POSITION SUMMARY:
The Exploration Opportunity Manager translates exploration opportunities into actionable business opportunities and investable projects. Reporting directly to the VP Exploration, the role provides the business, economic, planning, and cross-functional integration needed to connect Exploration with Wells, Finance, Legal, Land, Major Projects, Strategic Planning, Commercial, and other functions.
The role serves as a key interface across the organization, ensuring exploration priorities, assumptions, capital requirements, schedules, and decision needs are understood and incorporated into corporate planning and investment processes.
DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
Business & Investment Integration
- Translate exploration strategy and technical outputs into clear business cases, economic evaluations, and investment recommendations.
- Coordinate economics, valuation, capital requirements, timing, risk, and strategic considerations for exploration investments.
- Support management decision-making by ensuring recommendations are complete, consistent, and decision-ready.
- Maintain visibility of exploration investment decisions, approvals, commitments, and key dependencies.
Cross-Functional Coordination
- Serve as a primary business interface between Exploration and Wells, Finance, Legal, Land, Major Projects, Strategic Planning, Commercial, and other functions.
- Coordinate functional inputs required for exploration planning, budgeting, investment decisions, transactions, and execution readiness.
- Ensure exploration assumptions and priorities are reflected appropriately in well planning, project concepts, financial forecasts, legal and land considerations, and corporate plans.
- Identify cross-functional gaps, dependencies, or competing priorities and facilitate timely resolution or escalation.
- Promote consistent communication and alignment across functions as exploration priorities and plans evolve.
Portfolio, Planning & Capital
- Support exploration portfolio evaluation and prioritization based on value, risk, capital requirements, timing, strategic fit, and readiness.
- Partner with Finance and Strategic Planning on annual planning, budgeting, forecasting, and capital allocation.
- Maintain an integrated view of exploration opportunities, expected capital requirements, decision timing, and portfolio implications.
- Support scenario analysis and longer-term exploration planning.
Business Development & Transactions
- Support evaluation of new-entry opportunities, farm-ins, acreage acquisitions, and other exploration transactions.
- Coordinate exploration, economic, financial, legal, land, and strategic inputs required for evaluation and diligence.
- Support commercial teams with the business and economic context needed for negotiations and investment decisions.
EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE:
- 12+ years of upstream oil and gas experience, including offshore or deepwater exploration required.
- Bachelor's degree in Petroleum Engineering or related field required; MBA or Master's preferred.
- Reservoir engineering background with strong understanding of exploration economics, project value, and investment decision-making.
- Strong project-management, business-planning, and cross-functional coordination experience.
- Experience with economics, valuation, capital planning, business cases, and investment decision processes.
- Ability to work effectively across technical, operational, financial, legal, commercial, and strategic functions.
- Strong analytical, organizational, commercial judgment, and executive communication skills.
- International exploration experience preferred.
QUALIFICATIONS & SKILLS:
- Proven ability to turn exploration opportunities into investable projects and actionable business cases.
- Strong ability to integrate technical, financial, commercial, and strategic inputs into cohesive recommendations.
- Demonstrated project management skills in planning, scheduling, and advancing opportunities from concept to decision.
- Solid understanding of exploration economics, valuation, risk assessment, and key value drivers.
- Portfolio and capital planning experience, including prioritization, budgeting, and capital allocation.
- Effective cross-functional coordination to align diverse teams and resolve competing priorities.
- Proven investment decision support through complete, consistent, decision-ready recommendations.
- Sound commercial judgment in opportunity, transaction, and negotiation evaluation.
- Excellent executive communication skills to clearly convey complex information to senior leadership.