Technical Engineer, Furnaces

Company:
INEOS Olefins & Polymers USA

Interested in joining a winning team? A team whose employees are empowered to make a difference?

Job Title: Furnace Engineer

Job Location: Chocolate Bayou Works (CBW) in Alvin, TX

Offer Range: $104,900 - $178,570(commensurate with experience)

Organizational Context and Job Purpose

The Olefins & Polymers USA division of INEOS is one of the largest producers of olefins and polyolefins in North America. From its manufacturing locations at Chocolate Bayou and the Battleground Manufacturing Complex, it is a merchant marketer of butadiene, ethylene, polypropylene and high-density polyethylene with annual revenue of over $4B.

The Chocolate Bayou Site is located in Southeastern Texas about 40 miles South of Houston and consists of two Olefins units that produce approximately 4bn pounds/year of ethylene, 2 Polypropylene units that produce approximately 1B pounds/ year of polypropylene, and the Light Ends storage & transfer facilities at Stratton Ridge.

The Furnace Engineer is the site subject matter expert for ethylene cracking furnace technology and provides technical leadership for safe, reliable, environmentally compliant, and economically optimized operation of CBW's Olefins furnaces. The Furnace Engineer is a critical technical leadership role for CBW. The position protects the integrity of high-value furnace assets, improves olefins profitability through better conversion and energy performance, reduces process safety and reliability risk, and provides the technical foundation for long-term furnace replacement, revamp, and modernization decisions.

The Furnace Engineer develops and sustains CBW's long-term furnace strategy, maintains furnace technical standards, optimizes furnace performance, supports capital projects, and helps protect the mechanical integrity of fired equipment. The role directly supports CBW objectives for process safety excellence, operational reliability, ethylene production optimization, energy efficiency, environmental sustainability, and long-term asset stewardship.

Responsibilities and Accountabilities

The position is accountable for understanding and putting into practice the INEOS 20 Principles.

Furnace Technology Ownership

Serve as CBW technical authority for ethylene cracking furnace technologies

Maintain furnace design basis documentation, technical standards, operating guidelines, and engineering best practices.

Evaluate emerging furnace technologies and support long-term technology screening, feasibility studies, and strategic planning.

Interface with licensors, OEMs, EPC contractors, inspection specialists, and industry networks to preserve and advance CBW furnace knowledge.

Furnace Performance Optimization

Drive improvements in ethylene yield, conversion, selectivity, utilization, feed flexibility, and furnace capacity.

Reduce variable cost through improved severity discipline, fuel efficiency, steam usage, decoke timing, and operating strategy.

Develop and maintain performance indicators for COT, coil pressure drop, run length, decoke frequency, choke rates, conversion, selectivity, energy efficiency, CO2 intensity, and furnace availability.

Support furnace models, performance dashboards, benchmarking, and optimization studies.

Asset Integrity & Reliability

Provide technical support for tube life management

Lead or support investigations involving tube failures, coke formation, burner issues, refractory deterioration, TLE failures, flame instability, process upsets, and reliability losses.

Develop long-range furnace replacement, revamp, and upgrade strategies based on risk, production impact, mechanical condition, and business value.

Process Safety Leadership

Provide furnace technical support for PHA, HAZOP, LOPA, MOC, risk ranking, and incident investigation processes.

Maintain furnace operating envelope limits

Support corrective action development and closure for furnace-related process safety findings.

Serve as technical lead for initiatives involving furnace safeguards, permissives, trips, flame safety, decoke safety, and safe operating limits.

Operations & Production Engineering Support

Provide technical troubleshooting support for startups, shutdowns, unit upsets, furnace trips, feed changes, decokes, emergency events, and capacity constraints.

Provide recommendations for severity management, feed allocation, decoke timing, coil operation, operating limits, reliability risks, and production optimization.

Develop operator training materials, technical guidance, and lessons learned to strengthen furnace operating capability.

Partner with Operations, Production Engineering, Process Control, and Reliability to convert data into practical operating decisions.

Capital Project Development & Execution

Identify furnace improvement opportunities and develop business cases that integrate safety, reliability, yield, energy, emissions, and production value.

Support FEL development, design basis definition, technology selection, scope development, project reviews, commissioning, and startup.

Typical project areas include furnace replacements, revamps, coil upgrades, burner upgrades, safety system improvements, emissions reduction, heat recovery, and decoke system improvements.

Provide technical governance for furnace-related capital strategy, including multi-year portfolio planning and value realization.

Environmental & Sustainability Leadership

Support reduction of fuel consumption, CO2 intensity, NOx emissions, flaring, and other furnace-related environmental impacts.

Evaluate furnace operating strategies and capital options that improve energy efficiency and sustainability performance.

Support environmental compliance, permit-related technical input, and future decarbonization technology evaluation where applicable.

Skills and Knowledge Required

Educational Background and Work Experience

Education

Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering required or strongly preferred.

Mechanical Engineering or related engineering degree may be considered with significant fired-equipment, olefins, or petrochemical furnace experience.

Experience

Minimum 4 years of petrochemical, refining, fired-equipment, or process engineering experience.

Preferred experience includes ethylene plant operation, olefins technology, furnace optimization, and capital project development.

Our culture is one of honesty and integrity with an emphasis on safety, health and environmental performance. On our team, people are acknowledged for embracing new practices that help create real value for customers.