Job Openings
Senior Process Engineer / Project Manager:
Integrated Energy Systems Design, Development and Deployment
Issued by: The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation for the Permian Energy Development Lab
Submission Deadline: March 21, 2025
Period of Performance: April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026
INTRODUCTION
The Permian Energy Development Lab (PEDL) seeks a highly qualified Senior Process Engineer/Project Manager (SPEM) to design, integrate, and optimize an advanced multi-technology energy system. This system will demonstrate novel approaches to combine multiple technologies, including but not limited to electricity generation and microgrid management; carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS); enhanced oil recovery (EOR); geothermal and other renewable energy; long-term energy storage; produced water management; hydrogen production; and low-carbon fuels and chemical production.
PROJECT BACKGROUND
PEDL is incubated by the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation to place the Permian Basin in the center for innovative energy research, robust job growth and thriving communities across southeast New Mexico and west Texas. The primary focus of PEDL is to work with industry and academic partners to design and deploy an integrated energy system, the Permian Integrated Energy System (PIES).
PIES is an open-access laboratory for testing full-scale water treatment technologies, agrivoltaics and stacked storage of waste heat and CO2 in an active oil and natural gas-enhanced oil recovery operation.
The project serves as a platform for integrating industrial processes and using abundant natural resources to clean water; decarbonize oil, gas, electricity and hydrogen production; permanently store CO2; and profitably make clean energy products. PIES will be America's first full-scale, open-access, integrated clean energy laboratory.
To this end, PEDL has signed agreements with leading industry partners, including SOLARCYCLE, Teverra, Agile Energy X (AEX), Honeywell, NOV, Composite Recycling, Omnia, Baker Hughes, Siemens Energy, Owens Corning, Sunshine Renewables and Roosevelt Resources. PEDL also includes academic partners across the Permian Basin and national lab partners.
Additionally, PIES will be a testbed for new technologies, potentially including direct air capture (DAC), geothermal energy storage, hydrogen production and microgrid technologies, demonstrating how these systems can be integrated to enhance grid resilience, provide reliable power behind the meter, reduce pollutants and optimize energy utilization.
A 10MW+ microgrid will play a crucial role in this effort by supporting electrolytic hydrogen production, energy storage, direct air capture, oil and gas field operations and produced water management among others.
SCOPE OF WORK
The selected SPEM will be responsible for:
1. System Design & Integration
• Lead the design, modeling, and engineering of an integrated energy system, incorporating technologies and systems such as DAC, CCUS-EOR, geothermal storage, microgrids, hydrogen production and produced water treatment.
• Develop and manage Process Flow Diagrams (PFDs), Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs) and heat/mass balance models.
• Select technologies based on energy production performance, environmental efficacy and corporate investment considerations, ensuring technical feasibility and commercial potential.
• Work directly with corporate and research partners to understand their technical requirements, infrastructure needs and business drivers for integrating their technologies into PIES.
2. Corporate Decision Support & Investment Strategy
• Guide corporate stakeholders in evaluating investment decisions for new energy technologies.
• Conduct techno-economic assessments to inform decisions on project funding, technology risk and market adoption potential.
• Work closely with venture teams, corporate R&D groups, and business units to align technical strategies with investment roadmaps and market trends.
• Assess energy start-ups and emerging technologies, providing insights on commercial scalability, regulatory challenges and financing pathways.
3. Legal, Financial and Technical Oversight of Microgrid Deployment
• Navigate legal and regulatory requirements for developing and operating a 10MW or more microgrid in a remote area, including interconnection agreements, environmental and other permitting and compliance with FERC/NERC guidelines.
• Develop financing strategies for microgrid implementation, including potential public-private partnerships, tax incentives, grants and corporate investment models.
• Manage vendor selection, procurement and contract negotiations for microgrid components such as solar PV, battery energy storage systems (BESS), inverters and control systems.
• Optimize microgrid design for resilience, load balancing and integration with electrolytic hydrogen production, produced water treatment, direct air capture, enhanced oil recovery and long-term energy storage.
• Ensure that partners’ technologies may be effectively integrated into the microgrid infrastructure, supporting plug-and-play capabilities for real-world testing.
4. Cross-Sector Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement
• Work with corporate partners, energy start-ups, research institutions and regulatory bodies to drive technology integration.
• Act as a technical liaison for PEDL with large and small energy companies, venture-backed technology developers and academic researchers.
• Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, permitting processes and corporate governance standards.
• Lead multi-disciplinary engineering teams, facilitating collaboration across corporate, academic and other research teams.
5. Process Optimization & Engineering Analysis
• Develop techno-economic models to evaluate system performance, investment risks and cost-effectiveness.
• Optimize energy efficiency, CO? capture and storage or utilization and resource recovery for large-scale deployment.
• Identify bottlenecks and implement solutions that enhance system reliability, scalability and operational efficiency.
6. Technology Validation & Field Demonstration
• Support the engineering assessments for PEDL Lands, including permitting, water, electricity and other energy and site infrastructure requirements.
• Provide technical oversight during pilot demonstrations, prototype testing and system scale-up.
• Collaborate with control system engineers, digital twin developers and data analysts to implement advanced monitoring and automation solutions.
DELIVERABLES
• Integrated system design documentation and review, including process flow diagrams (PFD) and piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&ID).
• Techno-economic analysis reports evaluating system performance and investment risks.
• Regulatory and permitting compliance documentation for all PIES deployments.
• Microgrid system design and engineering specification.
• Corporate partner integration plans, ensuring pathways for adoption of technologies.
• Final project report, summarizing findings, performance data, and recommendations for demonstration, development, and scale-up.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
The SPEM will serve as both a technical leader, project developer and strategic advisor, ensuring that project designs align with both engineering feasibility and corporate investment criteria, while navigating the challenges of remote microgrid deployment and multi-technology energy integration. The selected person will also have demonstrated experience and interest in collaborating with multiple technology companies to launch collaborative, cross-sector initiatives.
To support this multi-technology energy system, we are specifically looking for candidates with:
• Bachelor’s, Master’s or Ph.D. in Engineering or closely-aligned field.
• 10+ years of corporate experience in energy and environmental project management, process engineering or similar, with a strong track record of leading complex, multi-stakeholder energy projects.
• Experience leading cross-sector collaboration to spearhead the design and development of integrated energy systems.
• Direct experience in managing the legal, financial and technical aspects of designing and installing energy facilities in a remote area.
• Expertise in process simulation tools (e.g., Aspen Plus, HYSYS, MATLAB), techno-economic analysis, energy project environmental performance management tools and energy project financial management tools.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
• Experience working with energy companies ranging from independent and venture capital-backed start-ups to Fortune 500 giants, university researchers, start-ups and government agencies.
• Strong project management and stakeholder engagement skills, particularly in corporate-academic partnerships.
• Professional Engineer (PE) licensure.
• Experience advising corporate leadership on investment decisions related to energy technologies.
• Familiarity with energy start-ups, including their development stages, funding mechanisms and commercialization pathways.
• Experience leading collaboratives of corporate partners to integrate their technologies into large-scale energy systems.
SUBMISSION PROCESS
To submit your qualifications for the SPEM opportunity, please provide a cover letter outlining your experience and expertise in the activities outlined above. In addition to the letter and your resume, please provide a one-page (maximum), general overview of how you propose to approach this project based on the level of detail provided above. Submit your materials to energy@cgmf.org. Based on reviews of your qualifications, we will arrange interviews with the CGMF and PEDL teams. The aim is to have the SPEM on board by April 1, 2025; this is a fast-tracked, high-priority endeavor.