Chief of Staff, Operations

Position 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. You will go where the leader cannot, represent the leader in forums the leader cannot attend, drive workstreams requiring senior coverage, and engage with full authority and accountability to make decisions on the leader's behalf. This role reports directly to the VP of Operations.

Fervo is scaling an industry-defining geothermal program from Cape Station Phase I through a fleet of repeat-build plants, and the Chief of Staff to the VP of Operations owns the operational rhythm that enables a single leader to manage a program that would otherwise require three. You will track AFEs and forecast spend, reconcile change orders, prepare executive-grade deliverables, run cross-functional meetings, close action items, and stand in for the leader across engineering, commissioning, production engineering, and O&M coordination. You operate by reasoning from first principles, questioning every inherited requirement, eliminating what does not add value, simplifying what remains, accelerating where ownership permits, and building every output for repeatability across the next plant.

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

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree in an Engineering discipline (non-engineers will be considered if relevant experience can be demonstrated)
• 10+ years of experience in an engineering, finance, consulting, data science or operations role - preferably in the energy, oil & gas, or industrial sector
• Demonstrated experience with project financial tracking: AFEs, budgets, change orders, vendor cost reconciliation, accruals, and variance analysis
• Strong fluency reading and synthesizing engineering and construction documentation - P&IDs, schedules, drawings, vendor scope packages, commissioning procedures
• Track record building executive-grade deliverables (PowerPoint, Excel models, written briefings) under tight deadlines
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to engage credibly with senior executives and field personnel alike
• Track record of operating at the intersection of multiple disciplines - engineering, construction, commissioning, operations, finance
• Comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and equally comfortable revising those decisions as better information becomes available
• Willing and able (with or without reasonable accommodation) to travel to Cape Station and other Fervo locations up to 25% of the time

Preferred

• 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

Location

Fervo Energy is headquartered in Houston, TX with offices in Oakland, CA, Golden, CO, Reno, NV, and Salt Lake City, UT. This position is an in-person role in our Houston, TX headquarters. Travel up to 25% is required for this role.

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 up to 6% 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 LTI and bonus opportunities for eligible roles

Benefits and programs are subject to eligibility requirements and may change.

Our Workplace

Fervo Energy highly values having employees work in the office to foster collaboration and strengthen our company culture. This role follows a hybrid schedule, with team members expected to work in the office three days per week. Fervo considers this in-office schedule an essential function of the role. Your recruiter can share more information about the schedule.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Fervo Energy is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, gender, religion, marital status, registered domestic partner status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, sex, genetic information, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local law. Fervo also prohibits discrimination based on the perception that an individual has any of these characteristics or is associated with a person who has or is perceived as having any of these characteristics.