Process Safety Engineer in Houston, Texas at Fervo Energy Company

Geothermal today is less than half a percent of the global electricity mix. This is not because the resource isn't there. It is, nearly everywhere. It's because no one has figured out how to build geothermal power plants cheaply and repeatedly enough to compete. Fervo is changing that. We have built the world's first commercial-scale enhanced geothermal system, and we will never build a first-of-a-kind project again. Everything from here is a product, not a project. The opportunity now is aggressive deployment to keep up with explosive demand to make geothermal an essential part of the global energy mix instead of a niche one.

Safety at Fervo is is a first-principles engineering challenge. We maintain world class process safety standards through the same continuous improvement mindset we apply to cost and schedule. We want a process safety engineer who understands that the best safety outcomes come from deeply understanding the design, not from adding layers of protection on top of a system nobody fully owns. If you want to build the safety foundation for a geothermal fleet and have your work matter at scale, this is the role.

As Process Safety Engineer on the Integration team, you own the process safety engineering scope across Fervo's ORC facility portfolio. That means hazard identification, consequence analysis, SIS design and validation, relief and blowdown system design, and the safety documentation that ties the plant together, from HAZOP through SIL assessment through startup. You sit on the integration team, which means you see across every engineering scope and are positioned to catch the risks that live at the boundaries between systems. You report to the Integration Lead.

Responsibilities

Own Process Safety Across the Plant

• Lead and own HAZOP, LOPA, and SIL assessment processes across the powerblock.
• Own relief system design and validation of PSVs, rupture disks, flare and vent systems. Understand the full consequence basis, not just the set pressure.
• Own the safety instrumented system (SIS) design and validation for the plant, including SIL verification, logic solver specification, and functional safety documentation in accordance with IEC 61511.
• Question every inherited safety requirement. Trace every protection layer to its consequence basis. If it can't be justified by a credible hazard scenario, it should not be in the design.

Own the Integration Interface

• Sit at the intersection of all engineering scopes and catch the process safety risks that live at system boundaries — between the ORC and utilities, between the turbine package and site infrastructure, between plant control and safety systems.
• Define and maintain the safety-critical interface register for the plant. Every boundary between scopes that has a safety implication should be documented, owned, and tracked.
• Own safety documentation — cause and effect matrices, functional descriptions, safety requirements specifications — and ensure they are updated as the design evolves, not treated as one-time deliverables.
• Work closely with the controls team on the SIS/DCS interface. Safety logic and process control logic are separate systems with a well-defined boundary. Own your side of it.

Build the Standard

• Standardize the process safety design basis, HAZOP methodology, and SIS architecture across all power plants. Every plant Fervo builds should benefit from the risk analysis done on the last one.
• Drive safety engineering into the design process early, not late. The cheapest protection layer is the one that gets designed out of the hazard scenario before the P&ID is issued for construction.
• Close the feedback loop between safety design and field operations aggressively. Incidents and near-misses are data. Apply them forward.

Qualifications

Required

• B.S. or M.S. in Chemical, Mechanical, or Process Engineering or related discipline.
• 7+ years of process safety engineering experience with direct ownership of HAZOP facilitation, LOPA, SIL assessment, and relief system design for power generation or industrial facilities.
• Hands-on experience with IEC 61511 functional safety lifecycle, SIS design, and SIL verification. Strong understanding of consequence modeling, relief system design, and pressure protection philosophy.
• Able to translate technical complexity into clear, fast decisions for cross-functional partners and project leadership.

Preferred

• Background building something that had to scale, where the safety standard you set mattered beyond the project in front of you.
• Experience with ORC, geothermal, or similar power generation process systems.
• Certified Functional Safety Expert (CFSE) or equivalent.
• Track record driving process safety standardization across multiple facilities or project phases.

Location

Fervo Energy is headquartered in Houston, TX with growing offices in Oakland, CA, Golden, CO, Reno, NV, and Salt Lake City, UT. This position will be eligible for some hybrid work flexibility, but regular in-office presence at Fervo's Houston office will be required. Some travel is required for this position.