Sr Director, Technical Excellence

Are you looking for a career in a dynamic and innovative company that values versatility, growth, and teamwork? Delek US Holdings is a boutique-sized diversified downstream energy company with a range of assets, including petroleum refining and logistics. Our refineries in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana have a combined crude capacity of 302,000 barrels per day. Our logistics business currently owns and operates 720 miles of crude and product pipelines, a 600-mile crude oil gathering system, and storage tanks and terminals.

Benefits

• Up to a 10% match on 401K from hire start, with a vesting timeline of one year
• Medical benefits starting on day one with a 30% premium rebate annually
• Free access to the Calm app for meditation, stress management, and better sleep
• Annual incentives through a performance management program
• Pay-for-performance culture with high bonus payouts

About the Role

This position provides leadership, direction, and accountability for technical excellence across Delek’s refining network. The successful candidate will drive measurable improvements in safety, reliability, margin, and operational performance through strong technical discipline, rigorous performance management, and effective execution. The role leads a multi-disciplinary centralized technical organization and partners with refinery leadership to identify performance gaps, define strategic priorities, and execute improvement initiatives.

Requirements

• Sets priorities and establishes strategic direction for technical excellence across the refining organization, aligned with enterprise objectives and performance goals
• Provides leadership and oversight for a distributed corporate team of process subject matter experts, process control engineers, and digital/analytics resources
• Leads and aligns multi-disciplinary technical teams to deliver measurable improvements in safety, reliability, margin, and operational performance
• Collaborates with and influences refinery leadership teams to drive alignment, decision-making, and sustained results
• Communicates complex technical and operational concepts to executive leadership with clarity and credibility
• Operates effectively across all organizational levels, ensuring strategies translate into practical, field-executable solutions
• Establishes and stewards technical standards, ensuring consistent application of sound engineering, process control, and operating practices
• Provides high-level technical oversight and support for refinery process performance, troubleshooting, and improvement
• Identifies and advances opportunities to improve unit reliability, efficiency, throughput, and margin
• Synthesizes insights from benchmarking, external consultants, and internal analyses into actionable resolution pathways
• Develops structured, executable plans with defined ownership, milestones, and deliverables
• Drives initiatives using disciplined project management to ensure accountability and execution against committed schedules
• Monitors performance against goals and KPIs, ensuring timely course correction and delivery of results
• Leads cross-functional efforts with operations, maintenance, EHS, planning, and optimization teams
• Fosters a culture of technical rigor, continuous improvement, and practical problem-solving
• Travel up to 30% to refinery sites and corporate locations

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree (required)
• Eight or more years of management experience managing technical or engineering teams (required)
• Fifteen or more years of process engineering experience in refining, petrochemical, or related industry, including significant experience in an operating environment (required)
• Experience leading multi-disciplinary teams including process engineering, process control, and digital/analytics resources
• Strong technical foundation in refinery or petrochemical operations with the ability to diagnose complex issues and develop practical, field-executable solutions
• Direct experience in operations, technical services, or process support roles within an operating facility
• Demonstrated ability to influence site leadership and communicate effectively with executive stakeholders
• Proven ability to identify performance gaps, develop structured action plans, and drive issues to resolution with measurable results
• Strong understanding of plant economics, performance drivers, and process safety principles

Skills

• Change Agility (Level 5 - Shaping): Identifies, initiates, and adapts to organizational changes that foster enhanced effectiveness, efficiency, safety, and business results
• Collaboration (Level 5 - Shaping): Sees connection points across the organization and partners effectively with others to achieve common goals
• Decision Making (Level 5 - Shaping): Selects a course of action to reduce risk and uncertainty and create optimal outcomes
• Drive For Results (Level 5 - Shaping): Drives to achieve challenging performance objectives
• Team Building (Level 5 - Shaping): Builds trust, fosters openness, and provides support. As a manager, selects and motivates a strong team