Production Manager

We are a privately held, growth-oriented oil and gas producer with a focused operated position in the Montney formation across northwest Alberta. Our lean, high-performance team is built around a culture of technical excellence, operational efficiency, and long-term value creation. We offer the opportunity to make a genuine impact without the bureaucracy of a major, with the financial strength to execute on an ambitious development program.
HWN Energy, Ltd is currently seeking to fill the following position:
Job Title: Production Manager
Location: Calgary
Reports to: VP, Production
Reporting to the VP, Production, the Production Manager is accountable for managing HWN's northern assets and leading production optimization across our Montney and Dunvegan focused areas. Working with engineering, geology, drilling and completions, joint venture, field operations and other teams, you will identify, implement and monitor value-enhancing projects, including new development, workovers, recompletions, optimizations and reactivations. This leadership role owns production performance, forecasting and cost efficiency for the area, mentors junior members of the Production team, and maintains a strong, respected presence with the field.
Responsibilities of this role include, but are not limited to:
Production Performance & Optimization
Continually review and track production, identifying areas in need of correction or improvement.
Lead the optimization budget, working to identify, evaluate, scope and execute prioritized opportunities.
Proactively address production and downtime issues, delivering solutions to offset decline and increase runtime.
Deliver the weekly production forecast focused on downtime recovery and new well performance
Set deliverables for well reviews;
while attending, facilitating and capturing actions of those reviews.
Capital Growth Planning and New Well Delivery
Set direction for the Development Foreman on new well production strategies to maximize cashflow.
Ensure new wells are optimized within 30 days of startup, with limited back-out to base production.
Work with the facilities, operations and development teams to design facilities and gathering systems to meet type curves. Recognize production capacity restraints while taking steps to proactively reduce downtime.
Ensure well startup plans are delivered and communicated to the appropriate stakeholders.
Support casing and tubing design on new wells for full life cycle production
Provide feedback on directional planning and flowback testing, working closely with the D&C team
Provide feedback on new well forecasts, GOR and water cut ranges, working with the Development Lead
Asset Management & Value Creation
Define the best form of artificial lift for new development over the full life cycle of the well.
Identify and build relationships with other producers to learn best practices and facilitate third-party processing strategies. Lead the company’s participation on the Montney Producers Group.
Support and assist acquisition evaluations are required while leading due diligence of new assets
Forecasting, Marketing & Business Processes
Work closely with marketing to ensure maximum value and capacity for corporate production.
Assist in the management of budgeting, accruals, nominations and production tracking.
Review and work with marketing agreements, service contracts and transportation commitments.
Proactively identify opportunities to improve internal processes for managing large or complex data sets.
Data, Analytics & AI-Enabled Efficiency
Build production and downtime analytics that quickly surface underperforming wells, recurring downtime causes and recovery opportunities.
Use Claude and other AI tools to review large production, well test and operational datasets, turning findings into prioritized actions.
Develop and maintain dashboards that support consistent well reviews for the engineering and field teams.
Champion the use of AI across the Production team, building practical workflows and coaching the team to take efficiency to the next level.
Leadership, HS&E & Stakeholder Engagement
Proactively ensure all internal HS&E policies and processes are understood by the engineering team
Ensure documentation around D83 and D60 and all other AER directives are adhered to.
Working with the Development Foreman, ensure documentation around SIMOPs, handovers, start ups, etc are completed and understood.
Mentor junior members of the Production team, including EITs and Technologists.
Regularly visit the field to establish strong rapport and a mutual respect with the field team.
Attend development, operations and management meetings, and any other stakeholder meetings as required.
Required Skills and Experience:
Bachelor's degree in Petroleum, Chemical, or Mechanical Engineering (or equivalent).
Professional Engineer (P.Eng.) registration with APEGA, or eligibility for registration.
10+ years of progressive production or exploitation engineering experience in Western Canada, including experience leading an area and/or mentoring a team.
Demonstrated production optimization experience in liquids-rich Montney, or other high pressure flowing type wells including sour gas, Duvernay, Charlie Lake, or equivalent tight gas/condensate assets.
Strong working knowledge of artificial lift selection and design for multi-stage horizontal wells (e.G., gas lift, plunger lift, rod pump, ESP).
Proven track record delivering new well startups, workovers, recompletions, and reactivations that add value.
Experience with production forecasting, budgeting, accruals, and nominations, working closely with production accounting and marketing.
Working knowledge of gathering system and facility design inputs, and of third-party processing and transportation arrangements.
Proficient with production data, forecasting and economics tools (e.G., Whitson, ValNav, Rodstar, geoSCOUT, Power BI, or equivalent) and MS Office.
Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to build trust with field teams, partners, and executive management.
Preferred:
Direct Montney, Duvernay, or Charlie Lake experience in northwest Alberta
Experience working with joint venture partners on operated assets.
Experience building or improving data workflows and reporting for large production data sets.
Hands-on experience applying AI tools (e.G., Claude) to data analysis, reporting or workflow automation.
Previous experience with a private or intermediate-sized operator with a lean team structure.
Why HWN?
Competitive base salary commensurate with experience, plus eligibility for the Company Short-Term Incentive Plan (STIP) based on individual and corporate performance.
Comprehensive benefits effective from day one, including life, LTD, AD&D, medical and dental insurance, plus Health Spending and Lifestyle Spending Accounts.
RRSP program with Company matching.
Long Term Incentive Program (LTIP)
Paid Vacation with flex days.
Location:
Calgary, Alberta — Corporate office based in Calgary with regular field visits to the Montney and Dunvegan operating areas. Hybrid work arrangements are supported.
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