Principal Advisor – Sustainability

Principal Advisor Sustainability – NutonTM

• Become a part of the team pioneering Rio Tinto’s latest heap leaching technology.
• Grow your career and contribute to a technology venture committed to build a more sustainable future.
• Experience why Utah is the best overall state to live and work as ranked by the U.S. News and World Report. (Utah Ranked #1 U.S. News and World Report)

About the role

Finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs.

NutonTM is a Rio Tinto venture with the purpose of commercializing our copper bio-heap leaching technologies, which enables us to leach copper sulfide ores and unlock vast copper resources that were previously uneconomic or technically challenging to process. One of the main differentiators of Nuton is our commitment to achieving leading environmental performance, including lower carbon emissions, lower water usage, a smaller land footprint, the ability to valorize materials otherwise considered waste, and the commitment to achieve positive social outcomes. Through deploying our technology, we have the potential to produce the lowest impact copper in the market and enable Positive Impacts in at least one of our five pillars: energy, water, materials, land and society.

We are looking for a passionate and experienced Principal Advisor Sustainability to join our Nuton™ team. In this role, you will play a crucial role in realizing Nuton’s ambition to be a sustainability leader. You will identify, evaluate and recommend the most attractive opportunities to reduce Nuton’s environmental footprint, and find efficiencies to minimize our impacts on our processing flowsheet and our partners’ minesites. This position requires a solid background on material sciences or environmental engineering, with exceptional project management and communication skills.

In this role, you’ll report to the Growth and Sustainability VP, and your responsibilities will include:

• Research and Development: Identify advanced materials and technologies to reduce the environmental footprint of Nuton’s flowsheet. This includes studying the properties and behaviors of materials under various conditions and the suitability of novel technologies to identify opportunities to enhance Nuton’s process.
• Process Optimization: Analyze Nuton’s flowsheet and optimize existing processes to reduce waste, energy consumption, water requirements and carbon emissions. Recommend process improvements to project teams and collaboratively work to implement improvements to enhance efficiency and sustainability.
• Collaboration: Work closely with environmental scientists, engineers, and other stakeholders to integrate sustainable practices into Nuton’s deployment at our partners’ sites. Facilitate cross-functional collaboration with technology development and deployment teams to ensure that sustainability goals are met.
• Environmental impact evaluation: Evaluate the environmental impact of materials and processes, propose improvements, and use sustainability metrics to measure and report on environmental performance of competing technical solutions. Conduct trade off studies on competing environmental solutions.
• Technical Documentation: Prepare technical reports, presentations, and documentation to communicate findings and recommendations. Provide clear and concise information to support decision-making processes.
• Technical Support: Provide technical support and guidance to project teams on sustainability issues. Offer expertise in materials science and applied technology to solve complex problems.

What you’ll bring

• A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Materials Science, Engineering, Industrial Processing or a related field. A Ph.D. in a relevant discipline is desirable. Prior knowledge or experience in mining also useful.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in materials science, applied technology, and sustainability practices, preferably within the mining industry.
• Knowledge of sustainable materials, including recycled materials, bio-based materials, and nanomaterials. Understanding of how these materials can be applied in mining and processing operations to improve sustainability performance.
• Awareness of LCA methodologies and related evaluation tools to assess the environmental impact of materials and processes.
• Skills in project management, including planning, execution, and monitoring of sustainability projects.
• Proficiency in data analysis, modeling, and simulation tools.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to think creatively and innovatively.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams.
• Passion for pushing the boundaries of sustainability in the mining industry and a commitment to Rio Tinto's sustainability values.

What we offer

Be recognized for your contribution, your thinking and your hard work, and go home knowing you’ve helped the world progress.

• A work environment where safety is always the number one priority.
• Competitive base salary reflective of your skills and experience with an annual incentive bonus.
• Access to top-tier family-friendly health programs including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, life insurance coverage, and various voluntary benefits.
• Excellent retirement plan including up to 6% defined company contribution; Generous 401k matching program.
• Attractive share ownership plan.
• Comprehensive leave policies which cover all the moments that matter in life: PTO (paid time off), paid holidays, and paid bereavement leave.
• A generous parental leave policy, which ensures you’re able to spend quality time with your new family.
• Discount programs for leisure purposes and access to Virgin Pulse with incentives supporting your wellbeing.
• Access to our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which provides confidential counselling or expert guidance for you and your family to help get through life’s challenges

 Where you’ll be working

The role will be based in Salt Lake City in the United States, with some domestic and international travel requirement.

About Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto is a leading global mining and materials company. We operate in 35 countries where we produce iron ore, copper, aluminium, critical minerals, and other materials needed for the global energy transition and for people, communities, and nations to thrive.

We have been mining for 150 years and operate with knowledge built up across generations and continents. Our purpose is finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs – striving for innovation and continuous improvement to produce materials with low emissions and to the right environmental, social and governance standards. But we can’t do it on our own, so we’re focused on creating partnerships to solve problems, create win-win situations and meet opportunities.

Every Voice Matters

At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQ+ community, mature workers, people with disabilities and people from different cultural backgrounds.

Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V
Rio Tinto participates in E-Verify to confirm work authorization.  Please visit http://www.uscis.gov/ for more information.

We are committed to an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable to be themselves. We want our people to feel that all voices are heard, all cultures respected and that a variety of perspectives are not only welcome – they are essential to our success. We treat each other fairly and with dignity regardless of race, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation or anything else that makes us different.

Salary Range

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