Senior Subsurface Geologist - Hybrid

Location: Edmonton, AB (preferred) or Calgary, AB

Employment Type: Full Time – Permanent

Salary Range: T5, Level 7, $151,980 - $178,800 per year. The final compensation for this position will be determined based on individual factors, including education, qualifications, experience, and internal equity.

Senior Subsurface Geologist - Hybrid

The Opportunity­­

The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) is seeking an experienced Senior Subsurface Geologist to join our team as a key individual contributor and technical leader supporting project delivery and technical excellence. In this role, you will lead complex subsurface geological work and provide expert advice and mentorship in subsurface characterization and resource appraisal.

The position requires deep expertise in oil sands geology, along with broad experience across a diverse range of depositional systems, lithologies, and petroleum systems, both conventional and unconventional, throughout the Alberta Basin. The Senior Subsurface Geologist ensures that high-quality, robust geological interpretations underpin all subsurface characterization and appraisal products. Drawing on technical expertise and strong integration skills, you will deliver defensible oil sands interpretations and support integrated understanding across stratigraphy, reservoir characterization, containment risk, and basin-scale frameworks.

Working closely with technical leadership at the Alberta Geological Survey (AGS), you will help establish and apply robust geological workflows, interpretations, and best practices. The role integrates geological concepts with subsurface datasets (including maps, cross-sections, and petrophysical analyses) to reconstruct depositional environments, address complex subsurface challenges, and contribute to geological modelling across scales from basin analysis to detailed field-level reservoir characterization.

Success in this position requires the ability to integrate geoscience, engineering, and economic considerations into clear, defensible technical assessments for a range of technical and regulatory needs at different scales of investigation.

What your day-to-day will look like:

• Conduct advanced technical subsurface work that supports regulatory, economic, and environmental priorities in Alberta, guided by the AGS operational plan.

• Contribute technical expertise through specific projects, action requests, and communities of practice, and serve as a technical advisor and trusted resource across the organization on geoscience and subsurface matters.

• Advise on and lead complex subsurface projects, while also contributing hands-on technical work, primarily in Alberta’s oil sands, integrating reservoir characterization with depositional, petroleum, and groundwater systems across multiple scales.

• Actively support multiple teams by advising on a wide range of geological challenges and applying customized mapping and characterization approaches to address specific issues encountered.

• Mentor staff across all experience levels, strengthening capabilities in sedimentology, facies characterization in core and wireline log suites, natural fracture characterization, subsurface mapping, and sequence stratigraphy, while ensuring best practices are consistently applied in subsurface characterization workflows.

• Lead and oversee development of technically robust geoscience products, including cross-sections and maps for subsurface studies chartered by AGS, while collaborating with geomodellers to build 3D geological models at multiple scales and supporting staff to deliver outputs aligned with branch and enterprise priorities.

• Maintain awareness of Alberta’s energy sector activity using a range of public and non-public data sources, analyzing and advising on trends, risks, and issues related to energy development across the province.

What we’re looking for in you:

• 10-15 years of strong and progressive industry experience, with a strong knowledge of Alberta’s subsurface geology.

• M.Sc. or Ph.D. Degree in Geoscience.

• Professional Geoscientist (P.Geo.) designation with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA), or eligibility to be registered…