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Learning Hub › Career Learnings Directory › Dr. Docter's Career Learnings
The Who is Dr. Docter? page gives the short version of my ExxonMobil career — a location/tenure table and a leadership-roles summary. This page is the long version: every role, in order, with what I was actually responsible for at each stop. If you want to see what an actual 27-year engineering career looks like year by year, rather than a highlight reel, this is the page for that.
Roles are listed most recent first, matching the summary table on the bio page. One thing worth noticing as you scan down: the literal job title stays "Real Time Optimization (RTO) Engineer" for most of this timeline while the scope, geography, and responsibility underneath it grow enormously — from second-commissioning-engineer work to Site RTO Lead to Global Network Action Team Lead. Title and stage aren't the same thing; see Technical Career Stages for the model behind that.
Aug 2025 – Apr 2026 · 9 months | ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company, United States · On-site
- Real Time Optimization Project Lead
- Mentoring and people development
- Optimization technology and work process innovation and implementation
My final role before retirement — referred to elsewhere on this wiki as the "Upstream RTO Project Lead" role. Same position.
Jan 2023 – Aug 2025 · 2 years 8 months | Beaumont, Texas, United States · On-site
- Beaumont Complex RTO and Dynamic Matrix Control (DMC) fleet value capture and improvement lead
- Optimization technology and work process innovation and implementation
- Mentoring, people development, succession planning
- Strategic and tactical asset support & resourcing
Technical-path equivalent of a Department Head — see Who is Dr. Docter? for how ExxonMobil's dual-ladder structure works. Skills associated with this role: Process Optimization, Professional Mentoring, and others.
Aug 2020 – Jan 2023 · 2 years 6 months | Beaumont Complex, Texas, United States
- Existing RTO revamps and sustainment (including Olefins RTO, Aromatics RTO)
- New RTO project deployment and closed-loop commissioning (Lead)
- Margin improvement analysis and work process
- Technical and professional development mentor; Individual Development Plan coach/reviewer
Apr 2017 – Aug 2020 · 3 years 5 months | Beaumont Refinery, Texas, United States
- Individual Development Planning lead for the group
- Technical and professional development mentor
- Process Control Management of Change reviewer/approver
- RTO/DMC element lead (prioritization, resourcing, delivery, stewardship)
- Utilities engineering lead
My first-line supervisory (management-ladder) role. See Setting and Accomplishing Development Goals for how this role changed how I thought about development planning — it's where I realized I wouldn't have hired my own co-op-era self. Skills associated with this role: Risk Assessment, Individual Development, and others.
Aug 2009 – Apr 2017 · 7 years 9 months | Beaumont Refinery, Texas, United States
- Site RTO Lead
- Crude & Fluid Catalytic Cracking (FCC) RTO revamps and sustainment
- New RTO project deployment (including Sat Gas Plant RTO) and closed-loop commissioning (Lead)
- Crude and Light Ends Distillation DMC sustainment
- Margin improvement analysis and work process
- Internal company network action team lead for global RTO initiatives and best-practice development
Jan 2007 – Aug 2009 · 2 years 8 months | Fawley Refinery, England, United Kingdom
- Site RTO Lead
- Crude Unit/Diesel Hydrotreating Complex RTO deployment and closed-loop commissioning (Lead)
- Diesel Hydrotreating DMC plant testing, modeling, commissioning (2nd)
- Margin improvement analysis and work process
- Basic Controls Engineer Training course instructor
This assignment covered the diesel desulfurization work (50ppm → 10ppm sulfur) listed among the contributions I'm most proud of on Who is Dr. Docter?
Jun 2004 – Jan 2007 · 2 years 8 months | Antwerp Refinery, Flemish Region, Belgium
- Site RTO Lead
- Crude Unit and FCC RTO sustainment
- Reforming RTO deployment
- Margin improvement analysis and work process
- Site representative to internal company Advanced Control Application and Real Time Optimization (ACAP-RTO) Network
- Global Network Action Team Lead — RTO Solution Analysis
Skills associated with this role: Catalytic Reforming, Business Networking.
Jun 2000 – Jun 2004 · 4 years 1 month | ExxonMobil Research & Engineering, Fairfax, Virginia, United States
- RTO project lead and onsite commissioning lead (Gravenchon FCC)
- Onsite RTO commissioning, 2nd (Altona FCC, Chiba FCC)
- RTO course instructor
- RTO project modeling, validation
- Remote support for FCC and Crude Unit RTO applications
Sep 1998 – Jun 2000 · 1 year 10 months | Exxon Research and Engineering, Florham Park, New Jersey, United States · On-site
- Crude Unit and FCC RTO project model development and validation
- FCC reactor/regenerator kinetic modeler
- RTO remote manufacturing site support
First role out of grad school, under the pre-merger "Exxon" name — Exxon and Mobil merged in late 1999, partway through this assignment. Skills associated with this role: Real Time Optimization, Kinetic Modeling, and others.
Sep 1993 – Sep 1998 · 5 years 1 month | Chemical Process Modeling & Control Research Center, Lehigh University · Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
- Research in reduced-order dynamic modeling for separation processes: dynamic simulation, subspace identification, stepwise regression, factor analysis
- Advisor: Christos Georgakis
- Teaching assistant for William Luyben and William Schiesser
Concurrent with the Ph.D. — see Education on the bio page for the research focus.
Summer 1995 (~3 months) | Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Trexlertown, Pennsylvania
- Assigned to the Research Engineering Services group within Management Information Systems
- Applied the reduced-order modeling approach from my Ph.D. thesis work to one of Air Products' cryogenic air separation unit simulations
- Set up by Air Products as one of the companies funding my Lehigh research (see Building Your Network) — the intent was to strengthen my grounding in the real industrial application, since the models we worked with at the university were unrealistically simplified next to the real thing
This is the internship already discussed on Building Your Network and Setting and Accomplishing Development Goals — solid technical work, but I stayed heads-down and didn't build a single relationship worth keeping. It's the one stop on this whole timeline I still flag with an "X" for exactly that reason. I left it off my LinkedIn profile for years, mostly so I wouldn't have to explain it in an interview if I ever needed one again. That's no longer a concern, so I'd rather it do some good as a cautionary tale than stay hidden.
Sep 1989 – Aug 1993 · 2 years 9 months | Quantum Chemical Corp, Allen Research Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
Seven three-month co-op rotations alternating with classes, followed by a part-time independent contractor role through senior year and the summer after graduation. Cincinnati's co-op program didn't cover seniors, so I set that one up on my own.
- Polyethylene catalyst synthesis and laboratory testing/analysis
- Process control applications programming Allen-Bradley Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) ladder logic for a bench-scale reactor control replacement project (pneumatic control migrated to PLC)
- Bench-scale catalyst activator automation project — design, sequence logic programming, and Graphical User Interface (GUI) development
This is the co-op referenced on Setting and Accomplishing Development Goals — the "abrasive to talk to" performance review that didn't fully sink in until years later. Concurrent with undergrad at Cincinnati plus summer after.
- Ph.D., Chemical Engineering — Lehigh University, Sep 1993 – Dec 1998
- B.S., Chemical Engineering — University of Cincinnati, Aug 1988 – May 1993
Full detail on research focus and advisor is on Who is Dr. Docter?.
Related: Who is Dr. Docter? · Technical Career Stages · Setting and Accomplishing Development Goals · Building Your Network
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