Senior Specialist – Rail (Procurement)

Senior Specialist – Rail (Procurement)

• Join our global procurement team

• Partner our rail business in driving key commercial decisions

• Based in Perth CBD with ad-hoc site travel required.

About the role

Finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs.

With an asset base of 220 locomotives, 14,000 ore cars and 1,900km’s of track, RTIO’s rail network is one of the largest privately owned and most productive heavy haul rail networks in the world.

Having a close relationship with our rail assets enables Procurement to deliver value across all levers. As rail technology and innovation evolves, long term commercial strategies must be embedded into asset decision making across automation, digital enablement, condition monitoring and asset life extension solutions.

The Senior Specialist – Rail provides strategic commercial partnering to RTIO Rail, with a focus on long‑term primary asset strategies across rolling stock and capital roadmaps.

This position partners directly with Rail subject matter experts to provide commercial guidance on 3–10 year asset strategies, capital investment decisions and technology roadmaps, and is accountable for whole‑of‑life commercial outcomes including asset optionality, obsolescence risk, supplier co‑commitments and long‑lead purchasing direction across rolling stock, track machines, wayside systems and digital technologies.

This role is critical in supporting RTIO Rail’s shift toward long‑term planning, increased technology complexity, and stronger cost and risk discipline.

Key Responsibilities:

Reporting to the Business Partner – Rail, this role provides the opportunity to:

• Develop and articulate long range commercial strategies linked to emerging rail technologies such as automation, digital inspection, collision avoidance and condition monitoring.

• Support early stage commercial engagement on obsolescence management or new and emerging technologies, ensuring RTIO maintains strategic leverage.

• Identify and manage whole of life commercial assessments clearly understanding commercial risks and value implications of asset life extensions, technology changes and obsolescence.

• Engage with OEMs, technology providers and strategic partners to understand future capability, innovation pipelines and commercial models.

• Contribute to the development of long term supplier and technology partnership approaches aligned to asset strategies.

• Provide commercial guidance to support resilient, sustainable and future‑ready rail assets.

• Ensure commercial strategies support safety, reliability, decarbonisation and operational performance objectives.

• Contribute to a strong procurement team culture and demonstrate Rio Tinto values of Care, Courage and Curiosity

What you will bring

To be successfully considered for this role;

You are an open minded professional who enjoys working in dynamic and complex environments. You will demonstrate:

• Experience working across and influencing outcomes in asset intensive or technically environments.

• Translate complex commercial and technical analysis into clear, actionable insights to support decision making.

• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to influence long term asset and technology decisions.

• Capability to operate in ambiguous, forward looking contexts across multi year planning horizons.

• Proven ability to build effective relationships with technical, operational and commercial stakeholders.

• Ability to develop and present robust commercial analysis and strategic recommendations.

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: 7th 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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