Project Development Engineer

Danos, LLC•Spring, TX

About The Position

The Project Development Engineer serves as a front-end integrator for greenfield and brownfield upstream unconventional well locations, facilities, and infrastructure. The role translates business objectives, operational needs, and technical inputs into clear, aligned, execution-ready scopes, while building stakeholder partnerships and shaping projects for safe, efficient, value-focused execution. The engineer leads early planning and scoping for well pads, tank batteries, well pad facilities, flowlines, and related infrastructure, from inception through design-basis readiness. The position coordinates across business units and technical, operational, regulatory, land, execution, controls, and supply-chain stakeholders to improve decision quality, reduce rework, evaluate infrastructure options, and support capital-efficient development decisions. It also stewards pre-Gate 3 technical basis, project layouts, site requirements, permitting strategies, planning assumptions, and standard design alignment, enabling smooth project handoff into execution. The role contributes to continuous improvement by identifying process gaps and interface issues and supporting tools, workflows, and standards that improve scope quality and execution readiness. It also supports a collaborative team culture grounded in clarity, ownership, constructive challenge, and trusted partnership.

Requirements

Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering or related technical studies.
Prior experience in Project Development, Execution, and Planning activities.
Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office programs.
Must meet conditional job offer requirements.

Nice To Haves

Experience in upstream unconventional work is preferred.

Responsibilities

Evaluate and comment on discipline engineering work performed internally and by contractors and subcontractors to ensure compliance with company specifications, standards, and regulatory requirements.
Facilitate discipline engineering and design routines aligned with team goals, objectives, and procedures.
Communicate discipline engineering activities, progress, and issues accurately and promptly to the team and other company functions.
Participate in area risk assessments, HAZOPs, hazard hunts, and Critical Operating Parameter Reviews.
Lead incident investigations related to downtime and process safety.
Support opportunity management by identifying opportunities and developing project scopes of work.
Conduct risk assessments for new and existing facility projects and close mitigating action items.
Lead performance testing and plant-based trials.
Develop operating guidelines for facilities.
Coach and mentor fellow and junior colleagues.
Lead early planning and scope definition for well pads, tank batteries, well pad facilities, flowlines, and related infrastructure through design-basis readiness.
Translate business objectives, operational needs, and technical inputs into aligned, execution-ready scopes.
Support business-unit development planning milestones, including decision-quality assurance reviews (Roadmaps) and drill unit reviews (DUR), to enable transition into project execution.
Integrate stakeholders across Business Unit, Global Operations, Wells (Drilling & Completions), Project Execution, Central Engineering, Surface Land, Regulatory, Project Controls, and Supply Chain.
Build stakeholder partnerships, align stakeholders early, clarify handoffs, and reduce rework.
Frame scope, schedule, cost, risk, and stakeholder tradeoffs and options for decision-makers.
Develop and evaluate infrastructure options and project recommendations for development scenarios to inform subsurface decisions.
Partner with business, reservoir, operations, and project controls teams on scoping and investment decisions.
Develop and steward pre-Gate 3 technical basis, project layouts, site requirements, permitting strategies, planning assumptions, and standard design alignment.
Coordinate early input for regulatory, land, permitting, constructability, equipment demand, inventory forecasting, and execution planning.
Coordinate project handoffs to support execution readiness.
Identify process gaps, interface issues, and rework drivers in front-end development.
Support tools, workflows, and standards that improve scope quality, consistency, and execution readiness.
Contribute to a collaborative team culture built on clarity, ownership, constructive challenge, and trusted partnership.