Senior Structural Engineer – Drilling/Riser Group

Do you have offshore structural analysis experience of drilling risers and conductors using software such as FLEXCOM, Abaqus, and Shear7? Are you looking for the career opportunity to progress to Principal Engineer level? If so, this could be the role for you!

The Role

Joining our Oil & Gas Engineering & Consulting business in Aberdeen, you will have the opportunity to work on all aspects of drilling structures, including riser analysis, subsea conductor analysis, jack‑up conductor analysis, and platform conductor analysis for clients in the North Sea and worldwide. Our typical design/analysis scopes include aspects such as:

• Conductor strength and stability.
• Wave fatigue.
• VIV fatigue.
• Derivation of latched envelopes.
• Axial load history analysis.
• Axial capacity assessment.
• Processing of monitoring data.
• Fishing gear snag load analysis.
• Clamp design.

Our work is very technically focused, and familiarity with the following codes/papers is considered advantageous:

• DNVGL-RP-0142: Wellhead fatigue analysis.
• DNV-RP-F204: Riser Fatigue - Rules and standards.
• DNVGL-RP-C203: Fatigue design of offshore steel structures.
• API-RP-16Q: Design, Selection, Operation, and Maintenance of Marine Drilling Riser Systems.
• Stahl and Baur (1980): Design Methodology for Offshore Platform Conductors.
• API-RP-2A: Planning, Designing, and Constructing Fixed Offshore Platforms.
• API RP 2GEO: Geotechnical and Foundation Design Considerations.
• ISO 19902: Petroleum and natural gas industries — Fixed steel offshore structures.

You will generally be working in a small team led by a Principal Engineer and report through the structural team.

You will be able to manage your own cost and time targets to deliver an efficient, high-calibre engineering service, and preparation of associated clear, concise, high-quality reports. You will be working in a team of engineers to execute projects with pool resources from other teams and external consultants where appropriate, and will have the opportunity to develop your capabilities in line with the requirements of the Atkins career paths.

As well as supporting exploration drilling activities and conductor design, you may also provide day-to-day operational support to our clients’ fixed assets, many of which are operating in life extension with well components, such as conductors, connectors, guides, and guide frames, suffering degradation and wear.  Developing innovative repair solutions is therefore a key part of this role.  As part of the structural team, you may also contribute to or lead other aspects of structural integrity management including jacket and topsides analysis, inspection review, and brownfield design.

As such, we may consider someone from a broader structural engineering background with a strong interest in advanced analysis and a grounding in riser and conductor analysis, although a drilling specialist is preferred as the requirement is to lead work and support innovation.

The Person

Building and developing relationships is a key part of this role. You will be able to anticipate, interpret and deliver client requirements, thereby winning work from new and existing clients. In addition to building relationships with our clients, you will be able to work with other teams to develop cross-discipline capabilities, and have a co-operative and helpful attitude to colleagues and clients. You will have the potential and desire to progress to Principal Engineer status and beyond. In addition to having the ability to cope with rapidly challenging problems and bringing a flexible approach to adapt to individual situations, other key requirements include:

• Offshore structural analysis experience of drilling risers and conductors using software such as FLEXCOM (preferred) or ORCAFLEX.
• Technical understanding of environmental wave loading and/or vessel motions.
• Proven success in delivering drilling structures projects against time, cost, and quality objectives.
• Experience of managing small teams, including carrying out performance reviews.
• Engineering degree (honours or equivalent) in mechanical, structural, civil, naval architecture, or equivalent discipline.
• Chartered Engineer or working towards Chartered status with a professional institution.
• Self-motivated, positive, enthusiastic, reliable, consistent and mature approach to work – appropriate to delivering growth in the face of challenging market conditions.
• Willingness to develop a wide range of skills and flexibility to work on a variety of projects.
• It is desirable for the applicant to have offshore structural analysis experience of jackets, topsides, floating and subsea systems – particularly using SESAM software. Non-linear FEA experience in ABAQUS and USFOS and other comparable software packages is considered advantageous.

We recognise individual preferences for project management or technical delivery, and we offer exciting and challenging careers in both areas.

Additional Information and Benefits

• Travel to other company sites may be necessary.

• Flexible working options may be considered for this vacancy.

• Please refer to our website for full details of our benefits package, which includes the opportunity to purchase up to 15 days additional annual leave per year on top of our standard 25 days paid annual leave. 

• Atkins develops individuals through a portfolio of training and development activities designed to help you make the best of your abilities and talents. We encourage participation in all forms of training and have an active programme of in-house and external training for all of our engineers. Developing your capability is key to our success, and that is why we place such an importance on it.

About Us

Atkins is ranked as one of ‘The Sunday Times 25 Best Big Companies to Work For’ and as one of the ‘The Times Top 50 Employers for Women 2015’. We support flexible working and equal opportunities as we believe that diverse teams provide the best mix of interpersonal and technical skills needed to exceed our customers’ expectations

We are one of the world’s foremost engineering and design consultancies, operating in virtually every region of the world, in virtually every market. Choosing to work for Atkins will provide you with the opportunity to engage on some of the most exciting engineering challenges of our time. Together with our rewarding and flexible packages, you’ll have the perfect balance to bring both your personal and career goals to fruition.Within the oil and gas area, our services are focused on upstream operations engineering i.e. maintain safe and efficient operations for operators, and offshore engineering encompassing fixed, floating and subsea facilities.

Additionally, we operate selectively in the onshore mid-stream and downstream markets.

This role may require security clearance and offers of employment will be dependent on obtaining the relevant level of clearance. If this is necessary it will be discussed with you at interview.

If applying to this role please do not make reference to (in conversation) or include in your application or CV,  details of any current or previously held security clearance.