Principal Research Engineer - Digital - Brisbane

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 Principal Research Engineer supports the acceleration of BHP's digital innovation and technology agenda. This role is foundational to Digital R&D, focusing on the discovery, validation and maturation of emerging technologies, shaping Digital R&D architecture, and building strong internal and external partnerships.

The role will establish and mature processes for innovation and technology acceleration across multiple Digital domains. It will enable delivery teams to move efficiently through critical decision points, improving cycle time and the quality of technology investment decisions. It will complement delivery teams by focusing on early-stage validation, technology maturity and decision support rather than end-to-end product delivery.

You will explore, stress test and integrate a combination of current, emerging and experimental technologies across existing enterprise capabilities (vendor, open-source and in-house).

Success in this role requires maintaining focus on rapid validation, evidence-based decision making, and clear recommendations for adoption or non-adoption in a complex stakeholder environment.

Key accountabilities include:  

• Provide technical leadership across Digital R&D and contribute to standards and best practices
• Rapidly prototype and evaluate emerging technologies (incl. AI/ML) to generate evidence
• Lead integration of validated technologies into enterprise environments
• Translate ambiguous problem spaces into structured experiments and measurable outcomes
• Drive Proof of Concept and Proof of Value initiatives to validate, challenge and de-risk technology choices
• Identify and remove blockers across complex, cross-domain initiatives
• Improve processes, governance and ways of working to support scalable innovation
• Build strong relationships with stakeholders, vendors and research partners
• Mentor and guide teams without formal authority
• Enable enterprise-wide digital transformation through faster, evidence-based technology decisions

About You

You are:

• A strategic thinker who thrives in technically complex and evolving environments
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and making progress with incomplete information
• An effective collaborator and influencer across diverse stakeholder groups
• Passionate about emerging technologies and their practical application at scale
• Focused on delivering measurable value through experimentation and iteration
• A supportive mentor who uplifts others through coaching and knowledge sharing

You have:

• Extensive experience (7+ years) in technology, Software or AI R&D or digital innovation in complex environments
• Demonstrated track record of progressing technologies from concept through to proof of value and production
• Strong capability in software engineering, rapid prototyping and/or solution architecture, including cloud-native, and API-driven environments
• Experience working across multiple technical domains and the full software development lifecycle
• Proven ability to engage and influence both technical and non-technical stakeholders

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 inclusion@bhp.com.