Freelance Environmental Data Management Jobs (NOW HIRING)

SM Energy is looking for an Environmental/ Air Data Analyst to join the Air Team within the Environmental & Regulatory group. The primary focus of this position is air quality compliance — tracking emissions, managing permits, preparing regulatory reports, and ensuring SM Energy meets its obligations across upstream operations. This analyst brings strong data fluency to that work, using modern tools to reduce manual effort, improve accuracy, and surface compliance risk proactively

The right candidate is an environmental compliance professional who is comfortable with data — someone who can write SQL, build a Power BI dashboard, automate a recurring calculation in Python, and use AI tools like Claude to accelerate analysis and documentation. They build team-level solutions independently and exercise good judgment about when to partner with IT.

This is an opportunity to define what environmental data management looks like at SM Energy. The person in this role will modernize how the Air Team operates — bringing analytical rigor and tool fluency to a compliance program that spans hundreds of regulated facilities across multiple states. 

ESSENTIAL ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Compliance Data and Workflow Support

• Serve as the Air Team’s primary business-side input on the design and configuration of a new centralized environmental compliance platform, ensuring it accurately reflects regulatory requirements and operational workflows.
• Translate air compliance requirements — permit conditions, emissions calculation logic, reporting deadlines — into documented functional specifications that IT and implementation partners can act on.
• Configure and maintain automated workflow tools (Power Automate, Python scripting, or equivalent) to streamline recurring compliance tasks including calculations, deadline notifications, and data validation.
• Coordinate with IT on data integration between the compliance platform and SM Energy’s enterprise environment (Snowflake, Microsoft 365, operational data sources), providing business requirements and validating outputs.
• Use AI tools (Claude, Claude Code) alongside Python and Excel to automate repetitive compliance tasks, accelerate data analysis, and draft documentation and regulatory correspondence.
• Document data architecture, system workflows, data dictionaries, and calculation methodologies to support auditability, knowledge transfer, and ongoing system maintenance.
• Coordinate with SM Energy’s IT and data management teams to communicate Air Team needs, validate data outputs, and support platform enhancements over time.

Data Analytics and Compliance Reporting

• Develop and maintain dashboards and reports that provide the Environmental/ Air Team and leadership with real-time visibility into compliance status, emissions performance, permit thresholds, and program metrics.
• Design and maintain rolling 12-month emissions tracking models to monitor threshold proximity across permitted facilities, supporting proactive identification of applicability triggers.
• Maintain and QA/QC air emissions calculations for regulated emission sources.
• Build and maintain a centralized permit compliance tracker that monitors renewal deadlines, deviation reporting, condition compliance status, and upcoming regulatory submission obligations across all operating areas.
• Support annual GHG emissions inventory preparation for EPA's Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), including Subpart W calculations, facility-level data aggregation, QA/QC review, and e-GGRT submission support.
• Support the preparation of federal and state-level air quality compliance reports.

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Program Support

• Partner with Environmental/ air compliance team throughout system design and deployment to ensure the platform accurately reflects regulatory requirements and operational workflows.
• Coordinate with external consultants on data exchange, calculation methodology review, and integration of consultant deliverables into the compliance platform.
• Support the integration of acquired assets into SM Energy's compliance infrastructure, including data migration from legacy systems and reconciliation of historical permit and emissions records.
• Assist with internal and external compliance audits by generating data extracts, producing summary reports, and packaging documentation from the new platform.
• Identify and recommend workflow improvements, automation opportunities, and analytical enhancements that increase team efficiency and compliance visibility as the new platform matures.
• All other duties and projects as assigned.

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS

• Ability to translate regulatory compliance requirements into clear functional specifications, working collaboratively with IT and data management teams to bring solutions to life.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a track record of working with large, complex datasets and producing clear, reliable outputs in a high-stakes compliance environment.
• High attention to detail and commitment to data accuracy where errors carry legal, financial, and regulatory consequences.
• Able to manage multiple concurrent compliance obligations and analytical workstreams, with strong judgment about when to escalate and when to run independently.
• Effective communicator capable of translating complex compliance data into clear summaries for operations personnel, leadership, and regulators.
• Comfortable operating under ambiguity, including post-acquisition integration environments where data sources are varied and documentation is incomplete.

COMPUTER AND SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS

Required

• Microsoft Office 365, with advanced proficiency in Excel.
• Power BI for dashboard and report development, data model design, and scheduled refresh configuration.
• SQL for querying, transforming, and validating data across relational databases and cloud data platforms.
• Power Automate or equivalent workflow automation tools for recurring compliance tasks and notification workflows.
• Snowflake or equivalent cloud-based data warehouse platform.
• Claude and Claude Code — accelerating analysis, automating calculation documentation, and drafting regulatory correspondence and reporting narratives.

Strongly Preferred

• Python — calculation automation, data transformation, and scripting recurring compliance tasks.
• Familiarity with environmental management information systems (EMIS) as a power user or configurator — enough to inform requirements and validate system behavior.
• Familiarity with Intelex ACTS or a comparable EMIS platform, as a user or administrator, to inform the design of the replacement system.
• Experience with mobile field data collection tools (e.g., ProntoForms, PowerApps, or equivalent) and data integration patterns from field to system of record.
• Experience with Alteryx, Azure Data Factory, or equivalent ETL/data integration tools.
• Familiarity with EPA's GHGRP Electronic Reporting Tool (e-GGRT) or state emissions inventory submission portals (NMED AFS, TCEQ STEERS/CEDRI, Utah DAQ).
• Experience with emissions modeling software used in upstream oil and gas air compliance programs.
• Working knowledge of Spotfire, Palantir, or other analytics platforms in an upstream oil and gas environment.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree in environmental science, environmental engineering, data analytics, information systems, computer science, or a closely related field is required.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in a data analyst, environmental analyst, systems analyst, or IT support role; experience in upstream oil and gas is strongly preferred.
• Knowledge of air quality compliance concepts relevant to upstream oil and gas, including familiarity with NSPS OOOOa/OOOOb requirements, GHGRP Subpart W emission calculation methodologies, rolling 12-month applicability tracking, and permit compliance obligations across one or more state regulatory frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience working with environmental compliance data — building tracking tools, automating calculations, or supporting regulatory reporting workflows using modern analytical tools.
• Experience working alongside IT teams on data or systems projects — contributing business requirements, validating outputs, and supporting deployment — is highly valued.
• Experience managing data migration or system transition projects, including reconciliation of historical records and parallel-run validation, is a plus.

LOCATION AND WORK SCHEDULE

Denver, CO. This is a hybrid position with an expectation of regular in-office presence at SM Energy's Denver headquarters to support close collaboration with the Air Team, IT, and Operations during the active build phase of the new compliance platform. Limited travel may be required to support field operations, system validation activities, or consultant coordination efforts.

SM Energy offers competitive compensation and benefits programs which include, but are not limited to, variable pay, health care coverage, retirement plan, protection coverage, time off and leave programs, training and development opportunities and a range of allowances connected to specific work situations. Details are available at Careers :: SM Energy Company (SM) (sm-energy.com).

 Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.