By Amanda Leon, founder of OilMoney.io. Houston-raised, came up in the Houston marketing team of Vallourec, and has run Unrth, a brand and growth studio for oil and gas and industrial companies, since 2017, with her boots on client locations in Midland and Odessa. Last reviewed October 20, 2026.
Your crew is rigged up on the pad, and the person watching how the job runs may be the same person who approves your invoice. Oxy's June 2026 posting for a Midland completions engineer puts that engineer on location as the company rep and on your invoice as the approver.
If you sell fleets, plugs, wireline, sand, chemicals, or flowback, the completion engineer decides how the well gets finished, so your work lives inside that engineer's plan. You win that engineer on the pad. A known name only helps before you get there.
If you already know the role and want a foot in the door, read how to get the meeting.
The Seat in Oxy's Midland Posting
A job posting is the plainest look you get at how an operator sets up a role. According to Oxy's Completions Engineer posting for its Midland Basin business unit (JR109398, posted June 30, 2026), the engineer:
- Covers stimulation, cleanout, and artificial lift procedures, plus well cost estimates.
- Acts as the on-site company representative for completion operations, on a rotation with a 70/30 field and office split.
- Supervises daily completions operations and logistics.
- Helps procure materials, equipment, and personnel.
- Reviews and approves invoices.
The Pad Is Where You Get Judged
A 70/30 field and office split means most of the job happens on location. That's where the engineer sees your crew. How your people rig up, and whether your trucks show up where the logistics plan said they would, says more about you than any slide deck.
Before I go out on location, I have to pop into the store for flame-retardant clothing, including a long-sleeve shirt in beige, because lighter colors won't bake you in that Midland Odessa heat. As much as people say safety first, it's great to see them practice it. A completions engineer watches your crew for the same thing: whether the safety talk shows up in what they wear and how they rig up.
The Engineer Has a Hand in Buying
Helping procure materials, equipment, and personnel puts the engineer in the buying conversation. The word helps also tells you they aren't the only voice in it. Supply chain has its own side, covered in getting known by supply chain, and selling to a whole buying committee shows how the seats fit together.
Your Invoice Lands on Their Desk
The person who supervised the job also reads the bill. An invoice that matches the work backs up a good day on the pad. A messy one hands extra work to the person you most need on your side.
The Company Rep Seat
Here the completions engineer is also the company representative on site for completion operations. If you've sold on a drilling location, you know that seat. Our page on selling to the oilfield company man covers it from the drilling side.
What a Completions Engineer Does
The Bureau of Labor Statistics splits petroleum engineering along the life of a well. Drilling engineers design ways to construct it. Completions engineers decide how to finish it so oil or gas flows up. Production engineers take over after drilling, track output, and look for ways to raise extraction.
That puts the completions engineer between a drilled hole and a producing well, which is where frac work happens. Your fleet, your plugs, your wireline unit, and your sand all show up inside decisions this engineer made about how the well gets finished. So treat every conversation like a technical review. Bring numbers they can check, and know where your product sits in their job before you say a word about your company.
Simul-Frac and the Pace of Permian Completions
About 3,600 of roughly 6,800 Permian wells completed in 2025 used simultaneous hydraulic fracturing, according to the American Petroleum Institute. Simul-frac means fracturing more than one well at the same time, and in 2025 it covered more than half the wells completed in the basin. API also puts the Permian frac spread count at an average of about 100 crews in 2025, 3% above the 2024 average.
For a frac vendor, that's a question of pace. When more than one well is being fractured at once, your piece of the job is tied to more of the schedule. Be ready to show the engineer how your crew keeps up and what you do when something breaks. Plan as if your buyer's next pad could be simul-frac too.
Where Permian Frac Water Came From
UT Austin's Bureau of Economic Geology puts Permian hydraulic fracturing water demand at 7.9 million barrels a day in 2025, and says about 70% of Permian frac water came from produced water that year. Permian produced water ran about 21 million barrels a day in 2025, so even if all frac demand were met with produced water, about 13.2 million barrels a day would remain.
If water is your line, read what the water manager's team decides.
What a Profile Can't Do on a Frac Job
A completion engineer is judged on how the job runs. So the vendor who wins is the one whose crew performs on the pad. In Oxy's setup, the engineer also approves the invoices, which means the job and the ticket decide it. No post replaces either one.
A profile does a smaller job: it helps the engineer know your name before a field trial. If they look you up, they should find a rep who talks about rig-ups, pace, and clean tickets in plain English. Then your crew gets its chance to do the convincing. The Warm Walk-In™ keeps that name working while you stay on the pad: posts in your voice, built from what you already know, with your yes on each one.
More for frac and completions reps lives on the frac and completions sales page and in the Permian frac and completions sales guide.
Talking Shop in His Own Voice
A Permian founder we work with posts about his own work, in his own voice, and approves every post. Of his followers, 61% work in oil and gas, and the most common job title among them is drilling engineer. Read the full story.
Get Your Bison Walk-Around
An engineer may look you up before the field trial. See what he'd find first.
Send us your LinkedIn. We'll send back the Bison Walk-Around: five minutes of plain English on what's costing you callbacks and what we'd build. No call. No invoice. We give first.
Sources and As-Of Dates
- Oxy careers: Eng Completions, Midland, Texas (JR109398). Posted June 30, 2026; viewed October 18, 2026. The duties, the on-site company representative role, the 70/30 split, procurement, and invoice approval.
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Petroleum Engineers. Last modified August 27, 2026. What drilling, completions, and production engineers do.
- More than half of Permian wells were completed simultaneously last year (API). 2025 full-year data; page publication date not stated. The 2025 simul-frac well counts and the 2025 Permian frac spread average.
- Managing Produced Water in the Texas Permian Basin Will Remain a Long-Term Challenge (UT Bureau of Economic Geology Water Research Podcast). 2025 data; episode released July 16, 2026. 2025 Permian produced water, frac water demand, and the produced water share of frac water.
- LinkedIn analytics export for the founder's personal profile, followers and demographics sheets, Sep 15, 2025 to Oct 19, 2026, held by Unrth. Top follower job title and the share of followers in oil and gas. Details in the full proof story.
The Warm Walk-In™ is an original method created by Amanda Leon and owned by The Valours Creative Innovation LLC.