Chief Growth Officer, OPX Ai
Bringing AI-based industrial operations to the field — including deployments advancing artificial lift and flow assurance, which I co-authored a case study on for SPE in 2026.
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The engineer behind the guides.
Yogashri “Yoshi” Pradhan, MBA, P.E. — ten years in the Permian Basin, a decade of SPE service, and a growing conviction that technical excellence deserves an audience.
The story
“I can make a difference in the world by applying math and science skills.”
That sentence is the reason I have the career I have. I was a teenager at the GRADE camp at the University of Houston, in a room full of working petroleum engineers, and it landed.
My parents pushed math and science early, so the aptitude was there. What the camp added was a picture of what the aptitude could do — and specifically, what it could do in energy. I went to The University of Texas at Austin for petroleum engineering and graduated in 2015.
What followed was a decade in the field: unconventional asset development and production engineering across the Midland and Delaware Basins, working for a series of Permian operators and finishing as Lead Production Engineer at Chevron. Decline curves, artificial lift, flow assurance, capital allocation arguments — the unglamorous work that makes wells produce.
Along the way I kept going back to school, because the questions kept changing. A master’s in petroleum engineering from Texas A&M in 2020. A full-stack coding bootcamp at UT in 2017, because I wanted to understand the software everyone was buying. An MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2024, because at some point every technical decision becomes a financial one.
And I kept serving. SPE has been a constant since I was a student member — regional awards, international service awards, articles in the Journal of Petroleum Technology, and a lot of hours helping young members figure out where they fit.
Where I am now
Four roles, one thesis.
The industry needs its technical people to be visible — inside their companies, and outside them. Everything I do now serves that.
Adjunct Professor
Teaching petroleum engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington and The University of Texas Permian Basin on a semester basis.
Founder, IronLady Energy Advisors
A consulting practice providing technical solutions across all forms of energy — from reservoir and production problems to project-level diligence.
Author & Educator
Fueling Impact (Productivity Press, 2026), seven free career guides, a YouTube channel and a podcast — all built on the same Field-to-Feed idea.
Career
The path, in order
Now
Chief Growth Officer
OPX Ai
Leading growth for an AI-based industrial operations platform serving oil & gas operators.
Now
Adjunct Professor, Petroleum Engineering
UT Arlington & UT Permian Basin
Semester-basis teaching for undergraduate and graduate petroleum engineering students.
Now
Founder
IronLady Energy Advisors
Independent consulting firm offering technical solutions for all forms of energy.
July 2026
Published Fueling Impact
Productivity Press · Routledge
A book on personal branding for technical professionals in oil and gas.
Previously
Lead Production Engineer
Chevron
Production engineering leadership on unconventional assets.
2015 – 2020s
Production & Reservoir Engineering
Permian operators · Midland & Delaware Basins
Ten-plus years of unconventional asset development across the Permian — the technical foundation everything else is built on.
2015
B.S., Petroleum Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin
Later recognised as a Distinguished Alumna of the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering.
Education & licensure
Four schools, two licences
MBA
University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Business statistics, financial accounting, strategy and Python-based decision modelling.
M.S., Petroleum Engineering
Texas A&M University. Deepening the reservoir and production engineering foundation while working full-time in the basin.
Full Stack Development
The University of Texas Coding Boot Camp. Taken to understand the software the industry keeps buying — and to be able to build small tools herself.
B.S., Petroleum Engineering
The University of Texas at Austin. Hildebrand Department of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering.
CrossFit Level 1 Trainer
Plus the CrossFit Scaling Certificate, and coaching at Basin CrossFit in Midland. The same interest in structure, consistency and community that shows up in how she teaches engineering.
Registered Professional Engineer — Texas & New Mexico
A P.E. licence is the industry’s formal signal that an engineer can take legal responsibility for their work. Yoshi holds it in two states, and teaches the PE prep course once a year.
Recognition
Awards & honours
40 Under 40Hart Energy · 2023
Young Engineer of the YearHouston Engineers Week · SPE Gulf Coast · 2018
International Young Member Outstanding Service AwardSociety of Petroleum Engineers · 2018
Regional Reservoir Description & Dynamics AwardSPE · Southwestern North America Region · 2020
Regional Service AwardSPE · Southwestern North America Region · 2020
Distinguished AlumniUT Austin · Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering
0Years in the Permian
0Degrees & certifications
0Major awards
0SPE / JPT articles
Next
Read the book, or grab the guides.
Everything I teach starts in one of two places — Fueling Impact for the philosophy, the free guides for the tactics.