Location: Baku, Azerbaijan

Type: Full-time

Company: SOCAR Upstream Management International LLC (SUMI)

Role Overview:

• The Drilling Subject Matter Expert within the Drilling & Completion Group serves as a senior technical authority, providing integrated drilling engineering expertise across well planning, drilling operations, well integrity, and drilling performance optimization. The SME leads and governs complex drilling engineering evaluations, ensuring high-quality technical review, operational assurance, and alignment of drilling programs with operation company’s standards and asset development objectives.
• The Drilling Subject Matter Expert plays a critical role in maintaining technical excellence, consistency, and assurance across exploration, appraisal, development, and production drilling activities, while challenging assumptions, validating engineering approaches, and ensuring robust and safe drilling decisions. The role also supports continuous improvement initiatives, lessons learned integration, and the application of industry best practices to enhance drilling efficiency, well integrity, and operational reliability. 

Key Responsibilities

• Provide specialized guidance in integrated drilling studies and actively engage with operating companies to resolve technical challenges.
• Review, challenge and propose optimization of drilling designs and operational concepts to ensure technical robustness and alignment with project objectives.
• Deliver expert technical support across advanced drilling disciplines, including High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) operations, subsea drilling and wells, Multilateral Drilling (MLT), Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD), Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) and other related drilling technologies and methodologies.
• Participate in peer reviews, technical assurance processes, and risk assessments.
• Representing drilling expertise in technical discussions, audits, and external reviews when required.
• Contribute to the improvement and standardization of drilling workflows and best practices.
• Mentor and coach drilling professionals through knowledge sharing and technical guidance (non-line management).
• Capture, analyze, and document lessons learned from drilling campaigns involving SOCAR non-operated assets, and integrate key findings and recommendations into future projects to support continuous improvement and operational excellence.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in petroleum engineering and other related disciplines.
• Minimum 15 years’ experience in detailed well planning or executive management
• Strong drilling engineering background, with demonstrated capability to well design and drilling operations. 
• Demonstrated ability to make high-impact technical decisions under uncertainty.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills with attention to detail and technical rigor.
• Lead group of drilling engineers on specific studies and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams.
• Demonstrated experience presenting complex technical evaluations to technical and management.
• Strong understanding of well integrity, casing design, cementing, hydraulics, torque & drag and drilling risk management.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proficiency in industry-standard drilling engineering software (e.g., WellPlan, StressCheck, CasingWear or similar).
• Knowledge of international drilling standards and HSE regulations (API or/and similar).
• Recognized ability to lead integrated technical reviews, guide professionals and contribute to continuous improvement.
• Experience in exploration and appraisal well operations, including well planning, execution and post-well evaluation. 

Interested candidates can send their CV to the e-mail address in the Apply for job button.