Our client is seeking a Computational Geomechanics & FEM Scientist to help advance a commercial simulation platform used to model complex subsurface fracturing behavior. This role will focus on translating fracture physics and computational mechanics into reliable, high-performance finite-element code within a production software environment.
Salary + Additional Benefits:
Competitive Salary dependent on experience
Medical, Dental, Vision Insurance
Simple IRA – company match
Location: Houston, TX
Type of Position: Direct Hire
Responsibilities:
Advance the physical and numerical formulations governing coupled fluid flow, rock deformation, fracture opening, height growth, and fracture propagation.
Develop and improve models for interacting fractures, including stress shadowing, evolving stress fields, cluster-to-cluster competition, stage sequencing, and well-to-well interference.
Modernize the simulator architecture and numerical implementation while preserving the reliability and continuity expected of an established commercial engineering product.
Improve computational performance, scalability, convergence, stability, and memory efficiency using modern FEM, numerical linear algebra, solver, meshing, and parallel-computing methods.
Evaluate and implement advanced solution strategies, including sparse direct and iterative solvers, preconditioning, adaptive discretization, parallel algorithms, and other high-performance-computing techniques.
Design verification, validation, benchmarking, and regression-testing workflows for new physical and numerical capabilities.
Collaborate with hydraulic-fracturing experts and software developers to convert research concepts and field observations into commercial simulation capabilities.
Requirements:
Ph.D. in geomechanics, computational mechanics, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, petroleum engineering, applied mathematics, or a closely related field.
Expert working knowledge of geomechanics, fracture mechanics, and finite-element methods.
At least 5 years of direct hands-on industry experience developing, validating, and improving FEM code (or closely related numerical-method code) for hydraulic fracture simulation.
Hands-on coding depth in FEM/numerical methods development (experience limited to being a software user is not sufficient).
Proven background in modeling hydraulic fracture initiation, propagation, and fracture-to-fracture interaction in numerical simulations.
Strong scientific software development skills in at least one compiled language, with the ability to work effectively in a mature engineering codebase.
Solid understanding of nonlinear numerical methods, numerical linear algebra, and solution robustness (convergence, stability, and error control).
Oil & gas industry exposure relevant to fracture / stimulation modeling.
Due to the high volume of applications we typically receive, we regret that we are not able to personally respond to all applications. However, if you are invited to take the next step in the process, you will typically be contacted within one week of submitting your application.
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