VP of Drilling Operations
industrial_energy_operations › Drilling Operations · E1 — E1 — Director (Executive) · Executive
Executive who leads the organization's drilling engineering, equipment, and planning functions across all active projects.
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pay@2 · 2026-07
What this role is
Executive who leads the organization's drilling engineering, equipment, and planning functions across all active projects. At the Director (Executive) (E1) level, the role owns a significant function with strategic authority, strategic and cross-functional, and drives function-wide enterprise impact. Executive leadership of a function.
What this level does
- Lead the drilling function through Drilling Superintendents and Managers (M5s), owning delivery of the field drilling program including well planning, design, and daily supervisory support across multiple rig operations and wellsite supervisors
- Set the functional drilling strategy — well design standards, BHA and casing/grade selection practice, anti-collision and vibration-mitigation criteria — grounded in detailed knowledge of the company's asset base and rig fleet
- Own the drilling AFE and cost/NPT performance for the function, providing detailed performance and cost analysis to division management and holding superintendents accountable to budget, schedule, and safety targets
- Serve as functional technical authority on well control and complex trajectory execution (extended-reach laterals, pad drilling, multi-rig oversight), escalating enterprise-level well-control risk to senior leadership
- Interface with completions, reservoir, land, construction, and regulatory executives, and with major service-company and rig-contractor leaders, to secure rigs and resources for the drilling program
- Knowledge applied
- Applies deep drilling-engineering and field-operations knowledge — well design, BHA/casing selection, directional/ERD trajectory, well control, and NPT/AFE cost analysis — to set functional strategy grounded in detailed knowledge of the company's assets and rig fleet.
- Complexity & problem solving
- Resolves functional-strategy problems with serious business consequence: optimizing rig performance and drilling cost across multiple wells while containing well-control and safety risk at the wellsite.
- Collaboration & interaction
- Interfaces with other executives across completions, reservoir, land, and regulatory functions, and with major service-company and rig-contractor leaders; conducts morning-call and performance governance with superintendents.
- Typical experience
- 12–15+ years across drilling engineering and field operations, with prior management of superintendents/managers and demonstrated well-control and cost accountability.
Skills at this level
- Well Control
- — Directs interpretation of well signals for high-pressure gas and fluids and the countermeasures that prevent uncontrolled situations; sets and governs IWCF/IADC well-control competency standards across the crew hierarchy from roughneck through OIM as an enterprise safety obligation.
- Drilling Performance / NPT Analysis
- — Analyzes drilling performance and non-productive time across rigs and wells to optimize operations and reduce cost, translating cost/foot and spud-to-TD metrics into functional and divisional performance targets.
- AFE Cost Writing
- — Owns Authorization for Expenditure discipline for the drilling program — writing and approving AFEs and holding the organization accountable to drilling budget and schedule against actual performance.
- Horizontal and Directional Drilling Design
- — Sets standards for planning and designing directional and extended-reach well trajectories including complex curves, laterals, and pad-drilling programs across the portfolio.
- Casing and Grade Selection
- — Governs well-construction integrity through casing, grade, and centralizer selection practice, ensuring wellbore designs meet the technical specifications of the drilling program and manual.
- BHA Design
- — Directs bottom-hole-assembly design practice and evaluates new BHA and directional technologies to improve drilling performance and cost efficiency across operations.
- Anti-Collision and Vibration Mitigation
- — Sets anti-collision criteria and drillstring-vibration mitigation standards (buckling, stick-slip) governing safe multi-well pad and infill drilling.
- Well Intervention / Fishing
- — Provides technical authority over intervention and fishing operations — selecting methods and tools to remove obstacles such as liners, broken casing, and stuck drill pipe using coiled-tubing, slim-hole, and horizontal techniques.
- Cross-Discipline Collaboration
- — Integrates drilling with geoscience, reservoir, completions, land, construction, and regulatory groups so wellbore delivery aligns with subsurface, completion, and permitting requirements.
- Vendor and Contractor Performance Management
- — Evaluates rig-contractor and service-company performance and negotiates drilling and service contracts, holding vendors accountable to drilling cost, schedule, and safety outcomes.
- Drilling Safety and HSE Governance
- — Ensures the health and safety of all personnel at the wellsite and across drilling and intervention activity, embedding BOSIET and well-control competency and personnel accountability into the operating standard.
- Drilling Program Strategy
- — Develops and implements the enterprise drilling plan — well-planning standards, technology adoption, and continuous-improvement agenda — aligning drilling execution with corporate capital and portfolio strategy.
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As of · 2026-07-30
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