Specialist – Procurement Excellence (Procurement & Contracts)

Specialist – Procurement Excellence (Procurement & Contracts)

• Permanent opportunity based in Perth CBD

• Construction focused

What makes this role unique

• Are you a construction contracts specialist who is impassioned about best practices in procurement contracts management?

• Are you mired in day-to-day work and have been looking for the space and opportunity to challenge and change the status quo?

This role is intended for an experienced construction contracts specialist who is eager for the space and opportunity to genuinely drive meaningful improvement (not just ticking boxes!) and uplift standards in procurement processes and contracts management.

You will be partnering with a professional team united by shared values and purpose, bringing diverse perspectives together to set the benchmark for how procurement and contracts management should be delivered within the portfolio.

About the Role

This role sits within our RTP Sustaining Capital team, where it delivers value on sustaining asset integrity, performance, and value through disciplined project execution, governance, and effective commercial and procurement practices, ensuring long‑term operational resilience while managing risk, cost, and safety outcomes across the portfolio.

The Specialist – Procurement Excellence supports the delivery of procurement, contracts management improvement and digital enablement initiatives across RTP Sustaining Capital.

The role focuses on uplifting procurement and contracts management quality, consistency, governance, and ways of working, by translating procurement processes, requirements, and best practice into clear, practical, and scalable solutions – supported by fit‑for‑purpose digital tools, guidance, and templates.

In the near term, the primary focus is supporting the build and rollout of the Source‑to‑Contract (S2C) App, a key Procurement Excellence priority. Over time, the role will contribute to improvement and digital uplift across other parts of the procurement lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

Procurement Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Design, document, and enhance processes, controls, and standards tailored to project and construction-based procurement (recognising its distinct risk, commercial and lifecycle demands) to drive high-quality, simplified and efficient outcomes across Sustaining Capital projects.

• Translate procurement governance, decision logic, and lessons learned into practical, repeatable ways of working.

• Identify and address inefficiencies, risks, and quality gaps in project procurement workflows, implementing sustainable improvements to enhance value delivery, risk mitigation, simplification and overall process excellence.

• Role model a growth mindset by challenging the status quo and improving existing processes rather than replicating legacy approaches, ensuring that innovative, simplified, and high-impact solutions are delivered to meaningfully improve construction contracting outcomes.

Digital Enablement & Tools (current focus: S2C App)

• Support digital enablement initiatives that underpin procurement excellence, with a focus on the specific needs of project and construction-based procurement.

• Support configuration, testing, adoption, and ongoing optimisation of digital tools (focusing on the S2C App in the near term) to streamline and standardise project procurement processes.

• Capture and translate procurement decision logic (such as sourcing thresholds, approval pathways, and contract selection criteria) into system-configurable buying rules that guide consistent and compliant construction procurement within the S2C App.

• Work closely with the Senior Specialist and Power Platform Developers within the Procurement Excellence team, alongside category leads, SMEs and broader Sustaining Capital project stakeholders, to ensure digital solutions reinforce agreed standards and controls.

Governance, Quality & Standardisation

• Support strengthening of procurement governance controls tailored to the complexities of construction and project delivery environments.

• Maintain guidance, templates, checklists, and decision‑support tools.

• Uphold single‑source‑of‑truth and disciplined document control principles to ensure consistency and compliance across project procurement activities.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Work closely with Contract Specialists, Category Leads, Project & Delivery teams, Legal, and Information Management to align procurement practices and project requirements. 

• Engage directly with stakeholders to understand pain points and prioritise improvements based on operational impact.

• Contribute to a culture of accountability, quality, and continuous improvement.

What You Will Bring

Success requires a solid and practical understanding of construction procurement and contracting – where risk and value are created, how decisions are made, and how changing ways of working delivers real business benefit.

Strong design and systems thinking is essential. You will work hands‑on to shape and refine products with a focus on doing the right work first, recognising the change and enablement that follows. This role involves tackling difficult, long‑avoided improvement work and addressing real capability gaps through well‑designed tools, processes, and guidance.

This team sets the benchmark for how procurement should be done. Success requires sound judgement, solid procurement and contracts capability, and the willingness to get into the detail, challenge poor practice, and do the hard work required to meaningfully improve procurement and contracting outcomes across the business.

This role calls for someone with:

• Proven experience in end-to-end delivery of a major construction procurement and contracting process, from tender to final completion.

• Experience operating in high‑standards environments where quality, best practice, and improvement matter.

• Possess process and systems thinking, with the ability to codify procurement requirements, governance expectations, and best practice into clear, practical ways of working embedded through tools and digital enablers.

• High attention to detail and quality, producing artefacts that are operationally practical and support strong assurance outcomes.

• Comfortable working with digital tools and structured workflows, with a focus on enabling better decision‑making and consistent execution.

• Confidence to challenge constructively, engage stakeholders, and drive improvement

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts clearly and pragmatically.

• Tertiary qualification(s) in a relevant discipline (e.g. law, business, commerce, supply chain management) are highly regarded.

What we offer:

• A work environment where safety is always the number one priority

• Flexible working from home arrangements as per operational requirements

• 18 weeks of gender-neutral and equal paid parental leave, with continued superannuation contributions whilst employees are on unpaid or half paid parental leave

• A competitive base salary reflective of your skills and experience with annual incentive program

• Comprehensive medical benefits including subsidised private health insurance for employees and immediate family

• Attractive share ownership plan

• Company provided insurance cover

• Extensive salary sacrifice & salary packaging options

• Career development & education assistance to further your technical or leadership ambitions

• Ongoing access to family-friendly health and medical wellbeing support

• Leave for all of life’s reasons (vacation/annual, paid parental, sick leave)

• Exclusive employee discounts (banking, accommodation, cars, retail and more);

Where you’ll be working

Rio Tinto Global Procurement ensures resilient supply chains that deliver value to the Rio Tinto Group through the strategic sourcing and buying of goods and services for our operations. Playing a fundamental role, value is achieved through effective supplier partnerships, innovation, easy and standardised processes, e-technology, corporate social responsibility and increased commercial advantage.

Application Deadline: 25th April 2026

(Rio Tinto reserves the right to remove advertised roles prior to this date)

Please note, in order to be successfully considered for this role you must complete all pre-screening questions.

Rio Tinto does not accept unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles from recruiters or employment agencies. Rio Tinto will not consider or agree to payment of any referral compensation or recruiter fee relating to unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles. Rio Tinto reserves the right to hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to the recruiter or agency. Any unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles, including those submitted to hiring managers, are deemed to be the property of Rio Tinto

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.

Respect and Inclusion

At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, women, the LGBTI+ community, mature workers, people with disabilities and people from different cultural backgrounds.

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.

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