Refinery Economics & Planning Manager

About the role

The Refinery Economics & Planning Manager leads the optimization of refinery operations and drives profitability. This role involves directing short- and long-term planning, feedstock selection, product slate optimization, economic modeling, and coordinating across various teams to maximize margins while controlling costs.

Responsibilities

• Lead the refinery economics and planning function, including short-term optimization, production planning, forecasting, and longer-range economic analysis.
• Provide leadership, direction, and development to economists, planners, schedulers, and analysts.
• Analyze refinery economics to identify opportunities to improve margins and profitability.
• Evaluate crude oil options based on price, quality, transportation costs, refinery configuration, and expected product yields.
• Oversee the development and maintenance of refinery economic models, linear programming models, forecasts, and optimization tools.
• Direct short- and long-term refinery production planning and ensure plans appropriately reflect operating constraints, maintenance requirements, market conditions, and commercial objectives.
• Perform economic evaluations of operating changes, capital projects, maintenance decisions, and optimization opportunities.
• Analyze refinery yields, operating costs, product values, and margin performance against forecasts and budgets.
• Partner with refinery Operations and Engineering teams to understand unit constraints, capabilities, and potential optimization opportunities.
• Prepare refinery margin forecasts, economic scenarios, and sensitivity analyses for management.
• Present economic recommendations, risks, opportunities, and performance results to refinery and senior leadership.
• Establish planning processes, performance measures, and continuous improvement initiatives that strengthen refinery decision-making and profitability.
• Mentor and develop team members. Provides leadership, guidance, and development to junior and senior members of the team.
• Works with other refinery leaders to develop a robust talent pipeline.
• As a member of the site senior leadership team, provide guidance and direction to shape strategies and policies across the organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Finance, Engineering, or a related quantitative discipline required. A degree in Chemical Engineering is preferred; an MBA or relevant advanced degree is highly desirable.
• 5–8 years of progressive experience in refinery economics, downstream energy planning, or petroleum commodity analysis, including at least 2 years in a lead or supervisory role.
• Strong working knowledge of refinery operations, crude quality economics, LP planning methodology, and refined product markets.
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities, meet hard deadlines, and lead teams through complex, time-sensitive analytical work.
• Experience with LP optimization tools (PIMS) and/or refinery planning software.