Infrastructure Program Manager
Summary
Oversee oil-and-gas brownfield rehabilitation projects in Iraq, managing contractors, HSSE, schedules, budgets, and handover for live hydrocarbon assets.
Scope of Responsibilities
The portfolio is expected to include, but is not limited to:
- Degassing station facility refurbishment and tie-ins
- KPOD/NOC Infrastructure new Builds & Rehabilitation
- Electrical, instrumentation and telecoms infrastructure upgrades
- Roads, drainage, fencing, security infrastructure and site enabling works
- Demolition, decommissioning and make-safe activities associated with rehabilitation scopes
Scopes will be executed by local and international construction contractors under Kent's construction management oversight, on live and partially live operating assets.
Key Accountabilities
HSSE Leadership
- Set and visibly demonstrate the HSSE standard for the portfolio; own the safety performance of all executing contractors within the scope.
- Ensure contractor HSSE management systems are aligned to Client and Kent requirements prior to and throughout execution.
- Own the interface with operating assets for permit to work, isolation, simultaneous operations (SIMOPS) and hot work in live hydrocarbon environments.
- Drive incident reporting, investigation close-out and lessons-learned transfer across the portfolio.
Delivery, Schedule and Cost
- Own the integrated portfolio schedule; challenge and validate contractor schedules, logic, resourcing and productivity assumptions rather than accepting them at face value.
- Establish and maintain constraint registers covering engineering deliverables, long-lead materials, permits, land access and personnel mobilisation.
- Control cost against approved budgets; assess, challenge and process variations, claims and change with full traceability.
- Provide accurate, contemporaneous progress reporting — daily, weekly and monthly — against a defined reporting cadence.
Contractor and Contract Management
- Manage executing contractors against the terms of their contracts, including performance notices, recovery plan demands and formal correspondence where performance falls short.
- Chair contractor progress, HSSE, quality and interface meetings; ensure minutes, actions and decisions are recorded and tracked to closure.
- Support tendering, technical bid evaluation, contractor prequalification and award recommendations for subsequent portfolio scopes.
Engineering and Technical Interface
- Manage the interface with the engineering contractor(s) to secure timely, constructable and complete Issued for Construction deliverables.
- Drive constructability, MTO validation and material take-off versus schedule reconciliation to expose delivery risk early.
- Ensure technical queries, deviations and concessions are resolved and documented.
Quality, Completions and Handover
- Own the completions strategy across the portfolio — from ITR development through punch listing, mechanical completion, system handover and care/custody transfer.
- Ensure rehabilitation scopes are executed to applicable inspection and integrity codes and that as-built and dossier documentation is complete at handover.
- Drive walkdown discipline and tri-party certification with Client and Asset Owner.
Stakeholder, Local Content and Security
- Represent Kent in front of the Client, NOC and government/statutory stakeholders with credibility and composure.
- Manage land access, right of way, local relations and community interface requirements in conjunction with the local relations team.
- Work within an active security regime; comply fully with security protocols, movement control and journey management.
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Support development of local national personnel and drive Iraqi content commitments within the delivery model.
knowledge/skills, education, and experience:
- Bachelor's degree in Engineering or Construction Management (or a recognized trade/technical pathway backed by substantial equivalent experience and post-trade qualification).
- Minimum 10 years' oil and gas project and construction delivery experience, with at least 5 years at Project/Programme Manager or Project Manager level.
- Demonstrated delivery of brownfield rehabilitation scopes on live operating assets — this is a mandatory requirement, not a nice-to-have.
- Proven experience managing a portfolio or multiple concurrent scopes, as distinct from single-project delivery.
- Experience managing local and international construction contractors in a construction management (not EPC lump sum) delivery model.
- Strong commercial capability — variation assessment, claims defence, contract administration.
- Fluent written and spoken English, with a demonstrable standard of formal written correspondence.
- Medically fit for international rotational assignment in a remote, high-temperature, security-managed environment.
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Valid passport with sufficient validity and the ability to obtain an Iraqi work visa.
- Desirable
- Prior working experience in Iraq (Kirkuk, Basrah or Kurdistan region) or comparable MENA operating environments.
- Familiarity with NOC, KPOD or bp project delivery frameworks and assurance gates.
- Working knowledge of Arabic and/or Kurdish.
- PMP, MSP or equivalent formal project management certification.
- Experience with Primavera P6 and standard construction management reporting toolsets.
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Prior PMC / owner's representative experience.
- Behavior/ Core Competencies:
- Delivery focused — distinguishes clearly between what is complete and what is merely committed.
- Direct communicator — plain language, unambiguous instruction,
- Documentation disciplined — records decisions contemporaneously and traceably; assumes every position will be tested later.
- Culturally capable — operates effectively across national, contractor and client cultures without loss of standard.
- Resilient — sustains performance under schedule pressure, in austere conditions, and where external constraints are outside their direct control.
- Personally credible — able to hold contractors and the Client to account without escalating the relationship unnecessarily.
Working Conditions
Field-based role in Kirkuk, Iraq. Camp accommodation with managed security. Extreme summer temperatures. Movement subject to journey management and security clearance. Travel between field locations within the Kirkuk asset base is required. Rotational cycle with paid flights, accommodation, messing and medical/evacuation cover provided as per Kent international assignment terms.
Location: Kirkuk