Senior Production Engineer

About Fervo Energy

Fervo Energy (NASDAQ: FRVO) is a modern power company developing next-generation geothermal resources to meet the growing demand for affordable, reliable, 24/7 carbon-free energy. Our mission is to transform geothermal into America’s most dependable and affordable source of clean, around-the-clock power. By combining innovations in horizontal drilling, fiber-optic sensing, and advanced reservoir engineering, Fervo has developed a repeatable approach to building utility-scale enhanced geothermal systems. Our flagship Cape Station development in Utah is planned to deliver 500 MW of firm, carbon-free power, and we are advancing a development pipeline of more than 50 GW. Join us and work alongside world-class engineers, geoscientists, operators, project builders, and business leaders working to make geothermal a cornerstone of a more reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy future.

Position Description

Reporting to the Production Engineering Manager, this role is the primary owner of production surveillance, well optimization, and short-term forecasting across producers, injectors, and ESP-driven water supply wells. You will work directly with Plant Management and Field Operations, serve as the primary technical voice shaping our digital surveillance platform, and be the engineer who catches performance issues before they become outages.

This role is ideal for an experienced production engineer who brings deep surveillance and optimization expertise, strong ESP operating knowledge, and the drive to build a best-in-class monitoring function from the ground up in a first-of-kind geothermal operating environment.

Responsibilities

Production Surveillance, Daily Operations & ESP Management

• Own day-to-day surveillance of all Cape Station wells: producers, injectors, and ESP-driven water supply wells, developing and tracking KPI and system performance against operating envelopes.

• Performance monitoring of ESP systems on water supply wells; identify degradation early and escalate for intervention before failure.

• Run exception-based daily well review: identify off-trend wells, quantify variance from plan, and lead structured root cause analysis on anomalies and downtime events.

• Serve as the primary technical interface with Field Operations for day-to-day production questions, operating decisions, and well-level troubleshooting.

• Maintain surveillance procedures, data quality standards, and well review cadence; build the documentation others will execute against as the team and asset base grow.

• Support SCADA tag taxonomy, cloud historian data quality, and real-time monitoring integrity in partnership with the Digital Platform PE and IT.

Well Optimization & Production Forecasting

• Maximize well deliverability and facility capacity utilization; identify operating envelope adjustments, debottlenecking opportunities, and injection rate optimizations across the producing and injection system.

• Own the rolling 90-day production and injection forecast: integrate downtime history, well-level performance trends, and planned operations to maintain a reliable short-term outlook.

• Track and classify downtime events by cause, duration, and affected system; quantify production variance against plan and maintain structured downtime records for reporting and RCA.

• Develop and maintain well performance models to support optimization decisions, operating envelope management, and scenario analysis.

• Run well performance tracking and near-term uplift analysis to spot underperforming wells and prioritize optimization actions.

Surveillance Platform, Standards & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as the primary user voice and technical requirements owner for the PE digital surveillance platform; translate operational needs into platform specifications that the Digital Platform PE builds and automates.

• Define KPI definitions, anomaly detection thresholds, and dashboard requirements; ensure the platform reflects real operating priorities, not just available data.

• Contribute production engineering inputs, including downtime, operating trends, and forecast variance, to D&C and Central Engineering feed-forward reviews that drive GeoBlock cost and cycle improvements.

• Provide surveillance and performance data inputs to well intervention candidate identification and workover scoping reviews.

• Support state regulatory compliance and monthly production reporting with accurate, well-level production and injection records.

• Back up the Digital Platform PE on surveillance workflows and platform operations during absence or redeployment.

Qualifications

Required

• B.S. in Petroleum Engineering or related discipline.

• 7-12 years of production engineering or operations experience with ownership of well and system surveillance in a live operating environment.

• Demonstrated expertise in production and injection well performance monitoring, anomaly detection, and structured root cause analysis.

• Required: ESP operating experience; monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance analysis of electric submersible pump systems in a production or water supply/injection context.

• Experience building or running production forecasting workflows, including downtime tracking, variance analysis, and short-term outlooks.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; able to work from data to diagnosis to action with minimal supervision.

• Proficiency with production data platforms, data visualization tools (Power BI, Spotfire, or equivalent), SCADA and historian systems.

• Effective communicator with Field Operations, Plant Management, and cross-functional engineering teams.

Preferred

• Experience in geothermal, waterflood, or injection-dominated production systems; closed-loop, hot fluid, or high-scaling-risk environments are a strong plus.

• ESP design or optimization experience beyond monitoring: sizing, VFD control, or failure mode analysis.

• Experience with industrial data historians in a real-time surveillance role.

• Track record building surveillance standards, operating procedures, or digital workflows in a new or greenfield operating context.

• Fluent with well nodal analysis and topside network modeling tools.

• Experience mentoring junior engineers or setting technical standards as a senior individual contributor.

Success Profile

• Catches variance early: reviews well and system performance daily and flags off-trend behavior before it becomes downtime.

• Owns issues end-to-end: drives anomalies and downtime events through root cause to resolution, escalating blockers early.

• Builds documentation others can run on: creates surveillance procedures and standards that scale as the team and asset base grow.

• Translates operating needs into platform requirements: partners with the Digital Platform PE to turn real operating priorities into dashboards, thresholds, and alerts.

• Communicates clearly across Field Operations, Plant Management, and engineering, with concrete data and action items.

Location

This role is based at Fervo’s Houston, TX office, with regular field travel to Cape Station (Milford, Utah) required to support well surveillance, ESP troubleshooting, and coordination with Field Operations and Plant Management.

Benefits & Perks

• Fervo offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, financial well-being, and life outside of work. Benefits for eligible employees include:

• Medical, dental, and vision plan options

• Employer-paid basic life insurance and short-term and long-term disability coverage

• A 401(k) plan with up to 6% match

• Flexible paid time off and paid parental leave

• Family-building, fertility, hormonal health, pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting support through Carrot

• A dependent care FSA for eligible child and elder care expenses

• An annual Lifestyle Spending Account for eligible wellness expenses, including fitness, financial planning, pet insurance, and pet care

• Employee ownership opportunities through Fervo’s Employee Stock Purchase Program, as well as LTI and bonus opportunities for eligible roles

Benefits and programs are subject to eligibility requirements and may change.

Our Workplace

Fervo Energy highly values having employees work in the office to foster collaboration and strengthen our company culture. This role follows a hybrid schedule, with team members expected to work in the office three days per week. Fervo considers this in-office schedule an essential function of the role. Your recruiter can share more information about the schedule.

Equal Opportunity Employer

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 or veteran status, or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local law. Fervo also prohibits discrimination based on the perception that an individual has any of these characteristics or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as having any of these characteristics.