Principal Specialist Exploration & Project Development & Engineering Data Domain

About the Role
Maaden is seeking a Principal Specialist for Exploration & Project Development & Engineering Data Domain. This full-time role, based in Saudi Arabia, involves shaping the strategic management, governance, and value realization of Exploration and Petroleum Development & Evaluation (PDE) data assets across the organization. The position ensures that critical subsurface, geological, geophysical, drilling, reservoir, and related technical data are trusted, accessible, secure, and aligned with business priorities.
Role Purpose and Impact
This role creates business value by enabling data-driven decision-making, improving data quality and consistency, accelerating digital initiatives, and maximizing the return on data investments. Through strong domain stewardship and collaboration with business and technology stakeholders, the role strengthens operational performance, supports innovation, and enhances organizational data maturity. The position plays a key role in establishing data domain capabilities that drive exploration success, improve resource evaluation outcomes, reduce information risk, and enable advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation initiatives across the enterprise.
Key Responsibilities

Shape and execute the Exploration & PDE data domain strategy aligned with enterprise data and digital objectives.
Establish a scalable data domain framework that improves data accessibility, usability, and business value.
Drive prioritization of data initiatives supporting exploration, evaluation, and resource development objectives.
Strengthen governance practices to ensure data integrity, consistency, ownership, and regulatory compliance.
Deliver measurable improvements in data quality through standards, controls, and stewardship processes.
Govern critical data assets across their lifecycle to improve reliability and reduce operational risk.
Lead the development and enhancement of data products that enable operational and strategic decision-making.
Increase adoption of trusted data assets across technical and business functions.
Translate business requirements into scalable data solutions that generate measurable business outcomes.
Provide expert guidance on exploration, geological, geophysical, drilling, reservoir, and subsurface data management practices.
Influence enterprise data architecture decisions to improve interoperability and domain integration.
Promote industry-leading practices, technologies, and methodologies across the data ecosystem.
Build strong partnerships between business functions, digital teams, and external partners to align priorities and outcomes.
Facilitate effective decision-making through clear data ownership, accountability, and governance structures.
Strengthen collaboration across domains to improve enterprise-wide data consistency and effectiveness.
Accelerate the adoption of advanced analytics, automation, AI, and digital capabilities through high-quality domain data.
Identify opportunities to optimize processes, reduce manual effort, and improve data lifecycle efficiency.
Foster a culture of continuous improvement and data-driven performance.

Qualifications and Experience

A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in data management, particularly within exploration and petroleum development.
Demonstrated ability to shape and execute data domain strategies.
Experience in establishing data governance practices and improving data quality.
Proven track record in developing data products and driving value realization.
Strong technical leadership in subsurface data management.
Experience in stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration.
A background in fostering innovation and continuous improvement in data practices.

Measures of Success
Success in this role will be measured by improved data quality, consistency, and trust across Exploration and PDE data assets, increased utilization of data products for operational and strategic decision-making, and enhanced compliance with data governance standards and regulatory requirements. Additionally, success includes reduced data-related risk, improved data lifecycle management effectiveness, faster delivery of digital, analytics, and AI initiatives enabled by trusted domain data, and strong stakeholder satisfaction with clear ownership of critical business data assets.
Application Information
This is a full-time position with Maaden in Saudi Arabia. Salary details are not disclosed. Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.