Principal Engineer, Process

Summary

Reporting to the Senior Director, Operations Engineering, the Principal Process Engineer is a senior technical leader and recognized operations subject-matter expert for LNG process engineering. The position provides corporate technical leadership and practical support across operating facilities and assets in operations.

The role develops and maintains process engineering requirements, practices, methods, tools, and operating guidance; provides independent technical review and assurance; and resolves complex issues affecting process safety, production, reliability, environmental performance, product quality, and asset integrity.

The position partners with site Operations Engineering teams and with Operations, Maintenance, Reliability, Process Safety, Instrumentation and Controls, Projects, Production Planning, Environmental, Regulatory, licensors, contractors, and equipment suppliers. It promotes consistent, risk-informed practices across the LNG portfolio while recognizing legitimate differences in facility design and operating conditions.

General Description Duties & Responsibilities

• Serve as the operations technical authority for LNG process engineering and provide independent review and challenge for high-risk, high-value, novel, or complex decisions.
• Develop, implement, and maintain process engineering requirements, design criteria, specifications, calculation methodologies, procedures, technical practices, and operating guidance. Incorporate regulatory obligations, recognized good engineering practice, operating experience, incident learnings, and applicable industry developments.
• Review proposed deviations from process engineering requirements and recommend acceptance, rejection, mitigation, or further evaluation based on documented technical justification and risk.
• Provide senior-level troubleshooting for plant trips, process instability, equipment or capacity limitations, off-specification production, excessive flaring, abnormal utility consumption, and degraded safety, reliability, efficiency, or environmental performance.
• Analyze operating data, process trends, alarms, laboratory results, equipment performance, and heat and material balances to diagnose abnormal conditions and develop practical recommendations.
• Define and maintain operating envelopes, safe operating limits, process constraints, alarm and control limits, trip setpoints, process health indicators, and appropriate operating responses.
• Provide process engineering support across feed-gas treatment; acid-gas, dehydration, mercury and heavy-hydrocarbon removal; refrigeration and liquefaction; cryogenic heat exchange; compression; boil-off and flash gas; LNG storage and loading; fuel gas; relief, flare and depressurization; utilities; and power-generation interfaces.
• Lead and support process optimization, production improvement, debottlenecking, energy-efficiency, emissions-reduction, reliability-improvement, performance-testing, and production-demonstration activities. Establish performance baselines and distinguish process, equipment, controls, utility, feed-gas, permit, and operating constraints.
• Evaluate process conditions contributing to vibration, fouling, corrosion, erosion, thermal cycling, liquid carryover, compressor instability, and other equipment-reliability concerns; define appropriate mitigations for temporary or degraded conditions.
• Provide process engineering leadership for HAZOPs, process hazard analyses, LOPAs, design-safety reviews, safeguard evaluations, management of change, pre-startup safety reviews, and other technical risk assessments.
• Evaluate the adequacy of process safeguards, alarms, shutdown functions, relief and depressurization systems, operating procedures, and process safety information. Lead or support investigations of significant process events and translate findings into sustainable corrective actions and cross-asset learning.
• Develop, review, and approve, within delegated authority, heat and material balances, PFDs, P&IDs, process descriptions, equipment datasheets, hydraulic and sizing calculations, process simulations, relief/flare/blowdown studies, safeguarding requirements, performance assessments, and operating-limit documentation.
• Audit calculations and simulations prepared by internal teams, engineering contractors, licensors, consultants, and vendors; confirm appropriate thermodynamics, assumptions, boundary conditions, equipment data, operating data, quality controls, and documentation of uncertainty and risk.
• Provide operations-focused support for brownfield modifications, expansions, and major capital projects, including option selection, design review, commissioning planning, system turnover, startup, performance testing, operational readiness, and handover to Operations.
• Develop and control standardized calculation templates, simulation models, checklists, digital tools, performance-monitoring applications, and technical knowledge resources. Facilitate peer reviews, technical forums, workshops, and lessons-learned sessions.
• Coach and mentor engineers, support competency and succession development, communicate complex issues clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders, and influence decisions across disciplines and facilities without relying on direct authority.
• Communicate complex process engineering issues clearly to site leadership, engineering management, Operations personnel, project teams, and senior management.
• Build alignment across disciplines and facilities while maintaining independent technical judgment and appropriately challenging unsupported assumptions or unacceptable technical risk.
• Represent Operations Engineering in internal and external technical meetings, reviews, investigations, and industry forums as required.
• Participate in significant event reviews and provide support during startups, shutdowns, outages, plant trips, recovery activities, and other periods of elevated operational risk.
• Provide process engineering input to management of change reviews and verify that proposed changes are supported by appropriate process calculations, risk assessments, operating limits, relief-system evaluations, and updates to technical documentation.
• Support pre-startup safety reviews and verify that process engineering requirements have been satisfactorily addressed before modified or new systems are placed into service.
• Provide technical input to the development and maintenance of safe operating limits, operating envelopes, process safety information, alarm setpoints, trip setpoints, and operating procedures.

Qualifications

Required experience

• Minimum 15 years of progressive process engineering experience in LNG, natural gas processing, petrochemical, refining, or a comparable hydrocarbon-processing industry, including at least seven years in LNG liquefaction, cryogenic gas processing, or closely related work.
• Substantial direct support to operating facilities, including complex troubleshooting, plant-performance evaluation, process safety, management of change, brownfield modifications, startup/shutdown support, and technical assurance.
• Strong knowledge of LNG liquefaction, refrigeration, cryogenic heat transfer, gas treatment, compression, storage and loading, relief and flare systems, and supporting utilities.
• Demonstrated ability to independently develop, review, and validate heat and material balances; PFDs and P&IDs; process simulations; hydraulic and equipment-sizing calculations; datasheets; relief, flare, blowdown, and depressurization evaluations; operating limits; and optimization or debottlenecking studies.
• Advanced proficiency with Aspen HYSYS, Aspen Plus, or equivalent process-simulation software, including building, troubleshooting, auditing, and validating models.
• Practical knowledge of process safety management and experience with HAZOP, PHA, LOPA, MOC, incident investigation, and pre-startup safety review processes.
• Working knowledge of applicable requirements and recognized practices, including OSHA PSM, PHMSA LNG requirements, NFPA 59A, API 520/521, ASME B31.3, and other relevant API, ASME, and NFPA standards.
• Experience developing engineering requirements, technical practices, calculation methodologies, specifications, or design guidance, with the judgment to resolve incomplete or conflicting information and produce practical, technically defensible recommendations.
• Strong technical writing, presentation, and influencing skills; demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary work across facilities, contractors, and organizational levels.
• Strong verbal communication and presentation skills, with the ability to explain complex technical matters to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to travel regularly to Venture Global's Louisiana facilities, respond during significant operating events, and obtain and maintain a Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC).

Preferred Experience

• Corporate, central, or fleet-level engineering experience supporting multiple operating assets and more than one LNG technology or facility configuration.
• LNG commissioning, startup, performance testing, production demonstrations, and transition from project execution into stable operations.
• Leadership of complex troubleshooting, debottlenecking, energy-efficiency, production-improvement, technical-assurance, or major-capital-investment studies.
• Experience with dynamic simulation, advanced process control, plant historians, performance-monitoring applications, digital twins, or process analytics.
• Formal training or demonstrated leadership in HAZOP facilitation, LOPA, incident investigation, or root-cause analysis, together with experience mentoring engineers and developing technical competency.
• Experience mentoring engineers and contributing to technical competency and succession-development programs.

Required Education

• Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from an accredited university.

Licensing & Certifications

• Professional Engineer registration or Chartered Engineer status is preferred.
• Advanced degree in Chemical Engineering or a closely related discipline is preferred.