When Dublin graduate Saul Montoya was younger, his father taught him how to be a problemsolver. “Growing up and being with my dad, he would show me how to fix things, and I became fascinated with how things work,” Montoya said. “When there was an issue, I always wanted to be a part of the solution. I wanted a total understanding of how things move, how things tick.”
Now, as a survey project manager in the oil and gas industry, Montoya puts those problem-solving skills to work, and enjoys a mostly remote position in a field he’s passionate about.
Montoya graduated from Dublin High School in 2012, and went to Tarleton State University to study industrial engineering. “I always wanted to be a coach, until the day I literally stepped foot at Tarleton and had to sign up for my major,” says Montoya. “It was the most last-second decision that I decided to go with engineering.”
It was those early experiences with his father that changed his mind. “I decided to pursue engineering and I’ve never looked back,” he said.
Montoya finished his Bachelor’s in 2016 and moved to Fort Worth, where he found a job with Cintas, a Fortune 500 company that provides services to businesses including uniforms, first aid products, fire extinguishers and safety courses. “I took a production management role, where I oversaw all operations on first shift,” he said.
In 2018, Montoya switched gears and took a job in the oil and gas industry working alongside drilling crews for the company Pinpoint Guidance. “I fell in love with it, and it became a passion of mine,” he said. “I started out working alongside different drilling crews, and then eventually found my home in directional drilling as an engineer.”
The job allowed him to travel across the country to work with different crews. “I was working in places like Louisiana, Kentucky, New Mexico, all over Texas, and then ultimately West Texas became my main hub,” he said.
As his career in oil and gas progressed, Montoya took on a remote role on the land surveying and land acquisition side of the industry in 2021 with a company called Transglobal. “That opened an entirely new world for me,” he said. “I began managing projects in oil and gas, power and utility, and I was working alongside clients, developers, engineers, attorneys, and construction teams.”
During his time at Transglobal, Montoya met a group of people from Alabama who now run the company Coosa Consulting. They ended up hiring him to work with them as a survey project manager. “They elevated my career to the next level,” he said. “They’re the ones that really showed me how to really drive major projects, how to do things efficiently, build strong client relationships, and most of all just understand the business side of the industry.”
His position as a survey project manager includes working with a variety of clients to monitor and oversee new or developing projects in oil, gas, utility and renewable energy. “At all times I’ve got active projects flowing, every week new projects come in while the others get finished, so it’s just kind of a rotating scenario,” he said. “I’m always busy, there’s always something coming.”
Montoya works mostly from home, but will occasionally go into the field to visit clients. He appreciates the flexibility of his job, and that he’s always working on something different. “I love the challenge,” he said. “Every day it’s something new, and I just fell in love with it all. Just working with the oil & gas and utility industry, I think it’s an iconic industry, and just the everyday challenges, the opportunities to meet new people, to work on different skill projects, directly impacts my career growth.”
In the future, “I’ll stay in this space of, you know, surveying and oil and gas utility projects,” he said. “This is my professional passion, and I never see that really changing.”
Montoya enjoys putting the money he earns back into the community. “I have a cousin in Stephenville, and I was able to partner with her and open up a barber shop, Blended Designs,” he said. “I’ve also been able to partner up with a friend on a hat and apparel company, Off the Rails Apparel. It’s more of a retro western type brand, and we’re actually currently working with some up and coming musicians and some rodeo competitors.”
While he currently lives in Fort Worth, Montoya sees himself returning home at some point. “Eventually I would want to settle down, have kids, and work my way back to Dublin, and go back to my roots,” he said. “My dad still farms and raises cattle and everything, so I’d love to be back in the mix of that at some point.”
When he’s not working, Montoya enjoys traveling, working out and being outdoors. “Growing up in Dublin, I grew up outdoors, so that just stuck with me,” he said. He stays active by exercising, running 5ks, shooting and spending time with friends and family.
Montoya’s mother, Gloria Montoya, works at Dublin ISD. His father, Santiago Montoya, is a dairy farmer. Montoya’s father has been one of his greatest inspirations throughout his life. “There was a work ethic that he instilled in me,” he said. “The way I see it, he never told me how to be a great man — he showed me. I never heard him complain, I never really saw him take days off. I feel that everything is possible because of how I grew up seeing him, and what he showed me.”
One of the greatest challenges Montoya has faced in his life happened a few years ago, when he was in two bad car accidents in the space of 18 months. “They both involved physical therapy,” he said. “My main hobby was staying active, but when I got in those wrecks, I couldn’t do that — I couldn’t do anything. So being able to try to get back to normal living [has been a challenge]. My body hasn’t been the same since those injuries, [and I had to work on] overcoming those while staying focused on my career, because this was all going on at once.”
Montoya’s advice to Dublin graduates is to keep their mind open to the endless possibilities available to them — and to prioritize defining who they are. Montoya has been inspired throughout his life by a quote by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung: “‘The world will ask you who you are, and if you don’t know the world will tell you.”
“Everything’s possible out there, so you get to decide what you want to do,” said Montoya. “Go figure it out, go fail, go be uncomfortable, it’ll all work out.”
— Where Are They Now chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@ dublincitizen. com.