Senior Manager, Technical Development

Position Category:  Product Lines - Well Construction Products (WCP) and Production Services (PRS)

Reports to:                Sr Director, Talent Management

Location:                   2000, St James Place (onsite)

Lead the technical development strategy for the Well Construction Products (WCP) and Production Services (PRS) organizations by translating business priorities into a multi-year competency roadmap that strengthens workforce readiness, agile career progression, upskilling and learning transformation. This role serves as a strategic advisor to Segment leaders, Geozone Operations and Functional leaders, providing governance and direction on technical capability, training investment decisions, and leads AI adoption with innovative learning and developments solutions.

 Technical Development 

• Defines and steers the technical development strategy across the portfolio, ensuring alignment with enterprise priorities, objectives, and execution needs. 
• Establishes global standards and a long-term capability roadmap to drive governance and adoption across regions, covering career paths, competency frameworks, qualification standards, certification, and recertification. 
• Leads global capability governance forums to align stakeholders, monitor progress, and address risks. 
• Drives workforce transformation initiatives, including multi-skilling, digital learning, AI-enabled content, and blended training models. 
• Partners with Operations, HR, Quality, Commercial, and other supporting functions to link workforce capability with revenue, service quality, efficiency, and market growth. 
• Develops and positions customer-facing training solutions as a commercial differentiator, ensuring quality, consistency, technical credibility, and alignment with business development priorities. 
• Defines KPIs and reporting frameworks to track workforce readiness, competency compliance, performance progression, and training effectiveness. 
• Responsible for identifying macro-trends in the market, leveraging worldwide recognized sources such as Association of Talent Development, World Economic Forum, Society of Petroleum Engineering, Project Management Institute, International Association of Drilling Contractors, and keeping internal stakeholders informed, influencing the direction of future workforce capability. 
• Ensures competency processes are embedded in operations, including workforce planning, role assignments, and performance management. 

Communication 

• Builds trusted relationships with all stakeholders. 
• Influences executive decision-making by translating workforce data, competency risks, and capability gaps into clear strategic recommendations and business cases. 
• Leads enterprise-level communication on technical development priorities, governance expectations, transformation progress, and performance outcomes. 
• Represents the technical development function in senior leadership reviews, strategic planning discussions, workforce councils, client-facing discussions, and external industry forums as required. 
• Aligns stakeholders by defining processes decision authority, ownership, and accountability. 

Financial 

• Partners with Finance and business leaders to build multi-year budgets, CAPEX, business cases, ROI models, and cost-benefit analysis for major capability upgrades. 
• Improves business profitability by strengthening technical capability and accelerating time-to-competency. 
• Aligns workforce capability development with enterprise commercial strategy and customer requirements to support market growth and competitiveness. 

People & Development 

• Leads and influence the technical training & development organization through direct reports and regional/functional networks (trainers, SMEs, assessors, content developers, and regional execution teams), ensuring clear accountability for execution. 
• Defines the technical pipeline strategy, including progression models, succession readiness, critical role development, assessor qualification, and SME capability building. 

• Promotes a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, innovation, AI-adoption, inclusion, and operational excellence across the technical development community. 

   

Vision & Leadership 

• Champions innovation in technical learning, including AI-enabled solutions, digital assessments, and workforce analytics. 
• Reinforces technical development function as a strategic business partner that improves operational performance, supports commercial differentiation, strengthens enterprise capability, and impacts EBIDA and free cash flow. 

Performance & Outcomes 

• Improves adoption of competency frameworks and development programs across the portfolio. 
• Improves time-to-competency and workforce readiness across critical roles. 
• Increases competency compliance and certification adherence.
• Reduces training delivery cost while improving effectiveness. 
• Supports revenue growth through customer-facing capability programs. 
• Improves visibility of workforce capability through standardized reporting and dashboards to support executive decision-making. 
• Improves AI-Adoption. 

REQUIRED 

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering; master’s degree preferred.
• 15+ years of progressive experience in technical operations, technical development, competency management, workforce strategy in a global industrial or oilfield services. 
  • Minimum: 8+ years of oilfield services required. 
• Proven experience leading technical learning and development strategy and influencing senior executives and cross-functional stakeholders in a global environment. 
• Strong financial acumen, including budget ownership, investment prioritization, business cases, ROI analysis, and value tracking. 
• Strong expertise in competency frameworks, career progression, and technical workforce development. 
• Experience leading digital and data-driven learning solutions, including AI-enabled tools and workforce analytics. 
• Strong executive communication skills, including delivering strategic, data-driven presentations to stakeholders. 
• Commercial mindset with the ability to connect workforce capability to revenue growth, customer value, service quality, operational efficiency, and market expansion. 
• Knowledge of relevant industry standards such as IADC, API, OPITO, ISO, or equivalent frameworks. 
• Experience building partnerships with customers, industry associations, vendors, technology providers, learning partners, and service providers. 

PREFERRED 

• Advanced degree or executive education in Business, Digital Transformation, Organizational Development, Competency Management, or Learning and Development. 
• Experience monetizing technical training, building customer-facing capability programs, or developing commercial learning solutions. 

#LI-MA1