Manager External Affairs Operations (Corporate Affairs, Comms, Sustainability & Climate)

About BHP 

At BHP we support our people to grow, learn, develop their skills and reach their potential. With a global portfolio of operations, we offer a diverse and inclusive environment with extraordinary career opportunities. Our strategy is to focus on creating a safe work environment where our employees feel strongly connected to our values and objectives, and where the capability of our people is key to our success.

Come and be a part of this success.

About the Role 

• The role can be based in Australia (Perth, Adelaide or Brisbane), or Santiago (Chile) or Singapore.
• This vacancy will accept applications until 11:59pm AEST on 1st January 2024. 

The purpose of the External Affairs (EA) Operations team is to enable and amplify the impact of our EA team. The Manager EA provides leadership to a team focussed on partnering with EA sub-functions to identify and deliver transformation and improvement opportunities and initiatives (including technology improvements) that leave a positive impact on the culture, capabilities, and performance of the EA team. A critical trusted partner, advisor and enabler of EA sub-functions, who deeply understands sub-functional work, strategy, needs and challenges, and is sought out by the sub-function for advice, strategic insight, and support. Reporting to the Head of EA Operations, the role sits on the EA Operations Lead Team and supports EA globally.  

Key Responsibilities:

• Fosters a strong partnership with the EA sub-function(s), seen as an extension of the sub-functional team.
• Design, build and sustain a world class improvement and innovation function for EA
• Establishes an improvement & innovation nerve centre, prioritising ideas and initiatives against the vision and roadmap. 
• Identify, co-design and deliver process improvement initiatives in partnership with sub-functions to remove hurdles to allow our teams to focus on their core mandate. This includes identifying root causes for pain points within existing processes and designing and implementing solutions. Collaborating with business stakeholders where relevant (e.g. Finance, Procurement) and working with these stakeholders to embed solutions.
• Navigate company wide processes and systems and working with other business stakeholders (e.g. Finance, Procurement, Cyber, Technology) to manage processes and systems as they affect EA and empowering and enabling EA to navigate these processes and systems in an easy and efficient way.
• Assess technology opportunities and threats, partnering with sub-functions to identify and implement systems, tools and technology (including in collaboration with Technology) that transform how EA works, and that enable EA to solve complex challenges and pain points. Support and input sub-functional needs into the development and maintenance of EA’s Technology & Innovation Roadmap. 
• Manage and implement large-scale systems, processes, tools and technology solutions and changes. 
• Scan the horizon for new developments to ensure EA remains a future focussed world class team. Represent EA at relevant industry groups and establish relationships with external parties to facilitate best practice sharing.
• Support development and coordination of sub-function input into corporate planning and processes (CAP, budget, appraisal, cash prioritisation, benchmarking). Support sub-functional budget owners to navigate corporate planning and budgeting processes, and build and manage budget with operating discipline. Lead sub-function data and analytics.
• Drive innovation through regular external market analysis and horizon scanning.

About you

• Bachelor’s degree in business, science, technology, or EA-related field.
• 8+ years experience within or adjacent to the External Affairs space, preferably in a large multi-national corporate environment, or in a top-tier law firm, big 4 firm, or consulting firm.   
• Demonstrated ability to lead a multi-disciplinary team and drive an excellent team culture.
• Experience in formal project management qualifications and understanding of core technology tools relevant to EA function, including advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office 365. 
• Commercial/strategic acumen, and an understanding of the key drivers of shareholder value. 
• Able to demonstrate strong critical reasoning and analytics skills. Strong financial management and analysis experience, the ability to wrangle complex data and transform it into business-critical insights.
• Ability to influence stakeholders at all levels and very strong interpersonal skills. Able to demonstrate strong critical reasoning and analytics skills, quickly grasp technical concepts and apply theories. Able to find creative solutions to complex problems.
• Experience in leading innovation, improvement and change – opportunity framing, process design and documentation, and organisational change management.  
• Deep understanding of innovation and technology best practice relevant to an External Affairs function. 
• Experience and/or formal project management qualifications in Lean, Agile, design thinking and/or similar continuous improvement and project management methodologies preferred.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office 365 including Excel, Power BI, PowerApps and SharePoint capabilities preferred. Other programming language experience, and experience with RPA, AI and Machine Learning. 

About Our Process 

At BHP, we are committed to employing individuals who align with the BHP Charter Values and meet the requirements of the role. As part of the recruitment process, there are a number of checks which may be conducted to demonstrate applicants suitability for a role including police / criminal background checks, medical, drug and alcohol testing, due diligence checks, right to work checks, and/or reference checks. 

If you are already employed directly by BHP, please log in using your BHP email address or apply via our internal jobs portal. 

Supporting a Diverse Workforce    

The size, stability and magnitude of our business not only provides significant opportunity for professional development, but also attractive salary packages with performance-based bonuses and a best-in-class employee share program. We know there are many aspects of our employees' lives that are important, and work is only one of these, so we offer benefits to enable your work to fit with your life. These benefits include flexible working options, a generous paid parental leave policy, other extended leave entitlements and parent rooms.  

At BHP, we know that we are strengthened by diversity. We are an Equal Opportunity employer that is committed to making BHP a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and be at their best every day. We are focused on creating a workforce that’s more diverse and represents the communities where we work and live. providing a work environment in which everyone is included, treated fairly and with respect. We are an Equal Opportunity employer and recognise that true diversity includes gender, age, race, disability status, sexual orientation, religion, neurodiversity, education levels, and many more aspects of your identity.

BHP is committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible for all. If you have a disability, we know that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. If you would like to reach out to someone about your situation and our recruitment process, please email us at [email protected].