Temporary Manager Robotics Engineer Jobs in Houston, TX

The Technical Product Manager - Robotics Solutions is responsible for defining the product strategy, operational workflows, and technical requirements for Patterson-UTI's robotic drilling solutions.

This role combines product management with technical solution development, serving as the primary link between drilling operations, engineering, customers, and technology partners. The Technical Product Manager identifies operational challenges, develops automation concepts, evaluates available technologies, and translates business and operational objectives into actionable engineering requirements.

Working closely with Operations, Controls Engineering, Software Engineering, Technical Services, HSE, customers, equipment vendors, and robotics suppliers, this role develops automated drilling workflows, identifies equipment and process limitations, evaluates solution alternatives, and defines the requirements necessary to successfully integrate robotic systems into Patterson-UTI's drilling fleet.

This position is expected to understand drilling operations, drilling equipment, and industrial automation technologies sufficiently to identify design challenges, evaluate technical alternatives, and develop practical solutions before engineering implementation begins.

The successful candidate will demonstrate strong technical leadership, excellent project management skills, outstanding communication, and the ability to collaborate across multiple engineering disciplines while maintaining a clear focus on customer value and operational performance.

This position reports to the Director of Controls & Automation.

Detailed Description

Product Strategy & Roadmap

• Develop and maintain the product roadmap for Patterson-UTI's robotic drilling solutions.
• Identify opportunities to improve safety, operational efficiency, drilling performance, and automation capability.
• Develop business cases supporting new automation products and features.
• Prioritize product features and releases based on customer needs, operational value, business objectives, and engineering capacity.
• Evaluate industry trends, emerging technologies, and competitive automation solutions to support long-term product strategy.

Operational Workflow Development

• Develop automated workflows supporting drilling connections, tripping operations, pipe handling, tubular handling, and other repetitive drilling activities.  
• Define how operators, robotic systems, drilling equipment, and control systems interact throughout each workflow.
• Develop operational playbooks, process maps, workflow diagrams, and use cases that clearly define expected system behavior.
• Define operational acceptance criteria and product success metrics.
• Validate workflows with drilling personnel, customers, technical services, and subject matter experts.

Solution Development & Equipment Gap Analysis

• Evaluate existing drilling equipment and operational processes to determine suitability for automation.
• Identify mechanical, electrical, controls, instrumentation, communications, software, operational, and safety limitations that prevent automated operation.
• Develop conceptual solutions to eliminate identified gaps.
• Recommend equipment modifications, instrumentation upgrades, sensing technologies, tooling, or process improvements required to support robotic automation.
• Develop high-level solution concepts prior to engineering implementation.
• Support development of retrofit strategies for existing drilling equipment.

Technology Evaluation & Vendor Management

• Identify and evaluate commercially available robotics, automation, sensing, vision, tooling, and industrial control technologies.
• Work with robotics suppliers, OEMs, system integrators, and technology vendors to evaluate solution alternatives.
• Develop high-level technical requirements for vendor-supplied equipment.
• Coordinate technology demonstrations, proof-of-concept evaluations, and vendor assessments.
• Support vendor selection and technology sourcing activities.
• Build strong technical relationships with strategic technology partners.

Product Requirements Development

• Translate operational workflows into complete engineering requirements.
• Develop Product Requirement Documents (PRDs), functional specifications, workflow diagrams, user stories, acceptance criteria, and feature definitions.
• Define HMI concepts and operator interaction requirements.
• Maintain and prioritize the product backlog.
• Ensure engineering teams have a continuous pipeline of complete, well-defined, and actionable product requirements.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the primary interface between Operations, Product Management, Controls Engineering, Software Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Technical Services, HSE, customers, and equipment vendors.
• Coordinate design workshops, requirement reviews, backlog refinement sessions, and project planning activities.
• Maintain alignment between operational requirements and engineering implementation.  
• Identify project risks, resolve requirement ambiguities, and facilitate technical decision making across multiple stakeholders.
• Support engineering teams throughout the development lifecycle by providing product clarification and operational guidance.

Product Validation & Commercialization

• Support Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), Site Acceptance Testing (SAT), pilot deployments, and field trials.

• Validate engineering solutions against operational requirements and product objectives.
• Capture customer and field feedback to drive continuous product improvement.
• Analyze operational performance data and recommend product enhancements.
• Support commercialization activities including customer demonstrations, training materials, operational documentation, marketing support, and product launches.

Job Requirements

• Ability to independently manage multiple technical projects while working across several cross-functional teams.
• Strong understanding of drilling operations, drilling equipment, and drilling workflows.
• Ability to translate operational challenges into practical product and engineering requirements.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to evaluate technical alternatives.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively with operations personnel, engineering teams, customers, and vendors.
• Ability to effectively facilitate meetings, workshops, and technical discussions.
• Ability to regularly travel to Patterson-UTI facilities, customer locations, vendor sites, and drilling rigs.
• Ability to safely navigate office, manufacturing, shop, and drilling rig environments while utilizing required Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).  
• Foster a collaborative, respectful, and high-performing engineering culture.
• Ability to proficiently use Microsoft Office Suite to develop presentations, reports, schedules, and technical documentation.
• Ability to work on weekends and be on call after hours as needed

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Applied Science, or related technical discipline.
• 7+ years of experience in drilling operations, drilling automation, controls engineering, product development, or related technical field.
• 3+ years leading multidisciplinary product development or technical projects.
• Strong understanding of drilling rig equipment and drilling operations.
• Experience developing Product Requirement Documents (PRDs), functional specifications, workflow diagrams, and technical requirements.
• Experience evaluating industrial equipment, automation technologies, or technical solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional engineering and product development activities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with drilling rig automation systems.
• Experience with robotic systems and industrial automation technologies.
• Experience evaluating robotics, sensing, tooling, instrumentation, or industrial control solutions.
• Experience working with robotics suppliers, equipment OEMs, and technology partners.
• Strong understanding of drilling workflows including drilling connections, tripping operations, pipe handling, and tubular handling.
• Experience with Agile product development methodologies and project management tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, or equivalent.
• Experience supporting Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT), Site Acceptance Testing (SAT), field deployments, and product commercialization.

Additional Details:

This position requires the person to be able to work in a time sensitive, high visibility role and regularly travel as needed to support business units and to visit work sites. It may also require extended travel to remote locations and/or overnight stay(s) during variable hours. Variable work hours include hours worked on the weekend, on holidays, and hours to travel within and outside of the assigned region. The Engineer must work with an emphasis on planning, multitasking, and prioritization to maximize efficiency of the team. Must be able to work closely with others and manage customer interaction in a professional manner. Ability to safely navigate work sites with occasional walking, climbing, standing, stepping, working at heights, etc., during normal operating conditions (day/night, outdoor hot/cold weather) and while utilizing designated personal protective equipment (PPE).