drilling engineer

Drilling engineers develop and supervise the drilling of gas and oil wells. They assist in the designing, testing and creation of wells and are employed on land or offshore platforms. Drilling engineers work with other mining professionals and oversee the drilling progress and safety of the site.

The most in-demand skills for this role include geology, ensure compliance with environmental legislation, liaise with specialist contractors for well operations, design well paths, manage drilling team, troubleshoot. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.

Our AI-durability model gives drilling engineer a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.