Senior Advisor Heritage

• Supportive team culture with a focus on inclusion, safety, and work life balance

• Take the next steps in your career with a company that is committed to your growth and development

• Perth based working Monday to Friday roster with regular, ad-hoc travel to the Pilbara

About the role

We are seeking a highly motivated and relationship-focused Senior Advisor Heritage to join our Traditional Owner Partnerships team, supporting the delivery of Traditional Owner heritage programs and engagement activities that enable asset development pathways and approvals.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone looking to further develop their heritage and stakeholder engagement expertise within a dynamic and collaborative environment. Working closely with Traditional Owner groups, project teams and operational stakeholders, you will provide advice and support to ensure heritage obligations are met and positive outcomes are achieved.

You will play a key role in building and maintaining strong relationships, supporting heritage approvals and contributing to the successful delivery of business priorities. This role suits an individual with strong communication skills and a proactive approach to stakeholder engagement, collaboration and continuous improvement.

This role will be based in Perth in the Central Park building working Monday to Friday roster with regular, ad-hoc travel to the Pilbara.

Reporting to the Manager Traditional Owner Engagement, you will:

• Leads the design and delivery of the Traditional Owner group heritage program, aligned with TO group and business priorities

• Leads project and contractor management, including scoping of fieldwork, onboarding and reporting for archaeological, ethnographic and CVLM studies

• Provides heritage technical advice across all relevant studies including review and approval of internal approval requests

• Coordinates heritage subject matter advice into annual survey and engagement planning processes

• Leads the negotiation process with Traditional Owners regarding heritage management strategies to support studies, projects and operational activities

• Maintains constructive relationships with internal and external stakeholders and working proactively across relationships to solve complex issues

• Builds relationships with Traditional Owner Elders and Heritage Staff of Traditional Owner governance organisations (including Prescribed Bodies Corporate, Aboriginal Corporations and other representative entities).

• Supports development of Heritage Specialists, and Heritage Advisors, including training and awareness of issues, systems and TO commitments

What you’ll bring

• A degree in Archaeology, Anthropology, Cultural Heritage Management, or similar

• Technical expertise in Heritage Management, and ability to conduct occasional site visits and fieldwork (Pilbara)

• Experience and understanding of undertaking culturally sensitive engagement with Traditional Owner and communities

• Experience working within Heritage Management in the mining & resources sector (or adjacent, e.g. Cultural Heritage Management consulting, Not-for-Profit, Prescribed Body Corporations, Government)

• A self-driven ability to set the work plan and direction of assigned projects and be responsible for prioritising, delivering, and reporting delivery outcomes

• Familiarity working with GIS, data and heritage information management programs and systems

• Strong stakeholder relationship management and communication skills

• Have a growth mindset and align to the Rio Tinto values of Care, Courage and Curiosity

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 bonus

• 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, cultural leave)

• To better suit different family needs, our paid parental leave approach gives all parents the option to take 18 weeks of paid leave after a new child arrives – at a time that suits them

• Exclusive employee discounts including hotel stays, banking, accommodation, cars, retail and more

We are committed to elevating Indigenous voices and increasing cultural knowledge in our business. Diversity of skills, life experiences and perspectives within our team enhances our way of working and our ability to achieve success together. To help you on your journey with us, you’ll also have access to:

• Specialist Indigenous Support Advisors who are always there for our Indigenous employees and available to support through any aspect of your employment

• Dedicated Indigenous Talent Program for our Operators and Tradespersons and entry level operational roles. This programme is designed to create long term sustainable careers for our Indigenous Employees to grow into leadership or technical pathways to ensure you have every opportunity to grow your career

• Indigenous leadership programs across some professional and operational roles to ensure that we are developing Indigenous Leaders

Where you’ll be working

In the Pilbara region of Western Australia, we own a world-class, integrated network of 18 mines, 4 independent port terminals, a rail network spanning nearly 2,000 kilometres and related infrastructure – all designed to respond rapidly to changes in demand. We are one of the world’s leading producers and exporters of iron ore.

This position will be a Perth-based role at our Central Park office in Perth CBD working a Monday to Friday roster with regular, ad-hoc travel to the Pilbara.

Ready to experience something unique? Apply today!

Advertising will close on 13th August 2026 (Rio Tinto reserves the right to cease advertising earlier)

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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