People Partner

• Influence workforce, talent, engagement and organisational priorities that strengthen business performance across complex, large-scale portfolios.
• Expand your impact by partnering with General Managers and leadership teams across workforce strategy, employee relations, change and leader capability.
• Enjoy the flexibility and development opportunities that come with being part of a global organisation focused on care, courage and curiosity.

We’re Finding Better Ways™ to provide materials the world needs, now and in the future. Our values – care, courage and curiosity – guide how we work and how we treat each other.

About the role

We are looking for a People Partner to act as the primary People point of contact for the NZAS General Manager and leadership team to deliver people priorities, turning business plans into clear actions for their teams and sites.

In this role, you’ll lead delivery across a defined portfolio in a complex, large-scale environment, while partnering with People Experience, Organisation and Talent Partners and specialist teams.

This is a great opportunity for someone who enjoys engaging stakeholders, influencing team members to deliver, shape and embed core people and workforce priorities, driving workforce effectiveness, employee experience and organisational performance.

What you’ll be doing

Reporting to the General Manager People Pacific Operations, and working closely with New Zealand Aluminium Smelter (NZAS) leadership teams and the broader People function, you will be:

• Act as the trusted People Partner and primary contact for the NZAS General Manager, shaping priorities and coordinating day-to-day delivery through People Experience and specialist teams.
• Translate business strategy into near-term workforce and people plans, develop local or site actions and facilitate strategic workforce plan fulfilment across the portfolio.
• Coach leaders on performance, team effectiveness, employee experience and business priorities, providing practical advice that supports consistent decision-making.
• Lead performance, talent and pay health processes for the site, including calibration, local talent strategies and identification of out-of-cycle benchmarking requirements.
• Support complex employee relations matters and core contact point for union matters, translating labour and regulatory changes into business implications and coordinating appropriate outcomes.
• Lead organisational changes, restructures and transformation initiatives, enabling leaders and supporting communication, engagement and adoption.
• Analyse engagement, workforce, case and query data to identify trends, drive targeted action plans and provide insights that inform business strategy and People frameworks.
• Partner across Organisation and Talent Partners, People Experience, Areas of Expertise and other People teams to execute aligned initiatives, manage escalations and improve service consistency.

About you

We’re looking for someone whose experience aligns with the key requirements below. You do not need to meet every “helpful for success” item to apply. If you bring relevant experience and are excited by the opportunity, we encourage you to submit an application.

Required for Success

• A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team.
• Demonstrated experience in senior HR business partnership and people advisory, building trusted relationships with General Managers and leadership teams, influencing culture in a complex organisation.
• Experience translating business strategy and workforce plans into actionable operational-level people priorities and driving disciplined execution.
• Demonstrated capability in New Zealand employee and labour relations, applying established frameworks and exercising sound judgement to manage and escalate risk.
• Experience leading organisational change or restructure implementation and embedding initiatives effectively across complex environments.
• Strong ability to interpret workforce and people data, translate insights into targeted business actions and collaborate across specialist teams to deliver consistent, timely outcomes.

Helpful for Success

• Experience facilitating performance and talent calibration, pay health reviews, local talent strategies or out-of-cycle benchmarking.
• Experience engaging with unions, interpreting labour or regulatory change, or supporting operational workforces.
• Experience using employee engagement, workforce, case or query insights to improve team effectiveness, workforce planning or people processes.

What we offer

Be recognised 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 
• A competitive base salary reflective of your skills and experience with annual incentive program  
• Comprehensive medical assistance scheme  
• Attractive share ownership plan 
• Leave for all of life’s reasons (vacation/annual, paid parental, sick leave) including long service leave 
• Competitive superannuation programme  
• Career development & education assistance to further your technical or leadership ambitions  
• Relocation assistance

Where you’ll be working

New Zealand’s Aluminium Smelter (NZAS) converts alumina into aluminium using renewable hydroelectricity, resulting in one of the lowest carbon footprints for an aluminium smelter in the world. The smelter is located on Tiwai Peninsula in Southland and the majority of the plant's alumina is supplied from our Yarwun and Queensland Alumina Limited refineries. Around 90% of the aluminium produced at NZAS is exported. NZAS is a joint venture owned by Rio Tinto (79.36%) and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical Company (20.64%).

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 Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQ+ 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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