At Valero, we embrace the day’s challenges and find ways to grow professionally and achieve success for ourselves and our great company.

Career growth is a choice. We believe in supporting the growth of exceptional talent as a dynamic, exciting and rewarding experience.

Playbook 101: Setting You Up For Success

We believe in providing the resources necessary for employees to grow as individual contributors and as leaders, increasing their value and impact over time. We strongly value career development to engage, motivate and challenge employees at every stage.

Embracing Valero’s Culture Values is a Key Driver for Your Growth

Talent Development and Training

Our training mission is to provide employees with the resources, knowledge and perspectives necessary to succeed.

Our robust professional and technical training program provides ongoing development through in-person classes and instructor-led online sessions.

  • Frontline Leadership
  • The Valero Culture
  • Building Accountability
  • Fundamentals of Interviewing
  • The Skills to Take You Anywhere
  • Unconscious Bias
  • Maintaining a Harassment-Free Workplace
  • Ethics Training
  • Subject Matter Expert (SME) Bootcamp
  • Professional Communication Skills
Logo for Engineering Technical Excellence Program (ETEP)

Engineering Technical Excellence Program (ETEP)

Our ETEP program has courses for early and mid-career engineers.

Early Career Engineers

Five core classes offered based on tenure:

  • Basics of Petroleum Refining Processes or Advanced Petroleum Refining Processes
  • Foundations of Leadership
  • Safety in Refinery Design
  • Professional Communication Skills
  • Refinery Planning and Economics

Five foundational courses specific to key processing unit technology – Coking, Crude/Distillation, Hydrocracking/processing, Fluid Catalytic Cracking, and Reforming -- are offered annually and assigned as early-career engineers rotate through processing units.

Engineers With 5+ Years Experience

A diverse schedule of technical topics and best practices is offered, based on a training plan built for an individual’s development and career goals.

More Training Opportunities

  • Process Engineering

    Introductory and advanced courses for engineers in our refinery units; from an overview of processes to troubleshooting. Internal ETEP and external training resource courses include hydroprocessing, fluid catalytic cracking, reforming, coking, and fractionation.

  • Electrical Engineering

    Introductory and advanced courses for engineers in our operations, maintenance and technical departments, supporting the safe, stable and reliable operation of the refineries electrical power distribution system.

    Courses include a general overview of safety standards, design specification standards, modeling tools, and maintenance practice procedures to advanced modeling tools and relay coordination troubleshooting.

  • Mechanical Engineering

    Introductory and advanced courses for engineers supporting processing units by designing, maintaining and making reliability improvement recommendations through the Project or Operations organization unit. The training may focus on fixed equipment such as pressure vessels, piping, tankage and rotating equipment (pumps, compressors and turbo machinery).

    Courses include general overview of design specification standards and maintenance practice procedures to advanced design analysis, detailed engineering evaluation and troubleshooting.

  • Technical Training

    • Basic Operator Training
      Program logo for Basic Operator Training
    • Refinery Supervisor Development Program (RSD)
    • Operator Training and Qualification (OTQ)
    • Console Training and Qualification (CTQ)
    • Health, Safety & Environmental (HSE) Awareness Training
    • Pipeline Operations, Maintenance and Emergency Procedures
    • Cybersecurity Protection & Compliance
    • Valero Refinery Design
    • Refinery Economics & Planning

Elevating Employee Performance

A Valero BOT Training session. A female instructor stands before seated trainees in front of a screen reading "Welcome to Valero."

Valero’s success is a true reflection of employee performance. While markets and global demand may drive our industry, employee performance drives our company forward. 

Our performance management philosophy builds on our key culture values of Safety, Accountability, Teamwork, Excellence, Caring and Doing the Right Thing by engaging in ongoing communication, goal-setting, coaching and feedback.

Performance management is an ongoing process designed to enhance employee performance and create an exceptional experience for all team members while achieving business objectives. It is also the pathway to leadership, as your excellence is demonstrated over time.

Valero Leadership Fundamentals:

  • Lead with integrity
  • Make thoughtful, value-added decisions
  • Effectively manage critical issues
  • Ensure work process discipline
  • Improve the business
  • Demonstrate job commitment

Logo for Employee Growth and Development Training

"The type of individual who is going to thrive at Valero is the type of person who will love to rise to challenges. They will love to grow their education and be a big part of the community and the success of the company."

Kevin L. VP Process Safety, Reliability, Power & Gas

"Your opportunity to succeed here is 100% dependent on how much you challenge yourself and how much you take the initiative to learn the business."

Viviana C. Director Product Supply