Project Lead – Operations & Maintenance

 

Contract type: Consultant, estimated duration 12 to 18 months.

Location: Luanda, remote work can be accommodated for set periods. 

 

The most operationally critical Block Lead role. Accountable for sustained, safe operations without interruption from Day 1 under the Company’s operatorship. Leads six workstreams spanning the full operational footprint of the asset.

WORKSTREAMS

•     Asset Integrity: Verifying asset integrity to enable a safe and reliable transfer of operations, identifying critical integrity exposures, and quantifying the remediation and investment required from Day 1 onward.

•     Facilities O&M: Defining the operating model from well to terminal treatment facilities and export, establishing an integrity baseline and maintenance strategy, and preparing the Day 1 operational readiness plan.

•     Facilities Onshore: Mapping onshore assets and securing continuity of critical support services (logistics, utilities, aviation, marine, warehousing).

•     Supply Chain: Mapping the end-to-end logistics network, identifying critical contracts, and preparing Day 1 logistics readiness and contingency plans.

•     OIM Voice: Capturing Offshore Installation Manager perspectives on transition risks and feeding them into the operating model before it is finalised.

•     Material Management: Building a full inventory of spares, consumables and critical equipment, valuing stock, and formalising handover from the outgoing operator.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

•     Operating model: Ensuring the new deepwater asset has clear roles, interfaces and decision rights from reservoir to topside on Day 1.

•     Asset integrity: Understanding what the Company is inheriting, including deferred maintenance and where operational risk is concentrated.

•     Logistics and supply chain: Ensuring the logistics network is mapped, contracted and contingency-ready before handover.

•     OIM integration: Ensuring offshore leadership perspectives are embedded in the transition design before it is finalised.

•     Material handover: Owning the completeness and accuracy of what the Company physically receives from the outgoing operator.

KEY COMPETENCIES

•     Operational command: Has run a complex offshore asset and builds trust quickly with an inherited team.

•     Cross-discipline integration: Holds a coherent view across reservoir, wells, subsea, topside and logistics.

•     Project management: Able to lead a six-workstream operational programme to a fixed Day 1 deadline, managing interdependencies across engineering, logistics and people.

EXPERIENCE & REQUIREMENTS

•     Experience: Minimum 15 years in upstream Oil & Gas operations, with significant deepwater or FPSO exposure.

•     PMI track record: Experience in operational integrations, asset handovers or operator transitions in offshore settings is close to essential. Candidates without this background will only be considered if they can demonstrate exceptional seniority and direct accountability for a deepwater FPSO asset (e.g. Operations Manager or Asset Manager).

•     West Africa: Experience operating deepwater assets in Angola, or analogous deepwater assets elsewhere in West Africa, is a meaningful differentiator.

•     Language: Fluent English is mandatory; Portuguese is a strong advantage.

•     Working style: Available full-time, able to operate autonomously offshore and onshore, with regular in-country presence.