Data Ops Lead

Patterson-UTI Energy Inc

Houston, TX

JOB DETAILS
SKILLS
Access Control, Automation, Best Practices, Business Operations, Cloud Computing, Cloud Storage, Computer Science, Continuous Deployment/Delivery, Continuous Improvement, Continuous Integration, Corrective Action, Cost Control, Customer Support/Service, Data Analysis, Data Management, Data Quality, DevOps, Documentation, English Language, GCP (Good Clinical Practices), Green Business, High Availability, Identify Issues, Incident Management, Incident Response, Information Technology & Information Systems, Leadership, Machine Tool, Mentoring, Metrics, Microsoft Windows Azure, Oil Field Services, Oil and Gas, Operational Improvement, Operational Support, Performance Tuning/Optimization, Petroleum, Python Programming/Scripting Language, Quality Management, Reliability Engineering, Root Cause Analysis, SQL (Structured Query Language), Service Level Agreement (SLA), Technical Leadership, Time Management, Workplace Issues
LOCATION
Houston, TX
POSTED
30+ days ago

Brief Description:

We are seeking a DataOps Lead to own and advance the operational reliability, quality, and scalability of our cloud-based data platforms. This role sits at the intersection of data engineering, platform operations, and reliability, supporting critical data pipelines that power analytics, reporting, and operational decision-making across oilfield and energy operations.

The DataOps Lead will be responsible for ensuring that data is available, accurate, timely, and trustworthy, while leading operational best practices across ingestion, processing, and delivery systems running primarily on Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

This is a hands-on technical leadership role with strong expectations for ownership, cross-team collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Detailed Description:

Data Platform Operations

Own the day-to-day operational health of cloud-based data pipelines and platforms. Ensure high data availability, freshness, accuracy, and completeness. Lead operational support for batch and streaming data workloads.

Data Reliability & Quality

Define and manage data SLAs, SLOs, and reliability metrics. Implement and maintain data quality checks, validations, and monitoring. Design processes for backfills, reprocessing, and failure recovery.

Cloud & Infrastructure

Operate and optimize GCP-based data services, including BigQuery, Cloud Storage, Pub/Sub, and GKE. Partner with platform and SRE teams on scalability, performance, and cost optimization. Manage data infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform).

Automation & Tooling

Build and maintain Python-based automation for data operations and monitoring. Improve reliability and repeatability through standardized tooling and workflows. Support and enhance data orchestration platforms (e.g., Airflow / Cloud Composer).

Incident Response & Operational Excellence

Lead response to data incidents, including triage, mitigation, and root cause analysis. Drive post-incident reviews and track corrective actions. Create and maintain runbooks, operational documentation, and playbooks.

CI/CD & Governance

Implement CI/CD best practices for data pipelines. Promote testing, version control, and deployment standards across data workflows. Ensure data platforms align with security, governance, and access control requirements.

Leadership & Collaboration

Act as a technical leader within the DataOps function. Partner closely with:

Data engineering teams SRE / platform engineering Analytics and business stakeholders Mentor engineers and help raise the operational maturity of the data organization

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

7+ years experience in Data Engineering, DataOps, or Data Platform Operations 3+ years experience operating cloud-based data platforms in production Strong hands-on experience with Google Cloud Platform, including: GCP: GKE, Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, Pub/Sub (or equivalents) Cloud Monitoring & Logging BigQuery Dataflow Datastream IAM and networking Composer/Airflow Kubernetes: deployment, scaling, reliability patterns Observability: GCP Cloud Monitoring, Logging Strong proficiency in Python for data pipelines, automation, and operational tooling Experience with data orchestration frameworks (Airflow preferred) Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) Experience with Azure Devops Proven experience leading data incident response and operational improvements Strong SQL skills for data analysis and troubleshooting

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field. 7+ years experience in Data Engineering, DataOps, or Data Platform Operations 3+ years leading or owning production data platforms in a cloud environment Demonstrated technical leadership of data operations initiatives or teams Ability to understand and speak English at a level of proficiency allowing employee to issue, receive and respond to both safety and operations-related directions in English

Preferred Qualifications:

Oil and Gas Industry knowledge Technology/Digital Industry knowledge The Evolving Oil Field Demands Evolving Service Providers NexTier is a leading provider of integrated completions that employs sustainable practices and equipment to support our customers' ESG goals while accelerating production in the most demanding US land basins.

About the Company

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Patterson-UTI Energy Inc