be eligible for some hybrid work flexibility, but regular in-office presence at ourHouston Officewill be required.

Fervo Energy commercializes technology to own, develop, and operate geothermal assets as the dispatchable foundation to a 100% clean energy future. As a 24/7, reliable clean energy resource, geothermal energy has a major role to play in the future electric grid and Fervo Energy’s key innovations bring a full suite of modern technology to make geothermal cost competitive. Fervo’s innovations include technologies such as advanced computational models, horizontal drilling, and distributed fiber optic sensing that we have developed with partners including Schlumberger, ARPA-E, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Fervo is supported through Cyclotron Road, the Department of Energy, Stanford University, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Fervo Energy is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, gender, religion, marital status, registered domestic partner status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sex, genetic information, sexual orientation, military and veteran status or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local laws. It also prohibits unlawful discrimination based on the perception that anyone has any of those characteristics or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as having any of those characteristics.