Sr Drilling Engineer

JM Recruiting; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel 25%

Job summary

JM Recruiting seeks a Senior Drilling Engineer to manage well delivery from design through post-operation review. The role oversees 1–3 drilling rigs with a strong emphasis on safety, efficiency, and cost control, aiming to minimize drilling days and capex while maintaining safe operations.

You will review designs, monitor costs, ensure regulatory compliance, mentor field staff, and collaborate with asset teams on planning, budgeting, and post-drilling analysis.

Qualifications

• BS or MS in engineering, physics, or a math-oriented program.
• 7+ years in drilling or oilfield engineering.
• Staff level: 12+ years of related industry experience.

Responsibilities

• Review and approve designs and procedures for drilling new wells, including directional planning, casing selection, drilling mud, drillstring & BHA modeling & selection, and cement design.
• Participate in all phases of drilling operations to ensure accuracy, adherence to requirements, and proper documentation.
• Monitor day-to-day drilling performance and costs.
• Promote and ensure compliance with HSE policies, procedures, and industry best practices.
• Lead/supervise drilling field staff with proper daily reporting and data entry.
• Evaluate vendor performance and support contract optimization efforts.
• Assist Asset Team to support planning/permitting needs.
• Be accountable for cost estimating and budgeting (AFE Generation and Review).
• Provide real-time operational support and technical troubleshooting during drilling events.
• Interface with regulatory group for correct reporting.

Skills

Drilling software

Hydraulics analysis

Directional drilling

Cost control

Safety compliance

Data interpretation

Education

BS/MS in engineering/physics

Tools

Landmark Compass/Wellplan

WellEz/Wellview

Corva

Job description

DRILLING ENGINER- SENIOR LEVEL

The Senior Drilling Engineer is responsible for managing all aspects of the well-delivery process, including well design, planning, permitting, execution, and post-operation review. This role oversees the daily management of 1–3 drilling rigs with a strong focus on safety, operational efficiency, and cost control. The Senior Drilling Engineer is expected to minimize drilling days and reduce capital expenditures while ensuring the safe and effective execution of all drilling field activities.

Responsibilities:

• Reviews and approves designs and procedures for drilling new wells, including directional planning, casing selection, drilling mud, drillstring & BHA modeling & selection, and cement design, etc.
• Participates in all phases of the drilling operations to ensure accuracy, adherence to state and Federal requirements, and proper documentation.
• Monitors day-to-day drilling well performance and drilling costs.
• Promote and ensure compliance with HSE policies, procedures, and industry best practices.
• Ensures tracking and visibility to organization of performance vs offset /historical wells
• Lead/Supervise drilling field staff ensuring adherence to drilling program, proper daily reporting and data entry.
• Evaluate vendor performance and support contract optimization efforts.
• Assist the Asset Team to support planning/permitting needs
• Be accountable for Cost estimating and budgeting (AFE Generation and Review)
• Reviews post-analysis of drilling processes for benchmarking, and knowledge to improve the process for future wells.
• Ensure accurate tracking and reporting of capital costs (Field & Actual)
• Provide real-time operational support and technical troubleshooting for drilling events
• Interface with regulatory group to ensure proper drilling & post-drilling reporting

Staff Engineer Responsibilities:

• Lead wellbore design, particularly in areas with limited or no offset well data, including casing selection, casing setting depths, and load analysis.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to junior and mid-level drilling engineers and field personnel.
• Champion initiatives that advance drilling analytics, enhance data collection, automate routine tasks and workflows, and apply technology to improve drilling efficiency and safety
• Develop and maintain drilling engineering/operational standards & best practices documents.

Requirements

- BS and/or MS in strongly mathematical, engineering, or physics-oriented program
- 7+ years of related industry experience
o Staff level: 12 + years related industry experience

Skills:

• Experience with drilling engineering software (Landmark Compass/Wellplan, WellEz/Wellview, Corva)
• Strong understanding of hydraulics, torque & drag, and directional drilling analysis.
• Experience in fast paced unconventional Development Drilling Program
• Current and up to date software capability using office and collaborative applications
• Excellent written and spoken communication skill required.
• Ability to work alone under own initiative, or in close collaboration with geoscientists, production engineers, completions engineers and other reservoir engineers as part of a team.
• Ability to perform analysis, interpretation and problem solving at all levels of complexity with varying volumes of data.
• Ability to work in and travel to company asset areas (approximately 25%)
  • Will require significant time in the field in the onboarding process and to Project Manage