Drilling Engineer > Senior Drilling Engineer

Zanskar

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Posted on: 2025-12-18

Category: energy

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Employment type:

Full time

Experience required:

Senior

Salary

Salary not provided

About the company:

Powering the future with the Earth’s hidden heat.

Geothermal is carbon-free, always-on power but most of the world’s geothermal resources remain undiscovered and undeveloped.

Zanskar is changing that. We take a AI and data-driven, scalable approach to geothermal discovery and development combining modern geoscience and advanced field methods to identify and tap into overlooked or underutilized geothermal resources.

By making geothermal faster and more predictable to develop, we’re unlocking its potential to deliver gigawatts of clean, firm energy and to become a cornerstone of our future energy system.

Role Overview

Title: Drilling Engineer or Senior Drilling Engineer

Hours: Full Time; Salaried

Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Benefits Eligible: Yes

Manager: Head of Drilling

Mission - Why we need you and why we need you

Geothermal energy is the most abundant renewable energy source in the world. There is 2,300 times more energy in geothermal heat in the ground than in oil, gas, coal, and methane combined. However, historically it’s been hard to find and expensive to develop. At Zanskar, we’re using better technology to find and develop new geothermal resources in order to make geothermal a cheap and vital contributor to a carbon-free electrical grid.

In order to find and develop a portfolio of new geothermal projects, we need a Drilling Engineer to join our Drilling team to enable large-scale drill programs, scope completion parameters, monitor drilling programs in-field, and identify ways to drill safely and more rapidly in frontier geothermal systems.

Outcomes - Problems you’ll solve

The Drilling Engineer is responsible for leading the design, plan, and operational execution of drilling campaigns ranging from temperature gradient wells to full-size production and injection geothermal well construction, including completions. The scope of work includes owning the technical, business, and operational aspects of drilling.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Zanskar is an equal-opportunity employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local fair employment practice laws.

Develop and implement step-by-step well program design(s) to achieve well objectives and maintain full compliance with regulatory and HSE requirements

Provide technical and management support on daily drilling activities and serve as the primary point of contact for field engineering issues

Integrate with the exploration and R&D teams to implement novel drilling programs for temperature gradient campaigns and full-size wells

Negotiate contracts from drilling companies on drilling and materials cost estimates ranging from simple scoping to probabilistic cost estimates

Support cross-functional field development optimization efforts through well planning, in-field mobilization, and design optimization

Compile technical and operations data for permitting and all other regulatory filings

Lead after-action review to identify best practices and lessons learned; provide internal and external benchmarking and end of project reports

Prepare tenders, analyze vendor responses, and support contract negotiation and administration

Travel to the field frequently to oversee operations, and foster strong working relationships with contracted drillers, field personnel and 3rd party vendors and suppliers, to effectively coordinate and provide support to business-critical needs

Competencies – What we’re looking for

Drilling Experience: Minimum of 5 years (10 years for SDE) of hands-on field experience in drilling engineering/completions/operations. Experience with tools and methods for evaluating completion efficiency and optimizing well performance. Competent with standard drilling calculations, drill string design and performing casing design. Bachelor’s Degree in an Engineering discipline and geothermal experience preferred.

Vendor and project management: Experienced with procurement and onboarding new vendors. Can evaluate drilling contractors’ performance and manage to improve performance in speed and cost. Ability to travel up to 30-40% of the time to field locations to manage projects.

Balances safety and adaptability: Understands and manages the risk trade-offs needed to both create safe, standardized operations and well control while working in a fast-paced, innovative environment and shift priorities/focus depending on the business needs