Operations Support Engineer

About the role

PEMEX Deer Park is a highly complex refinery located 18 miles east of Houston in Deer Park, TX, and is part of the PEMEX group, a fully integrated oil company operating across exploration, production, refining, logistics, and marketing. The refinery employs approximately 1,000 employees and 1,200 contractors, with a rated capacity of 340,000 barrels per day and feed flexibility to process multiple crude grades. The site is co-located with third-party chemical facilities, enabling integration and optimization of refinery operations and products.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical support to Distilling Unit 1 while developing broad refinery knowledge through cross-area coverage responsibilities.
• Support safe, reliable, environmentally compliant, and profitable operations by monitoring process performance, troubleshooting issues, and identifying improvement opportunities.
• Partner with Operations, Maintenance, Technical Services, and other engineering disciplines to address operational challenges.
• Serve as a site-wide engineering resource, providing technical coverage and backfill support across multiple production areas as refinery priorities and business needs evolve.
• Develop technical proficiency in Distilling Unit 1 through independent learning, structured training, field engagement, and collaboration with Operations and technical resources.
• Provide proactive technical monitoring and support to production units to ensure safe, reliable, and environmentally compliant operations.
• Work closely with other Operations Support Engineers to provide technical support for daily operations, small projects, and margin initiatives.
• Support work scope development and field execution for process equipment during turnarounds.
• Provide guidance to Operations in proposing appropriate operating targets for process units and systems to meet established feed and product specifications.
• Provide technical support and execute process changes via the Management of Change (MOC) process to ensure hazards associated with design changes are adequately mitigated.
• Identify, communicate, and escalate issues to appropriate technical and operations personnel.
• Assist in evaluating complex technical or operational problems.
• Perform engineering analyses as needed (e.g., process modeling, catalyst evaluation, relief design calculations).
• Provide technical support for special operating activities (e.g., test runs, decontaminations, startups, shutdowns, and turnarounds) and respond to unplanned operational challenges in support of safe, reliable, and continuous 24/7 refinery operations.
• Seek to understand the root cause of process issues and mitigate findings with robust solutions to prevent recurrence.
• Provide input and support to long-term strategy planning for process units and refinery systems.
• Provide support to multidisciplinary teams addressing cross-organizational issues and opportunities.

Requirements

• Must have legal authorization to work in the US on a full-time basis.
• Bachelor of Science degree required (preferred discipline: Chemical Engineering).
• 0–5 years of process engineering experience in the oil and gas or petrochemical industry.
• Understanding of refinery processes and operations preferred.
• Familiarity with process simulation software preferred (e.g., Petro-SIM, ProMax, HYSYS).
• Ability to effectively manage competing priorities.
• Demonstrated flexibility and adaptability in a dynamic operating environment.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

Physical Requirements

• Walking distance of up to a mile.
• Climbing portable and vessel ladders to elevations over 100 feet.
• 15–25% of work is performed in an outside petrochemical manufacturing environment.
• Occasional extended work hours during planned and unplanned events.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits
• Company retirement contributions
• Paid time off