Manager, Fixed Equipment Reliability

Manager, Fixed Equipment Reliability

The Manager, Fixed Equipment Reliability (FER Manager) is a technical second-line management and senior engineering position responsible for the refinery's fixed equipment engineering, corrosion and materials engineering, and assigned reliability engineering functions.

The FER Manager leads a multidisciplinary team and serves as the senior engineer and technical resource for the group, providing technical leadership, senior-level review, and strategic direction to improve safety, mechanical integrity, equipment availability, risk reduction, maintainability, and lifecycle cost performance across the refinery. The FER Manager recognizes and draws upon the specialized experience and expertise of individual team members while maintaining broad technical oversight of the group's work.

The FER Manager works across Operations, Maintenance, Inspection, Projects, Turnarounds, and company technical networks to establish fixed equipment strategies, develop long-range asset plans, manage corrosion and degradation risks, address chronic equipment issues, and support safe and reliable refinery operations.

Safety and Process Safety Leadership

• Champion the refinery safety culture and ensure activities are conducted in accordance with company safety policies and procedures.

• Ensure fixed equipment engineering activities comply with applicable regulatory requirements, recognized and generally accepted good engineering practices (RAGAGEP), and company and refinery standards.

• Ensure appropriate technical support is provided for process safety events, incident investigations, and root cause failure analyses involving fixed equipment, corrosion, materials, and related reliability issues, participating directly when warranted.

Leadership and People Management

• Lead and develop assigned fixed equipment engineering, corrosion and materials engineering, reliability engineering, and other technical personnel.

• Establish performance expectations and provide coaching, mentoring, technical guidance, senior-level technical review, and career development opportunities.

• Conduct performance reviews and succession-planning activities.

• Develop staffing strategies and participate in recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and resource planning efforts, including use of contract technical support when appropriate.

• Ensure training and development plans are established and followed for team members.

Mechanical Integrity and Asset Management

• Provide leadership for the refinery's fixed equipment mechanical integrity and reliability programs, including pressure vessels, piping, tanks, heat exchangers, fired equipment, and other assigned fixed assets.

• Develop and execute strategies that improve equipment integrity and availability, manage degradation risk, reduce unplanned downtime and loss of containment potential, and optimize lifecycle cost.

• Provide engineering leadership for corrosion management, materials selection, damage-mechanism reviews, integrity operating windows, risk-based inspection, fitness-for-service evaluations, repair strategies, and remaining-life assessments.

• Use inspection findings, equipment condition, corrosion data, failure history, and risk information to prioritize improvements and communicate key indicators, trends, and concerns to business team stakeholders and refinery leadership.

• Govern fixed equipment criticality, lifecycle planning, obsolescence management, and long-term repair or replacement strategies.

• Coordinate with Operations, Maintenance, and Inspection to improve equipment performance through effective operating practices, inspection plans, preventive maintenance, monitoring, and timely corrective action.

• Elevate significant or unresolved equipment risks, overdue actions, resource needs, and integrity concerns to refinery leadership when warranted.

Technical Oversight

• Ensure the team proactively engages with Operations, Maintenance, and Inspection departments to identify, evaluate, and resolve emerging and recurring fixed equipment issues. Provide direct technical support and leadership for complex, high-risk, or cross-functional issues when warranted.

• Serve as a senior technical resource to the group by reviewing and challenging significant engineering evaluations, repair recommendations, risk assessments, and technical decisions, while appropriately leveraging subject-matter expertise within the team and company technical networks.

• Ensure appropriate engineering resources are provided to support equipment design, repair development, materials selection, welding and fabrication requirements, technical quality assurance, commissioning, and startup activities.

• Support Management of Change (MOC) activities and perform or assign senior technical reviews and technical approvals as required, with particular attention to complex, high-risk, or non-routine changes.

• Steward consistent application of applicable API and ASME codes, company and refinery standards, risk-based decision-making, fitness-for-service, failure analysis, and lifecycle cost analysis methodologies. Ensure significant technical work is appropriately reviewed based on complexity, risk, and the experience of the assigned engineer.

• Maintain clear technical interfaces among Fixed Equipment Engineering, Inspection, Operations, Maintenance, Projects, and Turnarounds, including ownership and timely closure of recommendations and action items.

Turnarounds and Capital Projects

• Ensure integrity-driven work scopes and capital improvements are identified, developed, justified, and advanced through the appropriate refinery turnaround or capital-planning process.

• Ensure inspection findings, corrosion risks, repair requirements, maintainability, standardization, lifecycle cost, and long-term equipment needs are incorporated into turnaround scopes and capital projects.

• Ensure qualified technical resources support scope development, design reviews, repair plans, technical evaluations, execution, quality assurance, commissioning, startup, and post-startup performance verification, as applicable.

• Provide fixed equipment technical leadership for major outages and turnarounds, serving as the technical lead when appropriate.

Business and Financial Management

• Develop and manage budgets for assigned fixed equipment engineering, corrosion and materials, and reliability activities.

• Prioritize engineering resources to align with refinery safety, mechanical integrity, operational risk, reliability, and business objectives.

• Develop multiyear forecasts for major repairs, lifecycle replacements, corrosion mitigation, reliability improvements, and risk-reduction initiatives.

• Track and report mechanical integrity and reliability performance indicators and the operational and financial value associated with improvement initiatives.

• Support refinery business planning through development of annual and multiyear fixed equipment asset improvement plans.

Corporate and Industry Engagement

• Represent the refinery in applicable company fixed equipment, mechanical integrity, corrosion and materials, and reliability technical networks and ensure appropriate site participation and support.

• Maintain awareness of emerging technologies, applicable industry practices, regulatory requirements, and lessons learned relevant to fixed equipment integrity.

• Develop and maintain productive relationships with technical peers across the company and industry.

JOB QUALIFICATION

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering from an accredited institution.

• Minimum of 7 years of experience in fixed equipment, mechanical integrity, inspection, corrosion and materials, or related engineering work in refining, petrochemical processing, or a comparable industrial environment.

• Previous supervisory experience or a demonstrated record of successfully leading technical personnel and multidisciplinary work.

• Strong leadership and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work effectively across Operations, Maintenance, Inspection, Engineering, Turnarounds, Capital Projects, and refinery leadership.

• Broad working knowledge of fixed equipment engineering, corrosion and materials, inspection, and reliability functions within a refinery or comparable operating facility, with the technical judgment to review significant work and support complex or high-risk issues.

• Demonstrated ability to manage a large and changing workload, establish priorities, and allocate resources based on safety, equipment risk, operational impact, and business value.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to clearly communicate technical risks, priorities, and recommendations.

• Demonstrated commitment to safety, personal integrity, accountability, and operational excellence.

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Preferred Qualifications

• First- or second-line supervisory experience in a refinery or petrochemical facility.

• Advanced technical knowledge in at least one of the following areas: fixed equipment