Water Lead

Stanford Climate Ventures; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Fervo is building the world's most cost-effective, repeatable geothermal power plants. We seek people who want extreme ownership and to accelerate the clean energy transition.

As Water Lead, you own water sourcing strategy, supply forecasting, mass balance, and budget across all assets, supervising field operations and coordinating with Drilling, Completions, Resource, Production, Construction and Facilities to ensure water supply never limits operations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, earth sciences, or a related technical discipline.
• 8+ years of experience in water management, produced water, or water infrastructure in oil and gas, geothermal, or adjacent energy sectors.
• Experience managing water vendors, including contract negotiation, performance management, and cost optimization.
• Proven track record of building and managing budgets and AFEs for water-related capital programs.
• Experience directly supervising field teams with a people-first management philosophy.

Responsibilities

• Develop enterprise water sourcing strategy across all assets, covering consumptive and non-consumptive needs and recycling optimization.
• Own water demand forecasting, integrating drilling schedules, completions programs, and operational projections.
• Build and maintain the water mass balance model across all active fields, tracking volumes from source to use to disposition.
• Lead water rights evaluation and acquisition strategy with legal and resource teams.
• Advance water recycling programs across assets to reduce consumption and improve efficiency.
• Directly supervise field water operations personnel and manage vendor relationships.

Skills

Water management

Budgeting

Vendor management

Cross-functional collaboration

Leadership

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or earth sciences

Tools

Water mass balance modeling tools

Job description

Description

Fervo is building the world's most cost-effective, repeatable geothermal power plants. Joining Fervo means solving frontier engineering problems with immediate real-world impact, accelerating the clean energy transition and reinventing the way infrastructure is built. We're doing for geothermal what SpaceX did for rockets and the shale revolution did for oil and gas.

We are seeking people who want to reinvent the way infrastructure is built and who want to have extreme ownership over their domain, knowing that each decision they make impacts the speed and scale of Fervo's mission.

As we scale from Cape Station to a gigawatt-scale portfolio, water supply is on the critical path. Every GeoBlock we drill needs a reliable, cost-optimized water supply. Every new field brings a different set of water rights, infrastructure, and logistics. We are building the team and the systems to handle that now, and this role leads it.

The Water Lead is the single accountable owner of Fervo's water program across all assets. Reporting to the Director of Drilling and Completions, this role is responsible for water sourcing strategy, supply forecasting, mass balance, infrastructure planning, vendor management, and budget ownership for all water-related activities. The Water Lead directly supervises field water operations across Fervo's full asset portfolio, and coordinates across Drilling, Completions, Resource, Production, Construction, and Facilities to make sure water supply never limits operations.

This is a builder role. The systems and infrastructure Fervo needs to run water at gigawatt scale are still being built. The right person has done this before in a high-volume E&P environment, knows how to move fast without cutting corners, and can influence cross-functional teams that don't formally report to them.

Requirements

Responsibilities

Water Strategy and Supply Planning

• Develop and maintain Fervo's enterprise water sourcing strategy across all assets, covering consumptive and non-consumptive water needs, recycled water optimization, and long-term supply security.
• Own water demand forecasting, integrating drilling schedules, completions programs, and operational projections to ensure supply commitments are met without interruption.
• Build and maintain the water mass balance model across all active fields, tracking volumes from source to use to disposition and identifying gaps or inefficiencies before they impact operations.
• Lead water rights evaluation and acquisition strategy in partnership with the legal and resource teams, ensuring Fervo has the appropriate permits, rights, and agreements to support each asset's operating horizon.
• Evaluate and advance water recycling programs across all assets as a priority initiative, reducing water consumption and improving overall water use efficiency across all operations.

Water Infrastructure and Well Development

• Own the water well portfolio for all Fervo assets from initial siting and permitting through the full well lifecycle: SOR, BOD, drilling, completions, facilities hookup, and operations.
• Coordinate cross-functional delivery of water well programs with cross-functional leads, ensuring wells are online and capable ahead of operational demand.
• Own and manage the water budget across all asset areas, including AFE generation, cost tracking, NPT reporting, and forecast-to-actual variance for all water-related capital spend.
• Develop and maintain multi-year infrastructure plans for water impoundments, storage tanks, transfer lines, and disposal systems, ensuring capacity is installed ahead of peak demand.
• Provide technical input to water infrastructure design, collaborating with engineering and facilities teams to ensure systems are right-sized, cost-efficient, and operationally maintainable.

Field Operations and Vendor Management

• Directly supervise field water operations personnel across Fervo's full asset portfolio, providing technical direction, performance management, and day-to-day operational support.
• Own relationships with all water transfer vendors, including contract management, performance monitoring, and driving cost optimization through bidding, scope standardization, and long-term agreements.
• Establish and maintain operational standards for water transfer, metering, sampling, reporting, and field HSE compliance across all Fervo water operations.
• Develop and manage monitoring and reporting systems for water volumes, water quality, system integrity, and regulatory compliance across all assets.

Cross-Functional Coordination

• Serve as the primary water liaison across D&C functional teams, actively managing working relationships with Resource, Drilling, Completions, Production, Construction, and Facilities teams to resolve constraints and ensure integrated execution.
• Represent water program status, risks, and capital requirements in internal leadership forums and reporting structures.
• Drive data and reporting discipline for water program performance, building dashboards and reporting mechanisms that give leadership clear, decision-ready visibility into supply status, costs, and risks.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, earth sciences, or a related technical discipline.
• 8+ years of experience in water management, produced water operations, or water infrastructure in oil and gas, geothermal, or adjacent energy sectors.
• Demonstrated ownership of multi-asset water programs, including sourcing strategy, supply forecasting, and infrastructure delivery.
• Experience managing water vendors, including contract negotiation, performance management, and cost optimization.
• Proven track record of building and managing budgets and AFEs for water-related capital programs.
• Experience directly supervising field teams, with a people-first management philosophy and a track record of developing technical staff.
• Strong cross-functional collaboration skills with demonstrated ability to drive alignment and accountability across teams without formal authority.
• Clear, concise communication skills, with comfort presenting technical and financial information to senior leadership.
• Willingness to travel to field locations as operational needs require.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with produced water or water management programs such as the Permian or Appalachian Basins, where high-volume, multi-operator water logistics have been operationalized at scale.
• Hands-on experience with water recycling systems in completions operations, including treatment, blending, and re-use workflows.
• Familiarity with water rights frameworks, permitting, and regulatory compliance in western U.S. jurisdictions (Utah, Nevada, or comparable states).
• Experience with water mass balance modeling tools and integration with operational reporting systems. Track record of leveraging technology effectively to support advanced analytics and automation.
• Background in geothermal or unconventional completions where large-volume, high-rate water systems are a core operational dependency.
• Experience in early-stage company or asset build environments where systems and standards must be created, not inherited.

Location

This position is based in Houston, TX. In-office presence of at least three days per week is expected, with flexibility for remote work one to two days per week. Regular travel to Fervo field operations at Cape Station (Utah) and future asset locations is required.

Success Profile

• Builds clear, well-organized documentation, models, and reporting that leadership, a colleague, or a backup owner can follow easily.
• Owns work end-to-end, follows up until issues are resolved and commitments are met, and escalates blockers early.
• Communicates with clear action items, deadlines, and business context across technical, operational, and leadership stakeholders.
• Uses technology, automation, and analytics thoughtfully while validating outputs and underlying data.
• Develops repeatable processes, standards, and cross-training so the water program can scale sustainably.