Drilling Operations Lead

The Drilling Operations Lead is responsible for leading Fervo’s drilling operations team and overseeing daily execution across active rigs to ensure safe, efficient, and cost-effective delivery of wells.

Fervo is working to build the most cost-effective, repeatable geothermal power plants in the world. Delivering on this mission requires first-of-a-kind well designs, disciplined execution in the field, and continuous learning across the full well lifecycle. Joining Fervo’s GeoBlock Factory organization means operating where subsurface innovation meets real-world execution, with safety, reliability, and capital efficiency as non-negotiables.

Description

We are seeking a Drilling Operations Lead who is excited by Fervo’s mission and motivated to lead a team of engineers and field personnel executing advanced geothermal drilling operations in a highly dynamic environment. This role is ideal for a leader with strong field instincts, deep drilling operations experience, and the ability to build and manage a high-performing team where standard oil and gas playbooks must be adapted—or reinvented—for geothermal applications.

The Drilling Operations Lead is responsible for leading Fervo’s drilling operations team and overseeing daily execution across active rigs to ensure safe, efficient, and cost-effective delivery of wells. The Drilling Operations Lead will manage and develop a team of field personnel, set operational priorities, and serve as the primary point of accountability for rig-site execution.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of Drill-Site Managers (DSMs) and Field Superintendents across active drilling operations, setting priorities and providing day-to-day direction


• In alignment with the Drilling Engineers, support real-time execution decisions on active rigs, coordinating recovery plans and technical reviews during NPT events


• Establish and enforce HSE standards and practices across all rig sites, ensuring full compliance with company and regulatory requirements


• Develop, mentor, and grow team members’ technical and leadership capabilities, including career development planning


• Drive continuous improvement in well cycle time, cost, and performance


• Coordinate with drilling contractors, service providers, and vendors to ensure resources and equipment support planned operations


• Serve as the primary escalation point for operational issues, resolving conflicts and driving cross-functional alignment with planning, supply chain, and engineering teams


• Lead post-well closeout reviews and ensure lessons learned are captured and implemented across the team


• Represent drilling operations in leadership reviews and communicate program status, risks, and resourcing needs

Qualifications

Required

• 10+ years of experience in drilling engineering / operations, including experience leading field teams (minimum 5 years with an operator in US Onshore horizontal drilling)


• Prior experience leading or supervising Drilling Operations


• Ability to demonstrate competency in core well engineering fundamentals, including casing design, directional drilling, drill string / BHA design, drilling fluids, cementing, and contingency planning


• Experience in risk assessment, well time / cost estimates, and planning complex drilling operations


• Experience executing horizontal drilling in unconventional wells


• Experience with supply chain and cost management


• Excellent communication, leadership, and interpersonal skills


• Strong problem solver committed to continuous improvement and operational excellence


• Unwavering commitment to protecting Health, Safety, and Environment in all aspects of design and operations

Preferred

• Prior experience in a field leadership role overseeing multi-rig drilling operations


• Hands-on field experience across drilling, completions, and/or workover operations


• Experience managing multiple rigs or crews concurrently


• Experience mentoring or developing early-career staff into leadership roles


• Experience working on first-of-a-kind, non-standard, or technically complex well designs

Location

Fervo Energy is headquartered in Houston, TX. This is a hybrid role based in Houston, with travel to operational sites up to 33%.

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.