Planning & Optimization Advisor/Engineer

Marathon Petroleum Corporation•Saint Paul Park, MN

21h•$122,900 - $212,000•Onsite

About The Position

Value Chain Optimization (VCO) is seeking a motivated and dynamic Planning & Optimization Advisor/Engineer to support regional and refinery planning and optimization activities. This role will contribute to regional and refinery backcasting, optimization modeling, and LP submodel development and maintenance. The ideal candidate brings strong analytical capability, a solid interest in optimization and planning methodologies, and the ability to work effectively across teams. Success in this role requires strong organizational, interpersonal, and communication skills, along with the ability to translate complex analytical insights into actionable outcomes.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering required.
Four (4) years of refinery planning, optimization, value chain analysis, operations, commercial, logistics, or related experience required.
Analytical Thinking: Strong problem-solving skills to identify architectural challenges, analyze requirements, evaluate options, and propose effective solutions
Building Partnerships: Developing and leveraging relationships within and across work groups to achieve results.
Business Acumen: Applies knowledge of MPC’s business, industry and the marketplace to advance the organization’s goals. Makes decisions and recommendations clearly linked to MPC’s strategy.
Business Domain Knowledge: Understanding of business processes, industry trends, and market dynamics to provide relevant and actionable insights for strategic decision-making.
Commodity Market Analysis: Applies knowledge of commodity markets, price dynamics, and supply-demand fundamentals to inform planning, optimization, and commercial decision-making.
Continuous Improvement Mindset: Identifies and leads opportunities for continuous improvement and value creation, both incremental and largescale.
Data Analysis: Data Analysis is the process of identifying, evaluating, interpreting and organizing data so that it can be used for business decisions. It includes sorting through data to identify patterns and establish relationships.
Decision Support Analytics: Leverages analytics, reporting, and decision frameworks to generate insights, evaluate alternatives, and support informed, data-driven decision-making.
Influencing Others: The ability to garner support for initiatives by gaining the respect of others and inspiring trust and confidence.
Integrated Planning & Optimization: Designs and manages integrated planning processes that align supply, demand, and operational constraints to optimize value across the enterprise value chain.
Metrics Management: The process of monitoring performance indicators that demonstrate how effectively a unit/ business/ function/ company is achieving key objectives.
Optimization Modeling: Applies optimization models and quantitative techniques to evaluate scenarios, improve system performance, and support complex operational and commercial decisions
Scenario Planning: Design and evaluate alternative future states to stress-test strategies and inform resilient decision-making.
Stakeholder Engagement: Build alignment across internal and external stakeholders to support shared objectives.
Systems Thinking: The ability to analyze complex systems and understand their interdependencies, considering both technical and business aspects, to develop comprehensive and scalable architectures.

Nice To Haves

A Bachelor's degree in another field may be considered with five (5) years of experience in refinery planning, optimization, value chain, operations, commercial, logistics or related technical experience required.

Responsibilities

Develops and optimizes short-term, mid-term, and lookback plans using local, regional and cross-regional LP models to maximize refinery and value chain performance.
Manages refinery forecasting and planning activities independently, ensuring plans remain aligned with operational capabilities, market conditions, and business objectives.
Maintains and enhances LP models by validating assumptions, modifying constraints, and improving model accuracy to reflect refinery operating realities.
Identifies emerging constraints and value opportunities and develops optimization strategies to improve refinery and value chain performance and operational results.
Performs scenario and sensitivity analyses to evaluate impacts of changing market conditions, operational constraints, disruptions, and strategic initiatives.
Integrates historical performance reviews, backcast analyses, and scenario evaluations to improve forecasting accuracy and planning effectiveness.
Partners with Operations, Commercial, Logistics, and Planning teams to align plans across planning horizons, refineries and regions and supports execution of operating strategies.
Leads planning studies and optimization projects independently while providing technical guidance to less experienced advisors.