Operations Manager

Job Type:

Regular

Plains is an industry-leading transportation and midstream provider specializing in transportation, storage, processing and marketing solutions for crude oil. We own an extensive network of pipeline transportation, terminalling, storage and gathering assets in key oil producing basins and transportation corridors and at major market hubs in the United States and Canada. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas.

We’re on the lookout for passionate self‑starters who thrive in fast‑moving, collaborative, and innovative environments.

Position Summary

The St. James Terminal Operations Manager leads safe, compliant, reliable, and commercially responsive operations across the St. James terminal complex. The role has accountability for personnel, asset integrity, operating discipline, emergency readiness, maintenance coordination, opex and capital expense planning, upholding customer relations and execution of crude-oil movements across land, marine, trucking and rail operations.

St. James is a high-complexity blending and logistics terminal that can execute multiple simultaneous movements. The asset base includes the Main Terminal, Crude Mini, Crude West, Tri-Terminal, barge dock, ship docks, methanol dock, truck LACT, and rail system.

Key Accountabilities

Leadership, Safety, and Compliance

• Lead a safety-first culture for employees, contractors, and visitors; establish clear expectations for Stop Work Authority, hazard identification, incident prevention, and operating discipline.
• Ensure terminal activities comply with company procedures, permits, applicable DOT requirements, environmental obligations, marine requirements, and rail safety standards.
• Lead incident, near-miss, spill, and operating-event investigations; ensure timely corrective actions, lessons learned, and field verification of closeout.
• Maintain terminal emergency-response readiness, including drills, equipment availability, communications, mutual-aid coordination, and response plans for impacts near waterways, highways, railroads, public areas, and environmentally sensitive locations.
• Serve as the accountable field leader during significant operational disruptions, emergency events, or complex changeovers.

Operations Management

• Direct day-to-day terminal operations, ensuring the safe execution of receipts, deliveries, transfers, blending, storage, measurement, sampling, and product segregation.
• Coordinate with the Operations Control Center (OCC), schedulers, commercial teams, maintenance, measurement, engineering, environmental, and marine stakeholders to safely execute the operating plan.
• Ensure local operators are prepared to perform field execution, lineups, equipment checks, communications, documentation, and handovers for scheduled movements.
• Manage operational priorities during simultaneous movements, tank or manifold switches, startups, shutdowns, maintenance windows, and changing schedules.
• Establish performance routines that review throughput, losses/gains, demurrage exposure, schedule performance, equipment availability, quality, and safety metrics.

Landside Assets and Responsibilities

• Provide operating and maintenance leadership for the Main Terminal, Crude Mini, Crude West, and Tri-Terminal systems, including tanks, manifolds, pumps, meters, truck LACT, and associated controls.
• Ensure tank integrity, overfill prevention, level-management controls, relief systems, shutdown devices, meters, provers, PLCs, and SCADA-related operating safeguards are maintained, tested, and managed through the appropriate inspection and maintenance programs.
• Coordinate pipeline interconnect operations and manage operating interfaces with inbound and outbound lines, including bi-directional movement capability where applicable.
• Provide operational input to support groups to continue to efficiently run preventive programs including low flow analysis, deadleg piping reviews, NDT and ILI runs.

Marine and Dock Responsibilities

• Direct safe, efficient marine operations for ship, ocean-going barge, inland-barge, crude, and methanol movements.
• Ensure each dock operation has a qualified local Person in Charge (PIC), clear transfer plan, defined communications, completed pre-transfer requirements, and alignment with Marine Scheduler dock orders.
• Manage marine operating readiness for three separate berths, including product segregation, flush requirements, tank availability, line alignment, docking interfaces, transfer equipment, measurement, sampling, and documentation.
• Coordinate berth scheduling and operational interfaces with marine schedulers, vessel representatives, inspectors, dock personnel, contractors, and OCC.
• Ensure dock inspections, hose/loading-arm integrity, containment, firefighting systems, emergency shutdowns, access controls, lighting, communications, and spill-response equipment remain fit for service.
• Lead management of waterborne-transfer risks, including simultaneous operations, product changes, vessel interfaces, weather impacts, and abnormal operating conditions.

Rail Responsibilities

• Lead safe receipt operations at the Heavy Rail Receipt Terminal, including train arrival readiness, unloading plans, track access, operator qualifications, contractor coordination, inspection requirements, and emergency response.
• Ensure safe operation and maintenance of the rail-terminal pumps, meters, prover access, heating-related equipment, loading/unloading connections, containment, and associated controls.
• Manage interfaces with rail carriers, rail service providers, inspectors, and maintenance teams; ensure switching, spotting, securement, unloading, and release activities are planned and executed safely.
• Maintain rail-specific operating procedures, training, inspection records, abnormal-condition response plans, and corrective-action tracking.
• Drive rail asset reliability and throughput while protecting product quality, personnel safety, and environmental performance.

Maintenance, Reliability, and Capital

• Partner with maintenance and reliability teams to develop and execute inspection, preventive-maintenance, corrective-maintenance, and outage plans.
• Prioritize critical work on pumps, tanks, manifolds, valves, measurement systems, PLCs, control equipment, dock equipment, rail-unloading systems, and safety-critical devices.
• Ensure work-control processes are effective, including isolation, permitting, lockout/tagout, contractor management, pre-job planning, post-maintenance testing, and return-to-service verification.
• Sponsor asset-improvement and capital projects that improve safety, integrity, capacity, operating flexibility, reliability, or commercial performance.
• Maintain disciplined management of operating and capital budgets, contractors, materials, and spares.

People and Stakeholder Leadership

• Lead, coach, develop, and hold accountable terminal supervisors, operators, and support personnel.
• Set staffing, coverage, training, qualification, succession, and competency plans for a 24/7 operating environment.
• Build productive relationships with OCC, scheduling, commercial teams, engineering, maintenance, environmental, safety, regulators, rail and marine partners, customers, and community stakeholders.
• Communicate clearly during normal operations, schedule changes, equipment constraints, incidents, and emergency events.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, operations, business, or a related discipline, or equivalent combination of education and relevant terminal/pipeline experience.
• 10+ years of progressive operations experience in crude oil, refined products, terminal, pipeline, marine, rail, or industrial-process operations.
• 5+ years in a leadership role with direct accountability for frontline operations, safety, maintenance coordination, and budget or business performance.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex, simultaneous product movements and high-consequence operating risks.
• Working knowledge of tank storage, pumps, manifolds, custody transfer/measurement, marine transfers, rail receipt operations, truck loading/unloading, PLC/SCADA controls, and emergency response.
• Ability to respond outside normal business hours and lead during operational upsets or emergency events.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience managing a marine terminal, rail-unloading terminal, crude blending facility, or integrated pipeline-terminal operation.
• Knowledge of DOT-regulated pipeline assets, marine-transfer practices, rail safety, environmental compliance, process safety, and mechanical-integrity programs.
• Experience with capital-project delivery, root-cause analysis, reliability improvement, and operational-excellence systems.

Core Competencies

• Visible safety leadership and sound judgment
• Operational discipline and risk management
• People leadership and coaching
• Commercial awareness and customer focus
• Emergency leadership and calm decision-making
• Technical credibility across marine, rail, tank farm, and pipeline assets
• Clear communication and cross-functional collaboration
• Custody measurement knowledge for inventory balancing and customer explanations
• Project scoping and economic justification
• Opex and Capex tracking #Plains

The selected candidate will be eligible for company benefits including Medical, Dental, Vision, Paid Time Off (PTO), and Free Parking.

• Cleared criminal history (background) and satisfactory reference checks
• Compliance with the Company’s drug and alcohol policy including pre-employment D&A testing
• This position is not eligible for employment-based visa sponsorship. Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. for the duration of their employment

At Plains, our employees are our most valuable asset. Hard work is rewarded with competitive compensation and a top-tier benefits program designed to keep our employees safe, healthy and happy. We work hard to deliver the best results to our stakeholders, and we also respect our employees' need for personal and family time, which is reflected in our benefits program.

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified individuals, without regard to age, race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, genetic information, disability, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Applicants with disabilities can request accessible formats, communication supports, or other accessibility assistance by contacting [email protected].

Salary details estimated by job boards such as Indeed, Glassdoor, and LinkedIn do not represent Plains’ compensation structure. We thank all candidates for their interest; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. 

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