Manager, Operations Readiness & Assurance (OR&A) - Multidiscipline

About the role

Penspen is recruiting a Manager, Operations Readiness & Assurance (OR&A) for a gas facility project in Abu Dhabi. The role leads multidisciplinary OR&A activities that support the safe and effective transition of gas facilities from project delivery to operations, providing PMC oversight of readiness planning, operational preparedness, maintenance readiness, commissioning interfaces and handover.

Key responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the integrated OR&A strategy, execution plan, deliverables register, responsibility matrix and readiness milestones aligned with the project schedule and ADNOC Gas requirements.
• Lead and coordinate OR&A inputs across process, mechanical, rotating equipment, piping, electrical, instrumentation and control, civil, HSE, operations, maintenance and asset integrity disciplines.
• Act as the focal point for OR&A coordination between ADNOC Gas project and operations teams, the PMC, EPC contractors, commissioning teams, vendors and service providers, defining interfaces and resolving readiness gaps.
• Oversee operations and maintenance reviews of designs to address operability, maintainability, reliability, accessibility, safe isolation and lifecycle requirements, and track actions to closure.
• Coordinate and verify readiness of operating philosophies, SOPs, start-up and shutdown procedures, emergency arrangements and operating organisation requirements.
• Oversee maintenance strategies, equipment criticality assessments, preventive maintenance plans, inspection requirements and integrity management arrangements, and coordinate reliability and maintainability inputs.
• Monitor asset registers, equipment hierarchies, maintenance master data and document links required for the client's CMMS.
• Review commissioning and operational spares, SPIR records, special tools, consumables, workshop facilities, vendor support and maintenance service arrangements.
• Coordinate operations and maintenance staffing, training and competency plans, and verify vendor training and competency assessments before readiness milestones.
• Review EPC commissioning and start-up plans from an operational readiness perspective, and coordinate OR&A inputs to safety reviews, management of change, pre-start-up safety reviews and emergency preparedness.
• Lead readiness reviews and assurance assessments, maintain readiness dashboards, assign action owners and escalate issues affecting safe start-up or operational acceptance.
• Oversee readiness verification of system completion records, punch lists, operating manuals, as-built documentation, test records and handover dossiers, and monitor the OR&A risk and action registers.
• Support start-up and close-out, including defect resolution, outstanding handover actions, lessons learned and transition to routine asset management.

Required profile

• Bachelor's degree in an engineering discipline relevant to oil and gas facilities.
• Minimum 20 years of relevant experience in oil and gas projects or operating assets.
• At least 8 years in leadership roles involving operations readiness, operations, maintenance, commissioning, start-up or project-to-operations handover.
• Demonstrated leadership of multidisciplinary OR&A activities on major gas processing or comparable hydrocarbon projects.
• Proven PMC or owner's-team experience overseeing EPC contractor deliverables and coordinating with asset operations teams.
• Strong stakeholder management, team leadership, risk management and technical reporting skills.
• ADNOC project experience and familiarity with client procedures preferred; mandatory status to follow the approved requisition.

Required skills

• Strong understanding of gas processing facilities, utilities, process safety, asset integrity and maintenance readiness.
• Experience with brownfield interfaces, system completion, CMMS implementation and operational acceptance.