EVP – Customer Operations — Upstream Portfolio

The mandate

An institutionally backed Norwegian upstream portfolio is separating parts of its operating model while customer, partner and offtake journeys remain fragmented across commercial, scheduling, logistics, finance and asset teams. Counterparties repeat information and receive inconsistent responses during constraints. The board needs an EVP Customer Operations to create a coherent service and resolution model that can be separated without losing contractual or operating truth.

The perimeter covers approximately NOK 45,350 million in operated assets and portfolio and 1,225 employees and material partners. Accountability includes nominations, service operations, partner and customer cases, scheduling interfaces, communications, billing-resolution partnership, data separation and customer-operations talent. Commercial teams own contracts and assets own production. The EVP owns end-to-end resolution, operational evidence and customer continuity through separation.

Upstream customers and partners may include offtakers, infrastructure operators, joint ventures and authorities. Their needs differ, but all require a controlled position on volume, quality, timing, constraint and remedy.

Why this seat is open

The separation created an urgent, unplanned authority gap outside the hiring calendar. A permanent executive is sought within four to six weeks. Interim teams preserve live commitments but cannot design the future model. There is no predecessor.

What you will own

• Define customer and partner journeys by decision and contract.
• Establish single case ownership across functions.
• Connect production, nomination, logistics and communication evidence.
• Design data, systems and service separation.
• Govern complaints, claims, remedies and partner performance.
• Develop customer-operations leaders and successors.

Journeys will be mapped around nomination, allocation, quality, outage, invoice, dispute and emergency. Each will show source facts, authority, communication, escalation and closure. A case moved to another team will not count as resolved. Contract-specific rights remain explicit within a common operating spine.

Constraint communication will use one controlled operating position. Assets, scheduling, commercial and customer teams will agree available volume, timing and uncertainty before external release. The EVP will define who can authorise allocation, alternatives and remedy. Different counterparties cannot receive incompatible promises from separate channels.

Case evidence will link contact, nomination, asset event, contract, invoice and remedy while protecting confidential partner information. Measures will distinguish genuine closure from abandoned contact, transferred work or reopened disputes. Automation may route work but cannot determine contested entitlement without competent review.

Separation will map customer data, contracts, systems, partner arrangements, people and transitional services. Rights and retention will be established before migration. Service levels and exit routes will be costed. A buyer or separated entity should understand unresolved cases and recurring causes rather than receive an averaged satisfaction score.

Partner operations will have shared escalation, continuity, data and handover obligations. Outsourcing scheduling or contact activity does not transfer accountability. The EVP will use repeat cases to trigger asset, policy or contract change.

The customer-operations organisation will separate service authority from commercial negotiation. Case leaders need enough contract and operating literacy to resolve ordinary issues, with defined escalation for entitlement, credit or technical uncertainty. Account executives remain informed but cannot close a complaint by changing its status. Performance objectives will reward durable resolution and root-cause removal.

Privacy and confidentiality will be designed into shared case history. Joint-venture, shipper, buyer and authority information may have different access rights even when an event affects several parties. The EVP will establish role-based access, retention and disclosure controls, plus auditable break-glass procedures during emergencies. Convenience will not justify exposing one counterparty's sensitive position to another.

Major incidents will have a customer command path linked to operational command. The function will translate verified facts into timely counterparty action, record commitments and identify vulnerable downstream consequences. Post-incident review will test whether communication altered harm or merely reported it. Customer promises made during disruption will enter the formal recovery plan.

Transitional-service design will include case ownership after legal separation. Open disputes, historic invoices, recurring operational causes and customer credits need allocation, data and authority. A service agreement must state who investigates, decides, communicates and funds remedy. The EVP will prevent each entity assuming the other owns difficult legacy cases.

The first 12 months

Within 75 days, the EVP will map the ten highest-volume or highest-consequence journeys, stabilise severe backlogs and assess leadership. The sponsor will receive resolution standards and separation gaps.

By month eight, four journeys should use common evidence, two partner interfaces should operate revised standards and separation data rooms should contain reconciled customer metrics. Chronic repeat causes will have funded removal plans.

At year-end, durable closure at the initial point of service should rise by 15 percentage points, repeated approaches decline 20% and high-consequence disputes conclude 30% sooner. Ninety per cent of priority cases should retain traceable evidence through separation, with ready cover for 70% of pivotal roles.

What the board will measure

• Durable resolution rather than channel activity.
• One operating truth during supply constraint.
• Customer continuity and data separability.
• Strong partner and remedy governance.
• Customer-operations succession.

The person

You are an EVP Customer Operations, energy service leader or complex B2B operations executive with 22–28 years of experience. You have carried scope above NOK 26,300 million and led at least 850 people. Your record includes contractual service, operational constraint and separation.

The board will test a case that appeared closed but recurred, a constraint communication failure you corrected and a separation preserving customer service. Contact-centre-only experience will not qualify.

This hybrid Stavanger role requires asset, customer and partner travel.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is NOK 3.0–4.0 million plus annual incentive. Measures include resolution, service, separation, partner performance, data and succession.

Confidentiality

The portfolio, customers, partners, contracts and separation plans remain confidential. Further detail follows qualification and an undertaking.