Rotating Equipment Start-up Engineer

Purpose

• The Operation Readiness Start‑Up (ORSU) Specialist for Rotating Equipment is responsible for ensuring that all rotating machinery—such as centrifugal and reciprocating compressors, API pumps, gas turbines, diesel generators, fans, and blowers—are fully prepared, validated, and safely transitioned from construction to commissioning and start-up. The role ensures mechanical and control integrity, system readiness, and compliance with API, OEM, and asset integrity standards throughout project execution.

   

• You will work as part of the Operation Readiness Start Up team, while acting as the “Internal Client” for technical acceptance of the rotating scope during handover from Projects.

Responsibilities

• Follow-up, the mechanical completion, commissioning and start-up execution for all rotating packages, with technical ownership of compressor control systems (antisurge, load sharing, recycle logic, surge maps, trips & permissives, sequence logic, vibration protection).
• Review and validate control narratives, cause and effect, trip matrices, startup/shutdown sequences, machine protection, and dynamic tuning during first gas/first oil.
• Coordinate with ICSS, Instrumentation, Electrical, Process and Vendors to ensure smooth start up across all integrated systems - including GTGs, VRUs, Gas Compression, Seawater Injection, Chemical Injection systems and or any other rotating equipment / systems on the FPSO.
• Troubleshoot and resolve dynamic start up issues such as surge events, trip cascades, control instability, mechanical failures and vendor software inconsistencies.
• Support the Start-Up Manager in the acceptance of systems, ensuring completion checklists, test reports, punch-list closure, full execution of OTPs and readiness for hydrocarbon introduction.
• Work with Start-Up Process Engineer to capture RCAs, and ensure lessons learned,  start-up findings and vendor insights are documented and fed back into SBM management system.
• Act as the Internal Client for the rotating equipment scope, ensuring that project deliverables meet SBM Operations requirements before acceptance.
• Collaborating with internal stakeholders (SBM engineering, commissioning and package managers) and vendors.
• Ensure rotating equipment design aligns with Operations requirements throughout design, construction, commissioning and start up.
• Coordination with Operations OTA to ensure alignment operational needs and Operability to ensure the rotating lessons learn from recent starts ups is directly transferred to the future projects.
• Support validation and close-out of SBM Operations Comments Registers / Lists of Concerns concerning rotating equipment.
• Witness FATs at vendor facilities to verify equipment performance and compliance with design and contractual requirements.

Education

• BSc/MSc in Mechanical Engineering (or Control/Mechatronics with rotating focus).

Experience

• 10 years of experience with rotating equipment, of which at least 5 with direct experience with compressor commissioning & controls in O&G.
• Strong exposure to EPC(I) projects, FAT participation, and start-up of complex FPSO or gas plant systems.
• Experience interfacing with global OEMs, Category Managers and multi-disciplinary engineering teams.

Functional Competencies