Operations Engineer
Periodic field travel to support well delivery, production operations and contractor execution
Daly Waters is a leading upstream company focused on the Beetaloo Sub-basin, backed by Formentera Partners, an Austin, Texas based energy private equity firm. Daly Waters entered the Beetaloo Basin in 2022 through a 50/50 joint venture with Tamboran Resources (NYSE: TBN). Formentera Partners is an independent energy private equity platform managing four funds (>US$2.5B). Formentera's expansive development and production experience across all major US shale basins is leveraged to deliver reliable, efficient, and technically driven operations to optimise value and performance across diverse assets.
Daly Waters is poised to take over operatorship of some of the most prospective acreage within the Beetaloo and has an exciting growth trajectory for 2026 and beyond.
The Operations Engineer provides broad, hands-on engineering support across Daly Waters' upstream activities in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, spanning well delivery, production operations, surface facilities and general field operations. The role is deliberately generalist rather than narrowly specialised: as the business transitions toward operatorship, the successful candidate will move between drilling and completions support, production surveillance and optimisation, facilities and infrastructure work, and the day-to-day engineering required to keep operations running safely and efficiently.
This suits an engineer who is practical, adaptable and comfortable working outside a single discipline. Remote onshore unconventional operations reward people who can pick up an unfamiliar problem, work it through with contractors and vendors, and deliver a sound answer without a large support team behind them.
Well Delivery & Completions Support
- Support the preparation, review and execution of drilling, completion, stimulation and workover programs.
- Provide day-to-day engineering support during well operations, including review of daily reports, tracking performance against program, and resolving operational issues as they arise.
- Support AFE preparation, cost tracking, accruals and variance explanation for well operations.
- Coordinate long-lead items, equipment, materials and logistics into remote field locations.
- Contribute to post-well reviews and the continuous improvement of well designs and execution practices.
Production Operations & Well Performance
- Monitor and analyze well performance and prepare field level production forecasts
- Plan and support well intervention and workover activity to restore or improve production.
- Support production accounting
- Maintain production data and reporting to a standard suitable for internal, joint venture and regulatory use.
Facilities & Surface Infrastructure
- Provide engineering support for surface facilities including separation, metering, compression, gathering systems and water handling.
- Support scoping, design review, construction oversight and commissioning of surface infrastructure projects.
- Contribute to maintenance planning, integrity management and equipment reliability across field assets.
- Support field infrastructure planning including access, power, water supply and camp-related requirements.
Contractor & Vendor Management
- Prepare scopes of work, evaluate technical bids and support contract award for operational services.
- Manage contractor and vendor performance in the field against agreed scope, schedule and cost.
- Ensure contractors work to Daly Waters HSE and technical standards, and hold them accountable where they do not.
HSE & Regulatory Compliance
- Work to Daly Waters HSE standards and contribute actively to a strong safety culture in the office and in the field.
- Participate in risk assessments, management of change, and incident investigations, and close out resulting actions.
- Support compliance with Northern Territory petroleum regulations and approvals, including well operations management plans, environment management plans and associated reporting obligations.
- Maintain accurate and auditable operational records.
General
- Contribute to the development of operating procedures, engineering standards and systems as the business builds toward operatorship.
- Support budgeting, forecasting and operational planning cycles.
- Perform other duties as reasonably required in a small, multi-disciplinary team.
ESSENTIAL SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
- Tertiary qualification in Petroleum, Mechanical, Chemical or Process Engineering, or a related discipline.
- Typically 5–10+ years' experience in an upstream oil and gas operating environment, with demonstrated exposure across more than one of: drilling and completions, production engineering, and facilities engineering.
- Demonstrated hands-on field operations experience — this is not a purely office-based engineering role.
- Genuine generalist capability and the willingness to work outside a single specialisation as operational priorities demand.
- Sound understanding of well operations, production systems and surface facilities.
- Commercial awareness including AFE preparation, cost tracking and contractor management.
- Strong HSE mindset with the confidence to stop work and escalate when required.
- Clear written and verbal communication, including reporting to leadership and engagement with contractors and regulators.
- Proficiency in Microsoft Office, with familiarity in well and production data systems such as WellView, ProdView, Whitson, Combo Curve or similar.
- Current driver's licence and willingness to undertake periodic travel to remote field locations.
- Current right to work in Australia.
DESIRABLE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
- Beetaloo Sub-basin experience, or experience in an analogous unconventional shale play.
- Unconventional operations experience including horizontal wells, multi-stage hydraulic fracturing, flowback and unconventional production management.
- Working knowledge of Northern Territory petroleum legislation and the Code of Practice for Onshore Petroleum Activities.
- Experience in remote or greenfield operations with limited existing infrastructure and long supply chains.
- Experience in early-stage or operatorship-transition environments where procedures and systems are being built from the ground up.
- Gas operations experience including gathering, compression, dehydration and gas quality management.
- Experience operating in a joint venture environment, including partner reporting and technical alignment.
- Current well control certification (IWCF or IADC WellSharp) or equivalent.
- Chartered status or working toward it (Engineers Australia, IChemE or equivalent).
- Leverage AI, automation, and digital tools to streamline workflows, reduce manual processes, improve decision-making, and drive operational efficiency across the organization
DWE employment may require background checks and/or other testing.
Daly Waters Energy is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from all backgrounds and do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or any other attribute protected under applicable Australian law.
