Quality Control and Inspection Professional

Job Overview

Job Category

Environmental, Regulatory and Stakeholder Engagement

Sectors

Education

Environment

Indoors primarily with occasional outdoors

Average Salary

$53,000 to $103,000

Career Demand

Stable

About This Career

You believe in doing it right. Your job is to ensure workers follow the rules. In the oil and gas industry, there are many processes and products that need your oversight. You inspect, review, evaluate and analyze work environments, products or procedures. At the end of the day, you’re all about safety, quality and best practices.

Quality Control and Inspection Professionals implement a wide variety of inspection, repair, risk assessment and corrosion management tools and technologies. They monitor new equipment installations, as well as assist the maintenance department in developing preventative and repair strategies by assessing the condition of the equipment. Their goal is to control equipment and facility integrity in order to ensure safe and reliable performance and to prevent injury to personnel or defects in products or project works.

Specializations include:

Regulatory Inspectors conduct inspections of oil or gas drilling sites, well servicing, well abandonment operations, enhanced oil recovery production operations and pipelines to ensure compliance with regulations.
Asset Integrity Inspectors provide technical support in developing corrosion prevention techniques that meet codes and standards, reduce failures, minimize operating costs and extend the life of the company’s assets.
Electrical and Instrumentation Specialists ensure that electrical and instrumentation equipment meets applicable regulations, codes, standards and specifications.
Quality Control Inspectors design, implement and maintain the company’s quality program for large, multi-disciplinary projects.
Subsea Inspectors provide specialized services to the offshore oil and gas industry such as subsea inspection techniques, corrosion assessment, pipeline engineering and pipeline integrity management systems.

In this occupation activities may include:

Reviewing engineering packages for material selection, weld-procedure acceptance and specification, as well as regulatory compliance
Examining permits, licences, applications and records to ensure compliance with licensing requirements
Developing, maintaining and controlling quality records (e.g., engineering packages, inspection reports, integrity assessments, non-conformance reports and other required documentation) for pressure equipment
Investigating incidents, events and complaints to ensure public safety, environmental protection and resource conservation
Conducting inspections to assess compliance with the applicable regulations, codes and standards

Education

A post-secondary diploma or degree or trades certification in a relevant field, along with significant technical knowledge and experience, is required for most roles. Depending on the focus, the required education could include petroleum, chemical, mechanical and materials/metallurgical engineering, welding, electrical/instrumentation, power engineering or non-destructive testing.

Certifications

Standard and emergency first aid
H2S Alive
Fall protection
Confined space entry
Specific health and safety certifications will be determined by job requirements

Licensing

Certifications are available through the American Petroleum Institute (API), Canadian Welding Bureau (CWB), American Welding Society (AWS) and National Association of Corrosion Engineers (NACE)
Certificates of competency for in-service boiler and pressure vessel inspector Non-destructive testing certification Welding inspector certification Coating inspector certification

Communication is key. Your job is to help others change their practices and processes, even if under time constraints.