Procurement Business Partner

Procurement Business Partner

• Work within a high performing dynamic environment
• Opportunity to lead the Procurement teams supporting Rio Tinto’s Aluminium assets in Tiwai, New Zealand and Bell Bay, Tasmania
• Permanent opportunity based in Invercargill, New Zealand, or Brisbane, Australia

 About the role

Finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs.

In your role, you will be responsible for providing leadership for the procurement teams supporting Rio Tinto’s aluminium smelters at Tiwai, New Zealand and Bell Bay, Tasmania. It is expected that this position will be based in either Invercargill, New Zealand or Brisbane, Australia and will have occasional travel to the sites as required. You will provide collaborative leadership to develop and maintain a team culture that consistently demonstrates our organisational values and seeks to identify and deliver value to our stakeholders. 

This role is a great opportunity to establish and manage positive relationships with key internal stakeholders and critical suppliers, and to exercise your commercial skills to deliver mutually beneficial outcomes. The key focus of this role is to:

• Provide day to day leadership to the Rio Tinto Procurement teams in Tiwai and Bell Bay and drive a high performing and collaborative culture that will support each team member to achieve their full potential.
• Ensure that a strong safety culture is embraced by Procurement team members, and safe working practices are adopted by Rio Tinto’s supplier base.
• Support the management of relationships with site stakeholders at Tiwai and Bell Bay to ensure their needs are consistently met, and constructively challenge and influence to ensure that they understand what is required to maximize value from procurement.
• Support the Procurement team to develop and deliver supplier negotiation strategies.
• Ensure that best practice procurement and supply chain systems are introduced and operated at Tiwai and Bell Bay.
• Drive change and improvements with key stakeholders and develop a communication plan to ensure commitments are being achieved.
• Work closely with all Procurement Category Managers to develop plans and coordinate work to be done centrally for Tiwai and Bell Bay.
• Work closely with stakeholders to support site initiatives (eg Six Sigma / LEAN Manufacturing).
• Support the development of business strategies, objectives and context into a procurement strategy with supporting programs and interventions to enable value delivery. 
• Constructively challenge and coach site stakeholders on their supply chain effectiveness.
• Collaborate with site leadership to define, build, and improve procurement strategy and delivery.
• Identify threats and opportunities to business objectives through data, conversations and observations; and diagnosing root causes to determine the required intervention.
• Ensure all procurement initiatives are delivered to meet all the governance requirements outlined in Rio Tinto Procurement and Group Policies, Standards and Guidelines.

What you’ll bring

This role is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate your strong interpersonal skills to lead and develop a high performing team, and to build a collaborative framework with internal and external stakeholders.

• Relevant tertiary qualification
• Previous experience with leading a high performing team
• Sound knowledge of procurement, strategic sourcing and category management is preferred, however strong consideration will be given to candidates who can demonstrate skills and experience in a commercial leadership role
• Comprehensive competency in the use of MS Office software

It would be great if you also had:

• A postgraduate qualification
• Working knowledge of SAP
• Familiarity with Six Sigma and LEAN methodologies
• CIPS certification, LEAN Manufacturing or Six Sigma training

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 permanent position working directly for Rio Tinto
• 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)
• Possible domestic relocation assistance

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 and meet opportunities.

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.

Every Voice Matters

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.

Applications close on Monday 12 June 2023. (Rio Tinto reserves the right to remove advertised roles prior to this date).

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.