Staff Innovation Engineer, Operational Innovation

About this opportunity:

Reporting to the Senior Manager, Operational Innovation, the Staff Innovation Engineer is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and executing high-impact innovation opportunities across Cenovus producing assets.

This role operates at the interface of facilities, reservoir, and field operations - translating complex technical challenges into structured innovation scopes, and derisking activities. These can include engineering studies, laboratory testing programs, and field pilots. The successful candidate supports a portfolio of innovation initiatives, driving concepts from early-stage screening through pilot execution and scale-up recommendations that have a line of sight to commercial scale value propositions.

The position requires deep technical expertise, disciplined project execution, and the ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and external partners. Success is defined by delivering defensible technical insights, de-risking emerging technologies, and enabling scalable solutions that integrate into asset development plans.

Travel to operating sites and vendor or technology partner locations will be required to support meetings and field trial execution activities.

What you’ll do:

• Define complex production and facilities challenges and translate them into actionable innovation scopes and work plans

• Evaluate and advance new technologies through stage-gated processes, including screening, lab validation, and field pilots

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and external partners to align project goals and execution

• Design and lead field pilots end-to-end, including trial design, KPIs, monitoring, testing, and risk management

• Analyze lab and field data to generate insights and link results to commercial applications

• Manage external vendors, including scope, performance, and contract considerations

• Develop feasibility assessments, technical reports, and scale-up/deployment strategies aligned with business needs

• Oversee project planning and controls, including schedules, cost forecasting, stakeholder reporting, and ongoing communication

Who you are:

Our ideal candidate will have the following minimum requirements:

• Must be legally entitled to work in Canada

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering with Professional Engineering designation (P. Eng).

• Minimum of 12+ years of professional engineering experience required including experience with thermal (SAGD) operations and facilities.

• Strong process engineering expertise, including facilities and production systems, with practical experience executing field pilots or trials.  Candidates with production chemistry, water treatment and gas handling strongly desired.

• Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent projects end-to-end, including planning, execution, tracking, scheduling, and cost forecasting

• Experience working with novel technologies and external partners (vendors, labs, research/funding organizations)

• Solid understanding of experimental design, data analysis, and scale-up considerations; familiarity with AI tools for operational and strategic applications

• Experience using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a functional tool day to day as well as in larger strategic application within the projects themselves is highly desirable.

We acknowledge the value of transferable skills and may consider equivalent combinations of experience and education should you not meet a specific requirement.

Note: The application deadline for this position is 11:59 PM MT July 15th, 2026.  

Cenovus was ranked one of Canada’s Best Employers in 2025. We’re committed to being an employer of choice in our industry by offering a competitive total rewards package and employee programs and rewarding career development opportunities. Learn more.  

If you require accessibility assistance to complete the on-line application or otherwise apply for an open position with Cenovus, its subsidiaries and affiliates, please email [email protected].

Who we are:

Ranked as one of Canada’s Best Employers in 2025, Cenovus is an integrated energy company headquartered in Calgary. We’re committed to maximizing value by developing our assets in a safe, responsible and cost-efficient manner. We operate in Canada, the United States and the Asia Pacific region. Our operations include oil sands projects in northern Alberta, thermal and conventional crude oil and natural gas projects across Western Canada, crude oil production offshore Newfoundland and Labrador and natural gas and liquids production offshore China and Indonesia. Cenovus’s downstream operations include upgrading, refining and marketing operations in Canada and the United States.

Find Cenovus on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. 

The Cenovus experience

Total rewards

We’re committed to being an employer of choice through competitive compensation and our comprehensive total rewards package, including:

• Paid vacation (including a flex day program for eligible staff)

• Health & dental benefits

• Substantial mental health coverage

• Life insurance

• Disability benefits

• Employee family assistance

• Virtual healthcare coverage

Our development philosophy

We foster a culture of continuous learning and development to support employees as they build meaningful careers. We offer a variety of employee development initiatives, including:

• Internal course offerings

• Education assistance for additional development

• Opportunities to work on special projects

• Leadership development programs for emerging and established leaders

We actively promote internal job movement, recognizing the value of gaining new perspectives, building connections across teams, and applying expertise in new ways. As a fully integrated energy company, we believe that sharing knowledge across our business and operations creates stronger outcomes—for employees and for the company as a whole.

Our culture

• Our purpose: We energize the world to make people’s lives better.

• Our values:

  • Protect what matters

  • Do it right

  • Make it better

  • Do it together

• Cenovus Cares: We believe in the power of purpose-driven work. Our Employee Giving and Volunteering Program, Cenovus Cares, connects our people to our purpose, inspiring action and elevating impact year-round.

  • Support causes you care about with volunteer opportunities in and outside of work.

  • Earn donation grants while volunteering (up to $1,000 per event).

  • Receive donation matching up to $25,000 annually.

• Staff resource groups: We have various staff resource groups to help ensure our people feel a sense of belonging and can grow and do their best work. These voluntary groups are employee-led and all groups are open to all staff in all locations.

Equal opportunity employer

We believe a workplace where everyone has merit-based opportunities to grow, achieve career aspirations and feel a sense of belonging benefits our people, our company and the regions where we live and work. We embrace and encourage different perspectives and approaches, which help us make better business decisions. We believe that through this approach, we can solve challenges, seize opportunities and unlock innovative solutions.

To achieve an unbiased and respectful workplace, individuals are evaluated based on qualifications, merit and abilities, and we encourage applications from all qualified candidates. We also acknowledge the value of transferrable skills and may consider equivalent combinations of experience and education should you not meet a specific requirement.

For more information about working at Cenovus, visit cenovus.com.

The requirements of this posting may be modified to support business needs. Title and compensation administration will be based on the skills and capabilities of the successful incumbent.

Interested in this opportunity? Click the Apply link.

If you are a CURRENT EMPLOYEE, please apply by going to our Internal Career Site.