Lead Development Engineer

Role Purpose

The Lead Development Engineer provides quality development support across the full asset lifecyclefrom design through execution and into operations.

This role ensures that all disciplinary deliverables drives safe, efficient, and technically sound outcomes across both capital (CAPEX) and operating (OPEX) scopes.

The Lead Development Engineer directs contractor engineering teams, facilitates inter-discipline coordination, and supports the Engineering Manager in setting design priorities and ensuring procedural compliance with the Project Execution Plan and subsidiary documents.

The Lead Development Engineer also contributes to the advancement of Mubadala Energys growth portfolio by providing engineering input, supporting appraisals, and transitioning into front-end development roles following exploration success. The position requires effective engagement with internal and external stakeholders to ensure the successful maturation of both project and operational opportunities.

In addition to major projects, the position supports brownfield modifications and OPEX-driven initiatives on existing operating facilities. This includes troubleshooting, debottlenecking, and optimizing performance to maintain asset integrity and production reliability.

This role also supports the process team in design development, ensuring that process engineering work complies and integrates with design engineering requirements in accordance with Company requirements.

Based in the Kuala Lumpur office, with travel as necessary to project design offices, fabrication yards, manufacturing facilities, offshore locations, and other Mubadala Energy offices as required to support project execution and operational needs.

Key Accountabilities

Health, Safety, & Environment

• Ensure contractor compliance with the HSE aspects of project engineering procedures
• Demonstrate exemplary commitment to MPs HSE goals and culture.
• Participates in process safety integration by ensuring that HAZOP, HAZID, LOPA, and other safety studies are conducted, and their outcomes are reflected in the project design
• Incorporates both environmental and operational risks mitigations and ensure process designs meet corporate and regulatory standards.

Function

• Lead the development, assurance, and delivery of all front-end engineering design work for both capital and brownfield (OPEX) projects, ensuring full alignment with the approved Basis of Design (BOD), project specifications, and Mubadala Energys engineering standards.
• Provide direct technical oversight to contractor lead engineers to ensure that multi-disciplinary deliverables are high-quality, consistent, and compliant with technical requirements.
• Ensure that all contractor systems and deliverables adhere to Mubadala Energys engineering procedures, applicable design codes, and project execution plans.
• Lead vendor documentation reviews and attend factory acceptance tests (FATs), pre-commissioning field tests, and other inspections as required.
• Provide technical support to operating upstream gas facilities and brownfield modifications, including troubleshooting, performance improvement, and debottlenecking.
• Provide technical support and participate in site visits, vendor inspections, fabrication yard visits, and offshore trips as required to ensure technical assurance and field readiness
• Actively manage technical interfaces with internal and external stakeholders, ensuring timely integration of cross-functional inputs into project design.
• Identify and raise variation requests for scope deviations, including preparation of man-hour estimates, deliverables list, and supporting documentation for new work orders.

• Ensure that all designs comply with relevant Malaysian regulatory requirements, international engineering codes (e.g. ASME, API), and Mubadala Energys internal governance standards.

• Supports the integration of process design with other engineering disciplines (e.g. mechanical, instrumentation, layout, safety) to ensure coordinated, efficient, and operable designs.

• Provides support to process team for process engineering deliverables such as:
• Process and Utility Flow Diagrams (PFDs, UFDs)
• Material & Energy Balances
• Process Design Basis and Control/Safeguarding Philosophies
• Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs)
• Supports the review of design calculations and simulations for equipment sizing, hydraulics, and process control.
• Provide regular progress and status reporting of development planning activities to the Engineering Manager, highlighting risks, scope changes, and mitigation plans.

Project Engineering

Leads cross discipline engineering contribution to project planning and definition, including early-stage design scoping, technical assurance planning, and input into contracting strategies and execution models.

Provides cross-discipline interface management for subsurface, reservoir and process engineering, ensuring seamless integration with mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, installation, and operations engineering during project execution.

Ensure that contractor deliverables for the cross-functional disciplines are aligned with project schedules, commercial terms, and technical expectations as outlined in the contract and execution plan.

Provide strategic input into project documents such as the Basis of Design, Project Execution Plan (PEP), and deliverables registers to ensure accuracy and technical consistency.

Represent the front-end engineering for internal and external project reviews, decision gate meetings, and technical assurance sessions.

Liaise with commissioning, offshore, and operations teams to resolve process-related issues and support a smooth transition from engineering to execution and operations during start-up and handover.

Ensure that process engineering deliverables enable project progression through Mubadala Energys Stage Gate Process, from Appraise through Define, Execute, and Operate stages.

Contribute to the setting and monitoring of engineering performance targets related to cost, schedule, and quality, and ensure appropriate corrective actions are taken when deviations arise.

Ensure that all project-level engineering activities comply with Malaysian legislative requirements and Mubadala Energys internal project governance and assurance standards.

Engage with key stakeholders including Operations, HSE, Asset Teams, PETRONAS MPM, JV partners, and other regulatory bodies to support engineering alignment and secure required approvals.

General

Support the Engineering Manager in delivering the ME stage gate process deliverables

Support the Engineering Manager in enhancing relationships with counterparts within PETRONAS MPM, JV partners, contractor organisation, vendors etc to ensure smooth and efficient functional approvals.

Support the Engineering Manager to secure consensus and agreement with PETRONAS MPM functional representatives.

Knowledge, Skills, Experience

Qualifications

• A degree in Chemical or Process Engineering. Professional Engineer registered with Board of Engineers Malaysia is preferred.

Experience

• Minimum 18 years of development/project experience with a significant period in a similar role.
• Experienced in dealing with Regulators (MPM) and local engineering and fabrication contractors

Skills

• Front-end process design and engineering, facilities operations, good communication skills, analytical skills, good interpersonal skills
• Developed skills in stakeholder and relationship management, influencing and negotiation
• Developed a commercial, value creation and value protection mind-set, with a drive for cross-functional integration and risk management
• Preferably with upstream gas development roles with front end development experience