Chief of Staff, Operations

About Fervo Energy
Fervo Energy (NASDAQ: FRVO) is a modern power company developing next-generation geothermal resources to meet the growing demand for affordable, reliable, 24/7 carbon-free energy. Our mission is to transform geothermal into America’s most dependable and affordable source of clean, around-the-clock power. By combining innovations in horizontal drilling, fiber-optic sensing, and advanced reservoir engineering, Fervo has developed a repeatable approach to building utility-scale enhanced geothermal systems. Our flagship Cape Station development in Utah is planned to deliver 500 MW of firm, carbon-free power, and we are advancing a development pipeline of more than 50 GW. Join us and work alongside world-class engineers, geoscientists, operators, project builders, and business leaders working to make geothermal a cornerstone of a more reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy future.
Position Description
The Chief of Staff to the VP of Operations will serve as a direct extension of the VP across Fervo’s Operations organization — spanning Operations Engineering, O&M, Production Engineering, and Commissioning — with accountability for keeping the full portfolio aligned, moving, and decision-ready. You will go where the leader cannot, represent the leader in forums the leader cannot attend, drive workstreams requiring senior coverage, and engage with full authority and accountability to make decisions on the leader’s behalf. This role reports directly to the VP of Operations.
Fervo is scaling an industry-defining geothermal program from Cape Station Phase I through a fleet of repeat-build plants, and the Chief of Staff to the VP of Operations owns the operational rhythm that enables a single leader to manage a program that would otherwise require three. You will track AFEs and forecast spend, reconcile change orders, prepare executive-grade deliverables, run cross-functional meetings, close action items, and stand in for the leader across engineering, commissioning, production engineering, and O&M coordination. You operate by reasoning from first principles, questioning every inherited requirement, eliminating what does not add value, simplifying what remains, accelerating where ownership permits, and building every output for repeatability across the next plant.
Responsibilities
Strategic Partnership & Extension of Leadership
Serve as a direct extension of the VP of Operations, representing the leader in forums they cannot attend and driving workstreams that require senior coverage
Engage with full authority and accountability to make decisions on the leader’s behalf, keeping the full portfolio aligned, moving, and decision-ready
Anticipate slipping workstreams and overdue deliverables before being asked, surfacing causes and solutions proactively
Cross-Functional Coordination
Interface daily with Engineering, Commissioning, Production Engineering, O&M, HSSE, Supply Chain, and Finance to keep workstreams aligned and unblocked
Coordinate with external partners — OEMs, owner’s engineers, and vendor field service personnel — on behalf of Fervo leadership
Run cross-functional meetings: set agendas, drive decisions, capture action items, and follow them through to closure
Translate between disciplines so that engineering, operations, finance, and executives are working from the same picture
Financial Tracking & Cost Engineering
Own ongoing tracking of CapEx and OpEx budgets, AFEs, and actuals across owned workstreams; build and maintain monthly spend forecasts and variance analyses
Develop and refine cost models for Cape Station and follow-on plants — CapEx, OpEx, and lifecycle — in support of investment-grade forecasting and project decision-making
Manage vendor purchase orders, invoices, and accruals against scope and progress; flag commercial risk before it becomes a dispute
Prepare executive budget summaries, AFE narratives, and variance commentary that stand up to scrutiny from the ELT, the board, and external stakeholders
Risk, Schedule, & Decision Support
Track schedule, cost, and risk metrics across owned workstreams; produce the data and analysis leadership uses to make decisions
Maintain risk registers, RAG status reports, and 2-, 4-, and 8-week look-aheads. When a metric goes red, you bring a recovery plan, not a status update
Build executive-facing PowerPoint deliverables, briefing memos, and one-page summaries — clear, dense, and decision-ready
Process Standardization & Continuous Improvement
Identify duplicated effort, redundant approvals, and friction in current workflows; eliminate the unnecessary first, then simplify what remains
Build reusable templates, trackers, and standard operating procedures so that each successive plant begins with the accumulated advantage of those that came before it
Codify what works into Fervo’s playbook for plant delivery; treat every Cape Station deliverable as reusable IP for the next site
Question every inherited requirement — trace it to its source, and if no rationale can be established, treat it as a candidate for elimination