Senior Process Engineer
About The Position
The Senior Process Engineer provides process design expertise, owner’s-team leadership, and technical stewardship at project and asset levels across the Olefins & Polymers asset base. The role leads the development and assurance of process engineering deliverables for capital projects, reliability improvements, and operational enhancements from FEL1 through commissioning, ensuring designs are safe, operable, reliable, and aligned with business objectives. The position serves as a project- and asset-level process engineering authority, guiding critical design decisions and ensuring disciplined engineering quality. The engineer leads process engineering across the capital project lifecycle, from opportunity evaluation and options development through selection, definition, detailed design, construction, commissioning, and startup. The role provides technical oversight of contractors, equipment and process design, safety studies, engineering quality, and design-basis alignment. It also supports field queries, readiness reviews, troubleshooting, performance testing, and project close-out. The role is based in League City, Texas, with minimal travel to local contractor offices, nearby fabrication shops, or plant sites as required. The salary range is $125,000–$175,000, with pay based on factors including education, work experience, and certifications.
Requirements
- Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering.
- 7–10+ years of experience in petrochemicals, refining, or polymers process engineering.
- Owner’s-team experience supporting stage-gated capital projects from FEL1 through Execute.
- Demonstrated experience delivering process engineering for both small projects and major capital projects.
- Proficiency with process simulation tools such as Aspen Plus or HYSYS.
- Strong working knowledge of API, ASME, ANSI, NFPA, PIP, OSHA, ISA, and company engineering standards.
- Expertise in equipment sizing and specification, hydraulics, relief systems, safeguarding/SIS, and process control philosophies.
- Strong engineering QA/QC and document control discipline.
Responsibilities
- Lead development of Heat & Material Balances using rigorous simulation and engineering fundamentals for normal, startup/shutdown, upset, turndown, and emergency scenarios, including utility and relief implications.
- Develop and review major equipment specifications for equipment and systems such as reactors, columns, furnaces, heat exchangers, compressors, pumps, tanks, fired heaters, and utilities.
- Produce and assure PFDs, P&IDs, line lists, hydraulic calculations, control narratives, safeguarding philosophies, and Cause & Effect matrices, maintaining consistency across deliverables.
- Provide technical input to relief system design, SIS requirements, interlock schematics, and flare or disposal system basis, applying IEC 61511 and ISA84 principles.
- Participate in HAZOP, LOPA, SIL determination, and facility siting, and steward timely closeout of actions.
- Maintain process integrity through disciplined Management of Change.
- Lead frontend process engineering and evaluate technical trade-offs and lifecycle value, including capital and operating costs, energy efficiency, operability, reliability, and risk.
- For FEL1, develop Options Maps, Scope of Facilities, initial process philosophies, and conceptual Heat & Material Balances; identify early permitting constraints; support Class V estimate inputs and high-level schedule logic; and establish the Process Engineering Quality Management Plan for FEL2.
- For FEL2, validate and update the BEDD, contribute to the Project Design Basis, participate in Optioneering and Value Improvement Practices, assure contractor process deliverables, support interdisciplinary reviews, and contribute to Class III estimates.
- For FEL3, approve key process deliverables, steward closure of open technical decisions and action items, confirm readiness of process engineering packages for transition to Execute and EPC phases, and validate process assumptions used in Class II and Class III estimates.
- Serve as Owner’s Process Lead for assigned projects during detailed design, ensuring alignment with the approved design basis and safeguarding requirements.
- Review contractor PFDs, P&IDs, hydraulic calculations, equipment datasheets, relief designs, and control narratives.
- Critically review change notifications and distinguish legitimate scope changes from design evolution.
- Resolve cross-discipline issues with Mechanical, Electrical, Instrumentation & Controls, Civil/Structural, and Process Control teams.
- Identify and close design gaps early to reduce late changes and rework.
- Support construction by responding to field queries and reviewing deviations relative to design intent.
- Participate in PSSR, pre-commissioning, and commissioning readiness activities.
- Support startup, including control loop tuning, SIS validation, troubleshooting, and performance testing.
- Review redlines and as-built documentation, and contribute to project close-out and lessons learned.
- Ensure the technical quality and integrity of process engineering deliverables; the role is not accountable for long-term asset operating results.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
