Director, Commercial Operations

Western Midstream•The Woodlands, TX

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

Western Midstream seeks a Director, Commercial Operations (Scheduling) to lead the midstream scheduling organization supporting Western Midstream operated assets. This leader will set strategy, drive operational excellence, manage commercial and contractual risk, and serve as the primary interface between Scheduling, Field Operations, Accounting, Commercial Development, and Downstream Marketing to optimize system performance and customer outcomes.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
10+ years of progressive experience in midstream scheduling, gas/NGL/crude logistics, commercial operations, or a closely related function.
5+ years of people leadership experience, including hiring, coaching, performance management, and team development.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional execution across Operations, Commercial, Accounting, and Marketing; comfortable influencing at all levels, including executive leadership.
Strong commercial and contractual acumen (firm transport, processing agreements, imbalance management, OBAs, and tariff/contract compliance).
Proven ability to operate effectively in time-sensitive environments, manage competing priorities, and lead incident response/escalations impacting nominations, allocations, and downstream commitments.
Advanced analytical capability with a track record of building scalable reporting/KPIs and using data to drive optimization and continuous improvement.
Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to represent the organization with customers, pipelines, producers, and internal stakeholders.
Advanced proficiency in Excel and midstream scheduling/measurement systems; able to partner with IT/analytics to improve data quality, controls, and automation (e.g., Cygnet, EMK3 or similar).

Nice To Haves

Experience leading scheduling/logistics teams across multiple basins or asset systems, including on-call rotations and business continuity planning.
Demonstrated success delivering process improvement and digital/automation initiatives (controls, auditability, workflow redesign) in commercial operations.
Working knowledge of midstream accounting/revenue processes, measurement, and reconciliation practices; ability to establish effective controls and governance.
Experience partnering with Commercial Development and Marketing to evaluate new business, expansions, outages, and optimization opportunities (e.g., ethane recovery/rejection decisions).

Responsibilities

Lead the strategic adoption and integration of AI and advanced analytics across gas scheduling operations to improve nomination accuracy, asset optimization, risk management, and commercial decision‑making.
Lead and develop the midstream scheduling/commercial operations team, including staffing, training, coaching, performance management, and succession planning.
Own and continuously improve scheduling governance, controls, and standard work for nominations, confirmations, allocations, imbalances/OBAs, record retention, and audit trail requirements.
Set strategy and operating rhythm to ensure accurate, timely nominations and confirmations across residue, NGL, crude and downstream pipelines; ensure compliance with contractual and tariff requirements.
Partner with Field Operations to align set-points and system operations to confirmed nominations and commercial priorities while maintaining safe, reliable, and efficient flow performance.
Lead end-to-end imbalance management, including plant and shipper OBAs, allocation integrity, and dispute resolution; establish proactive mitigation plans with producers, pipelines, and internal stakeholders.
Oversee key commercial calculations and assumptions (shrink, plant/field fuel, contract vs. actuals) and ensure consistent methodology, controls, and alignment with Accounting and Measurement.
Serve as the primary scheduling/commercial operations interface with customers, producers, pipelines, and working interest owners; build and maintain strategic relationships and negotiate operational resolutions within delegated authority.
Partner with Commercial Development to evaluate and execute events impacting the business (new wells, new lines, divestitures, outages, processing elections, expansions), ensuring scheduling readiness and stakeholder alignment.
Establish performance management across the organization, including KPI dashboards (actual vs. forecast flows, imbalances, confirmation timeliness, constraint impacts) and executive-ready reporting with clear insights and actions.
Oversee month-end and periodic close support for Scheduling, including coordination with Midstream Accounting on billing, accruals, reconciliations, and customer reporting; resolve exceptions and drive root-cause fixes.
Drive commercial optimization initiatives in partnership with Marketing and Operations (e.g., ethane recovery/rejection recommendations, capacity utilization, constraint management) supported by economics and operational data.
Own and improve the scheduling technology roadmap (e.g., Cygnet, EMK3 and related tools), including data quality, controls, automation, user adoption, and business requirements for enhancements.
Maintain and enforce documentation standards for daily/monthly records, operational events, force majeure, and decisions to support auditability, compliance, and seamless backup coverage.
Represent Commercial Operations in internal governance forums and provide risk/issue escalation to senior leadership with clear options, impacts, and recommended actions.
Provide volume outlooks and availability estimates to Downstream Marketing and other stakeholders; ensure alignment of forecasts, constraints, and commercial commitments.
Establish and oversee after-hours support expectations and on-call coverage, ensuring the team can respond effectively to time-critical operational and commercial issues.
Deliver executive-level reporting on actual vs. forecasted flows, constraint impacts, and commercial performance; translate operational data into actionable decisions.
Lead analysis and recommendations for ethane recovery/rejection and other value levers by integrating operations, contract terms, market signals, and economics.