SVP – Product and Markets — Energy-Services Division

The mandate

A multinational-owned North American energy-services division has accumulated inspection, maintenance, intervention, monitoring and digital offers through individual customer requests. The portfolio no longer maps cleanly to the economics of integrity decisions, and customised delivery consumes scarce specialists without reliable contribution. An active asset-integrity programme has exposed the gap between marketed capability and repeatable field evidence. The board needs an SVP Product and Markets to decide what should scale, standardise, partner or stop.

The perimeter covers approximately US$27,000 million in operated assets and service portfolio and 950 employees and material partners. Accountability includes product portfolio, market segmentation, customer discovery, proposition economics, lifecycle roadmaps, pricing partnership, field evidence, alliances and product talent. Service-line leaders own execution and technical authorities retain professional standards. The SVP owns product choices, customer evidence and whether each offer can be delivered safely at repeatable economics.

Integrity customers buy a decision or risk reduction, not a catalogue activity. Inspection data, engineering assessment, repair, monitoring and assurance may form one outcome but require distinct authority. The product model must state the evidence delivered, the customer's retained decision and the conditions under which the offer is valid.

Why this seat is open

The role was not in the approved hiring calendar. The integrity programme created an immediate need for independent portfolio ownership, producing an urgent, unplanned search with a four-to-six-week shortlist-to-offer target. Interim leaders protect current customers but cannot resolve product investment. There is no predecessor.

What you will own

• Segment products by customer integrity decision and operating context.
• Decide scale, standardise, reprice, partner, harvest and retire pathways.
• Build full lifecycle economics including field and specialist capacity.
• Establish configuration boundaries and governed technical exceptions.
• Convert field outcomes into product and market choices.
• Develop product leaders with commercial and technical authority.

Segmentation will distinguish asset class, failure consequence, operating environment, customer capability and regulatory setting. A pipeline operator, refinery, offshore producer and emerging-energy asset may need related methods but different evidence and response. The SVP will identify the reusable core without claiming false equivalence.

Product economics will include mobilisation, equipment, specialist time, data processing, engineering review, repeat visits, warranty, liability, customer support and demobilisation. Shared costs will follow the product that consumes them. Revenue created through unpaid custom engineering or overextended technical authorities will not be called attractive contribution.

Configuration will specify approved methods, tools, data requirements, competence and operating envelope. Technical authorities can require a departure where conditions demand it, but the exception needs price, capacity, support and review. Repeated exceptions will trigger product redesign or market withdrawal rather than become invisible normal work.

Customer discovery will involve asset leaders, integrity engineers, maintenance, procurement and finance. The team will observe how evidence is used and where work is repeated or distrusted. Stated feature requests will be translated into the underlying decision before roadmap acceptance. Pilots need an adoption threshold, economic case and scale-or-stop date.

Field evidence will shape the roadmap. Detection quality, false positives, decision time, repeat intervention, avoided downtime, service incidents and customer disputes will be reviewed by product cohort. Claims of avoided loss must use an agreed counterfactual. Marketing cannot convert a technical possibility into an assured customer outcome.

Alliances and acquisitions may extend sensors, analytics, repair or specialist capability. Contribution, data, intellectual property, quality, customer ownership and exit must be explicit. A partner dependency that cannot be transferred or replaced will remain visible in product economics.

Pricing and commercial terms will reflect the decision outcome and risk assumed. Fixed-fee, subscription, performance and shared-value structures require different baselines, customer authority and liability. The SVP will prevent sales teams from using outcome language where the service controls only inspection or recommendation. Product leaders will review contract exceptions and feed recurring issues into design or market withdrawal.

Portfolio governance will allocate specialist capacity as deliberately as capital. Roadmaps will show which products require technical authorities, field equipment and scarce data expertise. A product unable to secure competent delivery will be paused even when customer demand exists. Capacity forecasts will be tested against sold work rather than optimistic hiring assumptions.

The first 12 months

Within 75 days, the SVP will classify the 20 largest offer families, identify unsupported variants and assess leadership. The sponsor will receive scale, reshape, partner and retire decisions.

By month eight, three priority families should use approved configuration and economics, two products should show field-verified adoption and one low-value variant should be withdrawn without customer disruption. Product reviews will include technical and operating evidence.

At year-end, unsupported variants should fall 20%, product contribution improve 200 basis points and 90% of new commitments have approved lifecycle and capacity plans. Customer adoption should improve 15% in selected cohorts, with no material integrity failure caused by an unsupported product claim.

What the board will measure

• Products tied to customer integrity decisions.
• Repeatable economics without hidden specialist subsidy.
• Field evidence changing portfolio choices.
• Technical exceptions governed rather than normalised.
• Strong product leadership and succession.

The person

You are an SVP Product and Markets, energy-services product executive or service portfolio leader with 22–28 years of experience. You have carried accountable scope above US$15,650 million and led at least 675 people. Your record includes asset integrity, field services and product economics.

The board will test an offer you retired despite revenue, an exception that changed the core product and a customer claim you narrowed after field evidence. Software-only product experience without field consequence will not qualify.

This onsite Houston role requires extensive customer, field, partner and technical travel.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is US$320,000–420,000 plus annual incentive. Measures include product focus, contribution, adoption, integrity outcomes, capacity and succession.

Confidentiality

The division, customers, assets, integrity evidence and products remain confidential. Further detail follows qualification and mutual confidentiality. Composite examples protect identity.