Lead Economist

An exciting career awaits you

At MPC, we’re committed to being a great place to work – one that welcomes new ideas, encourages diverse perspectives, develops our people, and fosters a collaborative team environment.

Position Summary

Marathon Petroleum is looking for an Lead Economist to join our team. The Economics team uses economic, petroleum and other energy data along with market fundamentals, economic and statistical modeling, and economic theory to provide original market insight and produce quantitative and qualitative short and long-term forecasts. The team communicates its insights, forecasts, and analysis to senior executives, business development, finance, commercial operations and other organizations to enhance strategic and tactical decision-making throughout the business.

Key Responsibilities

• Builds statistically robust and scientifically rigorous economic models to forecast market demands, commodity prices, operational margins and other quantitative deliverables; recommends improvements to drive best practices.
• Engineers and operates forecasting models in R/Python including ARIMA/SARIMA, Bayesian models, tree ensembles, transformers, NBEATS/NHITS, LSTM; applies rolling-origin CV, walk-forward validation, grid search, and parameter caching.
• Builds Azure SQL schema, pipelines, and controlled vocabularies for short- and long-term balances.
• Constructs feature pipelines including stationarity decisions, seasonal transforms, causality/Granger tests, feature pruning, and fundamentals integration.
• Implements diagnostics/backtests, error decomposition, stability checks, drift monitoring.
• Works with compliance, government affairs, refining, business development, and other organizations to align corporate views on energy markets, regulatory policy, and new projects for capital investment.
• Procures and manages complex datasets (including structured and unstructured data) to extract actionable insights for internal business partners.
• Supports corporate scenario planning efforts, including critical risk identification, sensitivity analysis, and scenario evaluations.
• Leads economic research from start to finish on a wide variety of issues surrounding government policy, regulation, consumer behavior, industry trends, and technological development.
• Uses data visualization tools such as Tableau, Power BI and Shiny applications to clearly present data and insights.
• Leads process documentation and internal efforts to enhance efficient working patterns.
• Develops senior economists and economists via proficient knowledge of econometric theory, cross-functional organization, the energy industry and refining processes.
• Engages with senior leaders and internal decision makers on economic forecasts, industry analysis, market research and scenario planning.
• Researches and maintains deep knowledge of the energy industry, including future trends, technologies and market shifts, to identify strategy opportunities and contribute to corporate leadership.
  
  

Education and Experience

• Master’s degree required in Economics, Energy Economics, Applied Economics, or comparable program (Ph.D. preferred).
• Seven (7) or more years of experience in a fast-paced environment applying insights from data to real-world problems.
  
  

Skills

Business Acumen

Communication

Continuous Learning

Critical Thinking

Data Analysis

Developing Partnerships

Innovation

Leadership & Mentoring

Process Efficiency Improvements

Results Driven

Self-Starter

Strategic Outlook

Strategic Planning

This position grade may vary depending on candidate experience. The successful candidate will be placed at a level commensurate with experience and qualifications.

As an energy industry leader, our career opportunities fuel personal and professional growth.

Location:

Houston, Texas

Job Requisition ID:

00020563

Pay Min/Max:

$141,300.00 - $243,800.00 Salary

Grade:

13 - 14

Location Address:

500 Dallas St Ste 2900

Additional locations:

Findlay, Ohio, Home - IL, San Antonio, Texas

Education:

Employee Group:

Full time

Employee Subgroup:

Regular

Marathon Petroleum Company LP is an Equal Opportunity Employer and gives consideration for employment to qualified applicants without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, reproductive health decision-making, age, mental or physical disability, medical condition or AIDS/HIV status, ancestry, national origin, genetic information, military, veteran status, marital status, citizenship or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. If you would like more information about your EEO rights as an applicant, click here.

If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process at Marathon Petroleum LP, please contact our Human Resources Department at talentacquisition@marathonpetroleum.com. Please specify the reasonable accommodation you are requesting, along with the job posting number in which you may be interested. A Human Resources representative will review your request and contact you to discuss a reasonable accommodation. Marathon Petroleum offers a total rewards program which includes, but is not limited to, access to health, vision, and dental insurance, paid time off, 401k matching program, paid parental leave, and educational reimbursement. Detailed benefit information is available at mympcbenefits.com. The hired candidate will also be eligible for a discretionary company-sponsored annual bonus program.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Veteran / Disability

We will consider all qualified Applicants for employment, including those with arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws. In reviewing criminal history in connection with a conditional offer of employment, Marathon will consider the key responsibilities of the role.