Oyu Tolgoi’s workforce today is more than 97 per cent Mongolian, and a major strategic focus for the company is to develop a skilled workforce that is continuously learning. We aim to attract the best talent, so that we can together deliver a safe and globally competitive copper business that contributes to the prosperity of Mongolia.
Oyu Tolgoi LLC is operating a copper-gold mine in southern territory of Mongolia. The company aspires a vision ‘Natural wealth to enduring value, knowledge, and skill’, and pursues a mission, 'Together deliver a safe and globally competitive copper business that contributes to the prosperity of Mongolia' to build one of the largest copper-gold mines worldwide.
Manager, Business Improvement – Oyu Tolgoi
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- Pivotal leadership role shaping performance and value delivery at Oyu Tolgoi LLC
- Ability to directly impact the safe delivery of organisational goals
- Location: Oyu Tolgoi Site, Mongolia (FIFO / rostered arrangement)
About the role
The Manager, Business Improvement plays a central role in driving productivity, performance, and value delivery across the business.
This is a senior leadership role accountable for managing the business improvement function across the business, with responsibility that extends well beyond traditional continuous improvement. The role owns the end-to-end delivery of a portfolio of improvement initiatives, ensuring opportunities are clearly defined, well prioritised, governed with discipline, and translated into measurable, sustained operational and financial outcomes, including cost and free cash flow.
The role sits on the Chief Operating Officer’s leadership team, working closely with senior leaders to provide clear insight, constructive challenge, and strong delivery discipline — ensuring improvement efforts result in real business impact, not activity.
A critical aspect of this role is building and leading a high-performing, inclusive team, setting clear expectations, strengthening capability, and establishing ways of working that enable strong performance, accountability, and collaboration.
Success in this role requires a leader who is deeply connected to operations, understands how value is created, and builds credibility through presence, curiosity, and practical engagement.
Key elements for success include:
- Leading the business improvement function across the business, with accountability for identifying, prioritising, and delivering improvement initiatives
- Owning an integrated portfolio of initiatives, turning business priorities into a clear, sequenced delivery roadmap
- Providing program-level oversight to ensure initiatives are well scoped, actively managed, and delivered to plan
- Applying disciplined governance, stage-gates, and quality assurance to drive consistent execution
- Ensuring benefits are credible, transparent, and sustained
- Tracking progress, risks, dependencies, and value at risk across the portfolio, escalating issues early where required
- Working with senior leaders to challenge priorities, sequencing, and trade-offs
- Holding initiative owners accountable for scope, milestones, KPIs, and outcomes
- Building, developing, and leading a high-performing and inclusive team, creating clear role clarity, expectations, and a culture of trust, accountability, and continuous improvement
- Embedding consistent improvement methodologies, coaching leaders and teams to strengthen delivery capability over time
About you
To be considered for this role, you will bring:
- Proven operational experience (10+ years) in asset‑intensive environments, with a strong track record of personally shaping, leading, and delivering business improvement, operational excellence, or productivity initiatives through to sustained outcomes
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple initiatives as a coherent portfolio, balancing priorities, risks, and dependencies
- Strong commercial and business acumen, with a clear understanding of how value is created and sustained
- Credibility with senior leaders, with the confidence to challenge constructively and drive accountability
- Demonstrated experience building and leading high-performing teams, including setting direction, lifting capability, and fostering inclusive and respectful ways of working
- A disciplined, outcomes-focused approach to governance, performance management, and delivery
- A clear commitment to safety and Rio Tinto values
Tertiary qualifications in Lean 6 Sigma and Project Management are desirable but not essential. Professional accounting qualifications are desirable but not essential. Experience working across different geographies and cultures is highly regarded.
This is an exciting opportunity not to be missed. Job ad closes on Apr 15, 2026
#GTS
Respect and Inclusion
At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQIA+ 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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Rio Tinto is a leading global mining and materials company. We operate in 35 countries where we produce iron ore, copper, aluminum, 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 and meet opportunities.
At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQIA+ community, mature workers, people with disabilities, and people from different cultural backgrounds.
We are committed to an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable being 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 who we are.
Start your application
Take your leadership career to the next level.
Where can Rio Tinto take you?
You’re passionate and ambitious with tremendous career aspirations. The breadth and growth of our organisation empowers you to define your ideal career path.
Take a look at Katie’s career journey

- 2022 - PresentManager Projects - Energy DevelopmentBrisbane, Queensland, Australia
- 2021Superintendent Operations CentreBrisbane, Queensland, Australia
- 2020Development / Drill and Blast SuperintendentPilbara, Western Australia
- 2019Deputy Quarry ManagerPilbara, Western Australia
- 2018Development SupervisorPilbara, Western Australia
- 2017Senior Engineer of Drill, Blast and SurveyPilbara, Western Australia
- 2016Production EngineerPilbara, Western Australia
- 2015Mine scheduler - 2 week plannerPilbara, Western Australia
- 2014Drill and Blast EngineerPilbara, Western Australia
- 2012Graduate Mining EngineerPilbara, Western Australia
Working at Rio Tinto
Help us deliver the materials that make human progress possible.
The plane you’re flying in just landed. You fire up your phone and get your laptop out of the overhead bin. Immediately, you’re in work mode – thousands of miles from your office. Do you ever stop to think about all the materials that make life in the 21st century possible? At Rio Tinto, we discover, develop and deliver the materials that drive human progress. When you work with us, you’ll experience advantages you won’t find anywhere else.
Our application process
01
Apply
The first thing you’ll need to do is apply to the role. You can do this with your LinkedIn profile or you can upload your resume. We’ll also ask you to complete a few questions before you submit your application.
02
Undergo assessments
Our assessments are designed to help us work out whether you are suitable for the role. We will let you know which ones you’ll need to complete.
03
Interview(s)
Our interviews could be in person or online. It’s a great opportunity for us to get to know you a bit better, answer any of your questions and talk about the exciting career opportunity you have applied for.
04
Offers and checks
At this stage, we will let you know if you have been successful. If you have been, we’ll need to conduct a couple of checks, such as a background or security check. You may also need to do a medical assessment depending on the role you have applied for.
05
Join the Rio Tinto team
Once the checks have been completed, we’ll be in touch to talk with you about your start date and answer any questions you may have before you start with us.



















