Reservoir Engineer, Modeling

The Reservoir Engineer will build, calibrate, and maintain reservoir and fracture models, with a strong focus on history matching both stimulation-induced fracture growth and reservoir production/pressure behavior.

Fervo is working to build the most cost-effective, repeatable geothermal power plants in the world. Delivering on this mission requires operational excellence across every function — including the reservoir models and calibration workflows that translate field data into a predictive understanding of how our fractured geothermal reservoirs behave.

Description

Joining Fervo as a Reservoir Engineer focused on reservoir modeling and history matching means owning the calibration of our subsurface models against real field performance — both the stimulation fracture growth created during completions and the production and pressure response of the reservoir over time. This role also defines and drives the testing and data acquisition programs needed to close calibration gaps and continuously improve history-matching accuracy. The position is ideal for an engineer who enjoys rigorous model-to-data reconciliation, diagnosing the sources of mismatch, and designing the next test that resolves it.

The Reservoir Engineer will build, calibrate, and maintain reservoir and fracture models, with a strong focus on history matching both stimulation-induced fracture growth and reservoir production/pressure behavior. This role emphasizes quantitative rigor, root-cause diagnosis of model mismatch, and the design of targeted diagnostic testing to improve match quality over time.

The position collaborates closely with Completions, D&C, Reservoir, and Data Science teams to align stimulation design, field data acquisition, and simulation workflows so that models stay predictive as the asset base grows.

Responsibilities

Stimulation & Fracture Growth History Matching

• Build and calibrate hydraulic fracture growth models (e.g., ResFrac or comparable geomechanical/fracture simulators) against observed stimulation data.
• History-match fracture height, length, and complexity using treatment pressure, microseismic, DAS/DTS, and tracer data.
• Characterize in-situ stress state and natural fracture (NF) interactions using fracture mechanics principles to guide fracture growth and stress-shadow modeling.
• Account for fracturing-fluid rheology in fracture models, including its influence on fracture width, height growth, and proppant transport.
• Incorporate completion design parameters (stage spacing, cluster design, pump schedule, fluid/proppant systems) into fracture growth models and iterate as new stimulation data arrives.
• Translate calibrated fracture models into simulation-ready fracture network representations for downstream reservoir modeling.
• Quantify uncertainty in fracture geometry and connectivity and communicate its impact on well and pad performance predictions.
• Build and maintain reservoir simulation models (full-field and sector-scale) representing fractured EGS reservoirs.
• History-match production and injection rates, bottom-hole pressures, and thermal/temperature response against field data.
• Iterate reservoir model parameters (permeability, fracture conductivity, compartmentalization, injector-producer connectivity) to improve match quality across wells and pads.
• Diagnose root causes of history-match mismatch and distinguish model, data, and operational sources of error.
• Use history-matched models to inform production forecasts, well spacing, and injection/production strategy.

Testing & Data Program Development

• Design diagnostic and surveillance testing programs — pressure transient tests, interference tests, tracer tests, DFITs, PLT/DTS/DAS — specifically to improve history-matching accuracy.
• Identify the data gaps most limiting model calibration and prioritize acquisition programs to close them.
• Define minimum viable data requirements per well and pad to support robust history matching within cost and schedule constraints.
• Continuously evaluate testing protocols against realized model performance and refine the testing program based on lessons learned.
• Extend calibrated models beyond history matching to new prospects, forecasting anticipated crossflow behavior and helping design corresponding crossflow test programs; scope and cadence for this forward-looking work will be defined in coordination with Resource and Exploration teams.
• Build repeatable workflows (including automation/scripting) to speed up history-matching iteration and testing feedback loops.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Completions and D&C to align stimulation design changes with fracture model predictions and observed outcomes.
• Partner with Reservoir and Resource teams to ensure production, injection, and pressure data flows support ongoing model calibration.
• Document modeling methodologies and calibration standards to promote consistency across projects.

Team and Culture

• Operate with technical independence and objectivity while maintaining strong collaborative relationships with Completions, D&C, and asset teams.
• Provide constructive challenge and thoughtful recommendations grounded in data and engineering principles.
• Balance rigor with pragmatism in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment.
• Contribute to a culture of transparency, consistency, and continuous improvement across the portfolio.
• Be responsive and reliable in remote settings, maintaining momentum without requiring constant oversight.
• Adapt quickly to shifting priorities, new data, and evolving model scopes.

Qualifications

Required

• B.S. in Engineering (Petroleum, Mechanical, Chemical, or related discipline).
• 5+ years of experience in reservoir engineering, reservoir simulation, or hydraulic fracture modeling; advanced degree may be considered in lieu of experience.
• Hands-on experience with reservoir and/or fracture simulation software (e.g., ResFrac, CMG, Eclipse, or comparable).
• Experience history matching production, pressure, and/or fracture growth data against simulation models.
• Strong understanding of fluid flow in fractured/porous media and hydraulic fracture mechanics.
• Experience interpreting pressure transient and completion diagnostic data (DFITs, PLT/DTS/DAS, tracer, microseismic).
• Strong analytical and programming/scripting skills (e.g., Python) to support model calibration and workflow automation.
• Strong analytical, synthesis, and communication skills, including the ability to explain model uncertainty clearly.

Preferred

• Experience in geothermal reservoir engineering, enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), or unconventional resource development.
• Direct experience with ResFrac or other coupled geomechanics/fracture-reservoir simulators.
• Working knowledge of fracture mechanics and in-situ stress state, including natural fracture (NF) interactions, to guide fracture growth and stress-shadow modeling.
• Familiarity with fracturing-fluid rheology and its impact on fracture geometry, height growth, and proppant placement.
• Experience designing diagnostic testing programs specifically to support model calibration, including forward-looking crossflow test design for new prospects.
• Experience integrating multiple diagnostic datasets (DAS/DTS, tracer, microseismic, PLT) into a single calibration workflow.
• Experience with assisted/automated history matching techniques (e.g., ensemble methods, machine learning-assisted calibration).
• Ability to translate detailed technical analysis into executive-level summaries.

Fervo provides a comprehensive suite of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, short-term and long-term disability, flexible paid time off, and paid parental leave. Additionally, Fervo offers an incentive stock options program, a bonus incentive program, and a 401(k) plan with an employer match.

Fervo Energy is providing the compensation range and general description of other compensation and benefits that the company in good faith believes it might pay and/or offer for this position based on the successful applicant’s education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities in addition to internal equity and geographic location. Expected Salary: $140,000-$200,000 based on Colorado locality, pay in other locations may vary.

Fervo Energy reserves the right to ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and offer other compensation, depending on circumstances not related to an applicant’s sex or other status protected by local, state, or federal law.

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.