Head of Concept

Position Overview

The Head of Concept Department serves as EPU’s foremost technical shaping and early-phase engineering authority, accountable for the strategic leadership, governance, and performance of Concept Engineering across all onshore and offshore EPCIO energy projects, including FPSO, FLNG, offshore platforms, and future floating energy solutions.

This role defines, governs, and continuously improves the Technical Framing Philosophy across EPU’s core product lines — embedding EPU DNA for standardization, modularization, weight control, constructability, operability, and maintainability. The Concept team operates as an independent engineering unit, capable of leading and executing concept studies, feasibility studies, tender engineering, technology trade-off assessments, and early project definition without dependence on execution teams. 

The Head of Concept Department also holds a dual role as Technical Authority (TA) Manager, ensuring that all discipline Technical Authorities are embedded within the Concept team. In this capacity, the role maintains EPU’s technical standards, governs design integrity, and ensures lifecycle consistency from concept through execution and operations.

A critical balance must be maintained between technical rigour and commercial competitiveness: the winning solution is not always the best technical solution, but the best executable technical solution — one defined by the lowest lifecycle execution risk, highest schedule confidence, highest repeatability, ALARP-acceptable operability, and local content adaptability where required.

The position requires strong technical authority, broad EPCIO project exposure, and prior Engineering Management (EM) experience to coordinate complex multi-disciplinary inputs and support high-quality technical decision-making. 

Key Responsibility

Technical Framing Philosophy & Standards Governance

• Define, own, and continuously improve the Technical Framing Philosophy across EPU’s core product lines (FPSO, FLNG, offshore platforms, and future floating energy solutions).
• Embed EPU’s engineering DNA into all concept solutions: standardization, modularization, weight control, constructability, operability, and maintainability.
• Maintain and govern technical standards, product-line philosophies, and design integrity across all project phases.
• Serve as technical challenger and custodian of framing assumptions during maturity gates (FEL/Concept Select). 

Concept Engineering Leadership & Independent Execution

• Lead the Concept Department and independently organize, resource, and execute tender engineering, feasibility studies, pre-FEED, and early project development activities for global EPCIO opportunities.
• Develop technically optimized and commercially competitive concepts considering the full EPCIO lifecycle requirements, including execution, installation, commissioning, operability, maintainability, and long-term production performance.
• Provide technical leadership and direction for complex bidding projects and early-stage project development activities.
• Coordinate overall technical activities during bid phase, ensuring integration across engineering, procurement, construction, installation, commissioning, operations, project controls, and commercial functions.
• Ensure concept solutions are aligned with operational reliability, production efficiency, safety, maintainability, and client operational expectations.
• Champion the principle that the winning solution is the best executable technical solution — balancing technical rigour with execution certainty, schedule confidence, and commercial competitiveness.

Technical Authority (TA) Management — Dual Role

• Act as TA Manager for all engineering disciplines, with all discipline Technical Authorities organizationally embedded within the Concept team.
• Establish and maintain strong technical authority within the organization to support high-quality engineering decisions, technical governance, and risk management.
• Review and validate engineering framework, design philosophies, operational considerations, installation methodologies, lifecycle risks, execution strategies, and major project interfaces during concept development stages. 

Stakeholder Engagement & Organizational Development 

• Support technical clarification meetings and strategic engagement with clients, partners, licensors, classification societies, operators, and subcontractors.
• Work closely with Product Line Directors, Engineering, Project Management, Commercial, and Project Execution Teams to ensure alignment between technical solutions and overall project execution strategy. 
• Drive cross-functional alignment to avoid organizational disconnect between TA-driven technical optimization and project-driven execution priorities.

Qualification

• Degree in Engineering or a related technical discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• 20+ years’ experience in energy project development and delivery, including 10+ years in concept development, early-phase studies, or FEL/Concept Select roles within EPC/EPCIO environments, and 5+ years leading global teams.
• Proven experience in concept engineering, pre-FEED, FEED, technical proposal, or bidding activities for complex international projects across FPSO, FLNG, offshore platforms, or equivalent product lines.
• Prior Engineering Management (EM) experience in major EPCIO projects is mandatory.
• Demonstrated ability to define and govern Technical Framing Philosophies, embedding standardization, modularization, weight control, constructability, operability, and lifecycle optimization principles.
• Strong understanding of engineering interfaces, execution methodologies, installation strategy, commissioning, operational readiness, and lifecycle optimization. 
• Proven capability to manage Technical Authority functions across engineering disciplines, balancing technical rigour against execution and commercial realities.
• Demonstrated leadership of multi-disciplinary and multi-regional teams with senior client and stakeholder engagement