Managing Partner – Operations Advisory — Upstream Portfolio

The mandate

An upstream advisory practice is respected for diagnosis but has not consistently stayed close enough to implementation for clients to verify the promised value. That limitation has become decisive as a listed energy group resets capital discipline across a NOK 41,050 million operated portfolio. Its leaders need fewer improvement themes, harder production and cost baselines, and intervention teams prepared to remain accountable when subsurface uncertainty, shutdowns or contractor performance disrupt the original plan.

The Managing Partner will create that model from Stavanger. The surrounding delivery perimeter touches approximately 1,725 employees and material partners across asset operations, maintenance, wells, supply chain, production technology and performance management. The work must connect board capital choices to the daily operating system of an offshore portfolio; broad transformation language without field-level proof will quickly lose credibility.

The position combines market leadership and delivery stewardship. It carries responsibility for client selection, senior relationships, engagement acceptance, multidisciplinary staffing, benefit assurance and reusable intellectual property. The board and investment committee want the practice to earn expansion through realised outcomes rather than diagnostic volume.

Why this seat is open

The role is a planned addition, authorised before the next practice investment round. There is no departing incumbent. Existing advisory leaders own individual capabilities, but accountability for an integrated upstream operations proposition is fragmented. A four-to-six-month search permits careful assessment of operators, advisers and operating partners while current leaders continue their established assignments.

What you will own

• Form an operations-advisory proposition around the actual constraints of mature and capital-rationed upstream assets: production loss, maintenance backlog, well delivery, contractor productivity, logistics and integrity exposure.
• Establish a single benefit contract for every major engagement, defining baseline, counterfactual, responsible client owner, measurement frequency and conditions that invalidate attribution.
• Select assignments where executive sponsorship and asset access are sufficient for change; reject diagnostic commissions presented as transformation when implementation authority is absent.
• Assemble teams that combine reservoir and production understanding with reliability, procurement, workforce, data and change expertise, while making one partner accountable for the integrated result.
• Redesign commercial terms so that outcome-linked elements reward controllable value without encouraging unsafe production, deferred integrity work or optimistic attribution.
• Develop reusable field routines, performance-control methods and digital accelerators that can move between assets without erasing local operating context.
• Build trusted relationships with asset directors, operations executives, workforce representatives, regulators and capital committees across Norway and the wider region.
• Own practice economics, including bookings, margin, senior leverage, travel load, collections, claims exposure and investment in specialist capability.

The first 12 months

In the first 90 days, review the live portfolio of operations engagements and reconstruct the evidence behind every material benefit claim. Spend time at operating sites and with frontline leaders to understand why prior recommendations did or did not survive contact with work management, shutdown planning and contractor interfaces. Agree an engagement-acceptance standard with the regional partner council.

Months four through eight should produce a deliberately narrow set of signature interventions. Pilot them on assets where data quality, sponsor behaviour and operational readiness allow value to be tested. Put benefit assurance under a leader independent of sales credit, and train partners to distinguish addressable loss from geological or market effects.

By month twelve, at least two engagements should have passed client-validated outcome gates, with lessons converted into delivery IP and commercial references. The practice should show stronger executive sponsorship, improved realised-benefit conversion and a scalable staffing model that does not depend on a handful of veteran advisers.

What the board will measure

• At least 80% of material engagements operating with signed baselines, named client benefit owners and monthly attribution reviews.
• Verified value realisation reaching 75% or more of the benefits contractually targeted for the first-year portfolio.
• Two repeatable upstream interventions deployed across more than one asset without deterioration in safety, integrity or workforce indicators.
• Practice revenue and contribution margin delivered within 10% of the approved case, with outcome-fee exposure transparently provisioned.
• A 20% improvement in senior-to-delivery leverage while maintaining client satisfaction and technical review quality.
• No serious engagement escalation concealed from the regional risk forum, and closure plans agreed within ten working days of identification.

The person

You are presently a Managing Partner, Operations Practice Leader or Operating Partner with at least 28 years across upstream energy and high-consequence operations. Your career may have been built in advisory, industry or both, but it must include responsibility after the diagnostic phase. You can show where operating routines changed, where value was independently verified and where you stopped an intervention because its assumptions failed.

Candidates need ownership of at least NOK 23,800 million in P&L, book, budget or accountable portfolio and leadership of 1,200 or more people, or equivalent client-value responsibility across multiple assets and disciplines. A surface-level transformation portfolio is insufficient. You should be conversant in production efficiency, reliability, wells interfaces, contractor models, asset integrity and the governance of operational risk.

This is an onsite Stavanger appointment with international relocation support. The Managing Partner must be visible to clients and teams in operating environments, while respecting site access, safety training and workforce protocols.

Compensation and terms

Compensation is expected to comprise NOK 6.0–8.2 million base plus annual incentive and LTI. Final structure will reflect the client book, delivery risk and partnership economics. Any long-term award is subject to normal performance, vesting and conduct provisions; an orderly transition can accommodate notice and conflicts up to six months.

Confidentiality

The listed group, assets, operating data and advisory platform will remain undisclosed through initial assessment. Further information follows evidence of fit, conflicts clearance and mutual confidentiality.