Technical Director, Geology

We are seeking an outstanding geologist to join Ad Terra asTechnical Director, Geology — a global role created to give the Group a single, authoritative geological voice across its own portfolio of energy transition assets and across its consulting mandates worldwide.

Reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer, the role carries three mandates. The first is technical ownership of the Group’s geological work — play and prospect evaluation, structural and basin analysis, petroleum, helium and hydrogen system analysis, reservoir geology, static modelling, and volumetric and risk assessment — across geothermal, helium, natural hydrogen, lithium, and oil and gas assets. The second is the quality of geological interpretation Group-wide: the methodologies, workflows, and review standards applied by subsurface teams in Geneva, Kuala Lumpur, and our other offices. The third is scientific output: ensuring that the geological understanding built inside Ad Terra reaches the peer-reviewed literature and the international conference circuit.

This is a geology-led role, working hand in hand with the Group’s Technical Directors for Geophysics and Petrophysics and with our reservoir engineering team. Those disciplines own their own interpretations; what we need here is the fluency to work with their products critically — to turn a seismic volume, an inversion result, or a suite of processed logs into a defensible geological story, to understand what the imaging and the logs can and cannot resolve, and to challenge a specialist interpretation constructively without attempting to redo it.

This is a role for a geoscientist who has moved from deep technical practice into technical leadership without losing hands-on credibility — someone whose interpretations are trusted because they have been tested against the drill bit. The Technical Director, Geology owns the geological scope with full accountability while working inside a wider technical leadership group: the Technical Directors of the other subsurface disciplines; the Managing Director, Resources & Technical Assurance, who owns resources and reserves governance and project-level quality assurance; and the Group’s Managing Directors and project teams.

Responsibilities

Geological Evaluation & Exploration Leadership

Lead the geological evaluation of Ad Terra’s exploration and development portfolio, from regional screening and play-based exploration through prospect definition, well proposals, and post-drill review. Own the conceptual, structural, and reservoir models underpinning geothermal, helium, natural hydrogen, lithium brine, and oil and gas projects. Apply geological risk and uncertainty methodologies consistently — chance of success, probabilistic volumetrics, and scenario-based modelling — within the resources frameworks owned by the Managing Director, Resources & Technical Assurance. Lead post-well and post-project learning so that every result, positive or negative, feeds back into the Group’s geological models.

Integrated Interpretation and Static Modelling

Act as the senior integrator of geophysical, petrophysical, geological, and geochemical data into a single coherent subsurface description. Frame the geological questions that acquisition, processing, and logging programmes must answer, then interrogate the interpretations delivered by the geophysics and petrophysics teams rather than simply accept them — testing their geological plausibility and being explicit about resolution, ambiguity, and the alternatives the data will also support. Own the static models and the workflows that build them: structural frameworks, facies and property models, upscaling, and volumetric realisations, with the assumptions behind each documented. Work alongside reservoir engineers so that geomodels are built to be used — carrying every relevant dataset with its uncertainty intact, supporting history matching and model updates, and passing real geological uncertainty into dynamic simulation, resource estimation, and project economics rather than a single deterministic case. Chair the reviews at which the subsurface disciplines and reservoir engineering agree a shared model before it is used for well planning, resource booking, or investment decisions.

Technical Peer Review and Deliverable Quality

Own technical peer review within the geological discipline: review geological deliverables, define review standards, interpretation methodologies, software workflows, and data management practices, and act as the technical arbiter where geological interpretations are contested. Feed into the Group’s wider assurance process rather than duplicate it — providing geological review capacity to the Managing Director, Resources & Technical Assurance, who owns project-level quality assurance, and keeping standards, terminology, and data conventions aligned with the other Technical Directors. Set the standard for the discipline’s own output: models, interpretations, reports, presentations, and proposals produced on current templates and in line with the Group’s communication guidelines.

Scoping, Portfolio Development and Project Maturation

Support the Managing Directors in scoping geological work — scopes of work, deliverables, durations, and resourcing — so that what is committed is technically sound and deliverable within budget and schedule. Support the maturation of Ad Terra’s own assets and of client projects through licence round evaluations, farm-in and acquisition screening, technical due diligence, drilling location selection, and appraisal strategy. Provide the geological inputs and evidence base required for resource estimation, permitting, partner approvals, project financing, and investment committee decisions.

Technology and Innovation

Track new technologies, datasets, and methods relevant to geothermal, helium, natural hydrogen, and lithium exploration; test promising solutions on live projects and be equally clear about what does not work. Design and document new interpretation and modelling workflows, contribute to R&D projects and funded research consortia, and own the technical case for the subsurface software and data platforms the geological community uses.

Artificial Intelligence

Identify and coordinate AI initiatives within the geological discipline, in support of the Group’s wider AI and digital programme. Provide the technical authority for geological data structuring, machine-learning-assisted interpretation, and assisted subsurface workflows — defining where these methods add genuine value, where they do not, and what validation is required before an AI-derived result enters a deliverable.

Publications and Conferences

Build Ad Terra’s geological scientific output. Identify where the Group’s project work — particularly in helium, natural hydrogen, geothermal, and lithium systems, where the science is still being written — carries genuine novelty, and convert it into peer-reviewed publications, conference papers, and technical presentations. Set an annual publication and conference plan, secure the internal review, confidentiality clearance, and client consent that publishing requires, and personally author work at the standard leading journals expect. Represent Ad Terra at international conferences, develop collaborations with universities and research institutes, and contribute regularly to the Group’s external technical profile.

Training, Mentoring and Knowledge Sharing

Build the technical development ladder for the Group’s geologists: identify skills gaps across offices, implement cost-effective training and mentoring, and develop and deliver course material. Share lessons learnt systematically through lunch-and-learn sessions, post-well reviews, and technical notes, and foster exchange between Geneva, Kuala Lumpur, and our other offices. Coach the Group’s geoscientists to write, submit, and present, treating publication as a core professional skill rather than a side activity.

Growth and Commercial Contribution

Identify new clients, projects, and technical solutions, and support business development and investment origination where geological credibility is a differentiator. Contribute to proposals, technical scoping, client presentations, and investment materials requiring senior geological expertise, and represent Ad Terra in technical discussions with clients, partners, national oil companies, and regulators. Support the staffing and onboarding of new geological talent, employees and contractors alike.

Delivery, Reporting and Conduct

This is a delivery role as much as a leadership one: the large majority of the Technical Director’s time is spent on client projects, Group assets, commercial work, and AI initiatives, with a substantial share of it chargeable to projects. Report quarterly to management on discipline performance, resourcing, technical risk, and initiatives. Facilitate collaboration across disciplines, run meetings that produce actionable outcomes, and maintain transparency and professionalism in every client, partner, regulator, and investor engagement.

Profile

We are looking for a geologist of unambiguous technical depth — someone whose interpretations withstand scrutiny, whose name is known in the technical community, and whose judgement is trusted immediately by clients, partners, and senior technical peers.

• Advanced degree in geology, structural geology, sedimentology, basin analysis, or a closely related earth science discipline. A PhD, or an equivalent record of published research, is strongly valued.
• 15+ years of experience as a practising geologist within an E&P company, a geothermal or minerals developer, a research institution, or a technical consultancy, including time leading multidisciplinary subsurface teams or workstreams.
• Deep command of structural geology and tectonics, sedimentology and stratigraphy, basin analysis and play-based exploration, petroleum and gas system analysis, reservoir geology, static modelling and upscaling, and probabilistic volumetrics and risk assessment.
• The ability to work critically with geophysical and petrophysical interpretations — reading seismic, potential-field, and log data, understanding their resolution and limitations, and challenging specialist interpretations constructively. These disciplines have their own Technical Directors; depth in signal processing, acquisition physics, or log processing is not required.
• Static modelling experience delivered alongside reservoir engineers — geomodels integrating seismic, petrophysical, core, and dynamic data, with defensible upscaling and uncertainty treatment, and a clean handover into simulation and resource estimation.
• Proven track record in at least one — and ideally several — of Ad Terra’s core sectors: geothermal, helium, natural hydrogen, lithium, or oil and gas, with the ability to transfer geological reasoning credibly between conventional and emerging plays.
• A visible record of scientific publication in peer-reviewed journals and at international conferences (AAPG, EAGE, EGU, GRC, Stanford Geothermal Workshop, Goldschmidt, or equivalent), together with the standing that comes with it.
• Experience in technical review and quality assurance: reviewing deliverables, defining methodologies, and maintaining standards across a consulting or project delivery organisation.
• Fluency in industry-standard subsurface software (e.g. Petrel, Kingdom, Leapfrog, Move, Oasis montaj, or equivalents), with a working familiarity with petrophysical packages, and a clear view on data management, reproducibility, and version control.
• Strong leadership skills with experience mentoring multidisciplinary technical teams across geographies and cultures, and the commercial awareness to contribute credibly to proposals and investment discussions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to present and defend complex geological interpretations to non-technical audiences including clients, boards, regulators, and investors.
• Fluent in English; knowledge of French is a plus. Willingness to travel internationally.

Preferred

• Prior experience as a chief geologist, exploration manager, or technical director within an E&P company, an energy transition developer, a research organisation, or a consulting firm.
• Exposure to geothermal, helium, or natural hydrogen exploration, where conventional petroleum-system reasoning must be adapted to new play types.
• Experience supervising doctoral or postgraduate researchers, or an active role in academic collaborations, industry consortia, or publicly funded research programmes.
• Editorial, peer-review, or conference convening experience with a recognised technical journal or international society.
• Experience with AI-assisted or machine-learning-driven interpretation, and with digital subsurface data platforms.
• An established professional network among operators, service companies, academia, regulators, investors, and technical peers in the energy sector.

Thank you for your interest in joining our team. We look forward to reviewing your application.