Chief of Staff, Operations
Fervo EnergyHouston, TX
Full Time
Posted October 16, 2026
$162k - $202k· Est.
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Listing evidence and provenance
- Source
- Greenhouse View original listing
- Freshness
- Open in the current public read path; this is not an employer guarantee.Last observed October 17, 2026
- Classification
- Modern power-system classification not yet published for this listing.Legacy source industry field: Energy Management
- Pay provenance
- Estimated benchmark; not employer-provided
Job Description
The Chief of Staff to the VP of Operations will serve as a direct extension of the VP across Fervo’s Operations organization — spanning Operations Engineering, O&M, Production Engineering, and Commissioning — with accountability for keeping the full portfolio aligned, moving, and decision-ready.
Key Responsibilities
- Strategic Partnership & Extension of Leadership
- Serve as a direct extension of the VP of Operations, representing the leader in forums they cannot attend and driving workstreams that require senior coverage
- Engage with full authority and accountability to make decisions on the leader’s behalf, keeping the full portfolio aligned, moving, and decision-ready
- Anticipate slipping workstreams and overdue deliverables before being asked, surfacing causes and solutions proactively
- Cross-Functional Coordination
- Interface daily with Engineering, Commissioning, Production Engineering, O&M, HSSE, Supply Chain, and Finance to keep workstreams aligned and unblocked
- Coordinate with external partners — OEMs, owner’s engineers, and vendor field service personnel — on behalf of Fervo leadership
- Run cross-functional meetings: set agendas, drive decisions, capture action items, and follow them through to closure
- Translate between disciplines so that engineering, operations, finance, and executives are working from the same picture
- Financial Tracking & Cost Engineering
- Own ongoing tracking of CapEx and OpEx budgets, AFEs, and actuals across owned workstreams; build and maintain monthly spend forecasts and variance analyses
- Develop and refine cost models for Cape Station and follow-on plants — CapEx, OpEx, and lifecycle — in support of investment-grade forecasting and project decision-making
- Manage vendor purchase orders, invoices, and accruals against scope and progress; flag commercial risk before it becomes a dispute
- Prepare executive budget summaries, AFE narratives, and variance commentary that stand up to scrutiny from the ELT, the board, and external stakeholders
- Risk, Schedule, & Decision Support
- Track schedule, cost, and risk metrics across owned workstreams; produce the data and analysis leadership uses to make decisions
- Maintain risk registers, RAG status reports, and 2-, 4-, and 8-week look-aheads. When a metric goes red, you bring a recovery plan, not a status update
- Build executive-facing PowerPoint deliverables, briefing memos, and one-page summaries — clear, dense, and decision-ready
- Process Standardization & Continuous Improvement
- Identify duplicated effort, redundant approvals, and friction in current workflows; eliminate the unnecessary first, then simplify what remains
- Build reusable templates, trackers, and standard operating procedures so that each successive plant begins with the accumulated advantage of those that came before it
- Codify what works into Fervo’s playbook for plant delivery; treat every Cape Station deliverable as reusable IP for the next site
- Question every inherited requirement — trace it to its source, and if no rationale can be established, treat it as a candidate for elimination
- Special Initiatives & AI Adoption
- Integrate AI tools into daily workflows to drive efficiency across reporting, cost tracking, scheduling, and cross-functional coordination; model their use for the broader operations team
- Identify and lead special initiatives that fall outside existing functional lanes — process redesign, technology adoption, capability-building — and drive them to completion with the same ownership expected of core workstreams
- Communication & Stakeholder Management
- Draft executive communications, ELT QBR content, board materials, and regulatory submissions on behalf of leadership
- Liaise with internal stakeholders (Engineering, Commissioning, Operations, Finance, HSSE, ELT) and external (OEMs, regulators, owner’s engineers) with discretion and judgment
- Translate field reality into reporting that is concise enough for an executive and actionable enough for a craft foreman
Requirements
- Direct experience with geothermal, ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle), combined-cycle gas, complex facilities, or other power plant commissioning, startup, or repowering projects
- Prior chief-of-staff, business operations, or senior management role supporting a P&L owner or major program leader
- Cost engineering, AFE management, or project controls background; experience with cost-loaded schedules, EVM, or formal project controls disciplines
- Familiarity with various EDMS, Primavera P6, SmartPlant, Bluebeam, or comparable project execution and commissioning systems
- Lean, Six Sigma, or TPS exposure, or a track record of cycle-time and cost reductions in a project execution environment
- Experience preparing materials for ELT, board, investor, or regulatory audiences
- Experience supporting or advising on PPAs and O&M agreements
- Comfort leading RCA workshops, HAZOPs, MOC reviews, or other structured problem-solving forums
- Startup-environment experience — comfortable building the process while running it
Benefits & Perks
- Fervo offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, financial well-being, and life outside of work. Benefits for eligible employees include:
- Medical, dental, and vision plan options
- Employer-paid basic life insurance and short-term and long-term disability coverage
- A 401(k) plan with a dollar-for-dollar company match
- Flexible paid time off and paid parental leave
- Family-building, fertility, hormonal health, pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting support through Carrot
- A dependent care FSA for eligible child and elder care expenses
- An annual Lifestyle Spending Account for eligible wellness expenses, including fitness, financial planning, pet insurance, and pet care
- Employee ownership opportunities through Fervo’s Employee Stock Purchase Program, as well as stock option grants and bonus opportunities for eligible roles
- Benefits and programs are subject to eligibility requirements and may change.
Ready to Apply?
Apply directly on Fervo Energy's site
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