Lead Operations Geologist

Description

Role - The Lead Operations Geologist provides technical and organizational leadership across pre-drill planning, real-time drilling operations, and post-well evaluation. The successful candidate will manage geosteering personnel and contractors, establish clear operating standards, and ensure that geologic interpretations are translated into timely, practical recommendations for drilling operations.

The main responsibilities will be to integrate subsurface interpretation, well planning, drilling data, and operational constraints. The Lead Operations Geologist will work closely with asset geologists, drilling engineers, drill-site personnel, reservoir engineering, completions, land, regulatory, and other subsurface disciplines to support safe, efficient, and technically sound well delivery.

Responsibilities

Geosteering Leadership

- Lead daily geosteering activities, staffing, coverage, priorities, and escalation protocols.

- Review real-time interpretations, landing recommendations, directional targets, and operational communications.

- Provide technical guidance during uncertain or rapidly changing drilling conditions.

- Mentor personnel and improve team capabilities, workflows, reporting, and quality control.

- Ensure recommendations are technically supported, clearly communicated, and properly documented.

Pre-Drill Geologic Planning

- Manage geologic deliverables required to prepare wells and pads for drilling.

- Develop geologic prognosis packages, including formation tops, targets, landing strategies, structural interpretations, offset correlations, risks, and uncertainties.

- Integrate logs, seismic, core, mudlogs, geochemistry, petrophysics, production, and offset-well data.

- Coordinate geologic inputs for directional plans, bottom-hole locations, target lines, and landing points.

- Support pilot-hole, logging, coring, mudlogging, and sampling programs.

Real-Time Operations Support

- Provide operational geology oversight from spud through total depth, with particular focus on curve and lateral execution.

- Integrate real-time drilling parameters, directional surveys, logging-while-drilling data, mudlogs, gas data, cuttings descriptions, and offset-well information.

- Review proposed directional targets and significant interpretation changes before they are communicated to the drilling team.

- Maintain close communication with drill-site managers, drilling engineers, asset geologists, mudloggers, geosteerers, and other operational personnel.

Post-Well Evaluation and Continuous Improvement

- Lead post-well reviews and finalize geosteering interpretations.

- Track performance measures related to placement, interpretation quality, and operational efficiency.

- Maintain standardized procedures, templates, technical documentation, and data-quality practices.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

- Serve as the primary interface between geosteering, geoscience, drilling, and operations.

- Balance reservoir objectives with directional constraints, operational risk, and drilling efficiency.

- Communicate interpretations, uncertainties, recommendations, and business implications to technical and non-technical audiences.

- Support broader development, appraisal, and operational initiatives as needed.

Requirements

Education and Experience

- Bachelor’s degree in Geology, Geoscience, Geophysics, or a related discipline.

- 10 or more years of oil and gas geoscience experience, including operations geology and geosteering.

- Experience supporting unconventional horizontal-well development.

Skills & Attributes

- Strong knowledge of pre-drill planning, landing strategy, well correlation, structural interpretation, and real-time well placement.

- Ability to integrate geologic, petrophysical, directional, and drilling data in real time.

- Experience leading or mentoring geosteering personnel or other technical professionals.

- Advanced proficiency with geosteering and subsurface interpretation software.

- Strong communication, organizational, and decision-making skills.

- Ability to manage multiple active wells and make timely recommendations with incomplete or evolving information.

Preferred Qualifications

- Master's degree in Geology, Geoscience, Geophysics, or a related discipline.

- Powder River Basin, Rockies, or comparable multi-zone unconventional experience.

- Experience utilizing data visualization and analytics platforms (Spotfire, Power BI, Python, SQL, or similar) to evaluate drilling, geosteering, completion, and production datasets

- Demonstrated ability to identify trends, develop performance metrics, and translate large subsurface datasets into actionable recommendations that improve well placement, drilling execution, and development outcomes

- Advanced experience with StarSteer and multi-well geosteering workflows.

- Experience with GeoGraphix, Spotfire, or similar platforms.

- Experience developing operations geology procedures and quality-control workflows.

- Experience planning and evaluating logging, coring, mudlogging, and geochemical programs.

- Demonstrated record of improving team capability, or well-delivery performance.

Working Conditions

- Predominantly office-based, with occasional travel to drilling locations and field operations.

- Regular interaction with field personnel and remote operations teams.

- Availability outside normal business hours is required when operational activity or escalation needs warrant.

- Participation in an on-call or operational coverage schedule may be required.

- Some travel may occur with limited notice.