Industry Solution Leader - Oil, Gas & Chemical (Refining / Chemical Asset Performance)
About this role
Professionals who thrive at the intersection of heavy industrial operations and enterprise software will find a natural home in this role. C3 AI seeks an Industry Solution Leader specializing in Refining and Chemical Asset Performance to direct the design and delivery of artificial intelligence applications for industrial clients. The team builds domain-specific SaaS enterprise AI solutions and the C3 Agentic AI Platform, enabling digital transformation across global organizations.
This person will work directly with customer engineering, operations, maintenance, and executive teams while leading cross-functional technical groups. Responsibilities include defining technical solution strategies, identifying high-value operational opportunities, translating complex engineering challenges into machine learning applications, and guiding engagements from initial problem definition through production scale. The role exists to bridge the gap between heavy industrial processes and modern software capabilities, ensuring analytical models align with physical engineering realities. Strong candidates bring substantial hands-on experience inside continuous-process facilities and a proven track record of managing complex, customer-facing technical deployments.
What you will do
- Own the overall solution strategy, technical direction, and delivery outcomes for assigned customer engagements from initial problem definition through production scale.
- Serve as the primary customer-facing domain expert to develop a detailed understanding of operations, equipment, processes, and business objectives.
- Identify and quantify high-impact business opportunities across equipment reliability, maintenance, production performance, and energy efficiency.
- Translate complex engineering and operational challenges into tractable AI, machine learning, optimization, and software problems with clearly defined requirements.
- Lead cross-functional teams of Forward Deployed Engineers, data scientists, product managers, and industry experts to establish technical priorities.
- Work directly with customer engineers, operators, and executives to validate solution performance, operational workflows, and business impact.
- Partner with product management and engineering teams to identify reusable capabilities and scale successful solutions across facilities.
- Support sales teams during opportunity assessment by defining customer problems, solution approaches, business value, and deployment strategies.
What you need
- Hold a bachelor's degree in engineering or a related technical discipline, with preferred backgrounds in chemical, mechanical, electrical, or industrial engineering.
- Bring at least seven years of experience in engineering, manufacturing, operations, reliability, maintenance, industrial technology, or technically focused consulting.
- Possess deep experience in asset-intensive industries such as oil and gas, chemicals, petrochemicals, or heavy manufacturing.
- Demonstrate experience solving complex operational problems and improving equipment reliability, throughput, yield, quality, or operating economics.
- Demonstrate an ability to reason from engineering fundamentals and determine whether analytical and AI-driven recommendations are physically and operationally credible.
- Show documented experience leading complex, customer-facing technical engagements and working directly with operational and executive stakeholders.
Nice to have
- Experience delivering AI, machine learning, advanced analytics, optimization, predictive maintenance, condition monitoring, process optimization, or industrial digital transformation solutions.
- Hands-on technical experience working with industrial data, SQL, Python, analytics tools, application configuration, scripting, or similar technologies.
- Experience with rotating equipment, electrical equipment, production equipment, manufacturing lines, process units, or other complex industrial systems.
- Experience taking technical solutions from initial proof of value through production deployment and scale.
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the travel requirement for this role?
The position requires the ability to travel to customer locations as required.
What is the salary range for this position?
The salary range for this role is $130,000 to $203,000 USD.
What kind of industry background is required?
Candidates need significant hands-on experience working inside a refinery, chemical plant, or similar continuous-process facility with ownership of throughput, yield, energy, process control, or reliability outcomes.
Who will this person manage or work with?
The role involves leading cross-functional teams of Forward Deployed Engineers, data scientists, product managers, engineers, and industry experts while working directly with customer engineering, operations, maintenance, and executive teams.