Specialist Optimisation

Specialist Operations Research

• Bring your skills in Operations Research and apply them to one of the most exciting transformation projects in supply chain management
• Diverse and challenging projects with our Knowledge, Innovation and Technology (KIT) division
• Turning business use cases and requirements into technical solutions
• Utilise your Operations Research experience to enhance our business decision making
• Co-Develop and support complex modelling systems to optimise business outcomes
• Work in a flexible work environment where we prioritise a healthy work/life balance

About the Role

Finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs.

We have an opportunity for one Specialist Operations Research to work with challenging and exciting optimisation problems and positively impact the business while engaging with a team of technology experts across data science and simulation domains. This role will involve gaining substantial experience working with our data, scheduling, and planning systems to develop state-of-the-art optimisation outcomes to support business decision making. Our Knowledge, Innovation and Technology (KIT) division is courageous in the pursuit of innovation, curious in the development of emerging technologies and caring of our people and relationships. You will be regularly challenged and given the support to drive your innovations!

Reporting to the Senior Data Scientist, you will support the KIT Advanced Analytics team to design and continually improve products that solve business problems and provide insight to making improved decisions for our Iron Ore business. You will utilise your hands-on capability and skills in linear, mixed integer modelling along with experience in heuristics and discrete event simulation to;

• Help Rio Tinto Iron Ore modernise its integrated operations function by applying specialised operations research and optimisation approaches as a core member of the Future Scheduling Platform workstream
• Build optimisation models to support business requirements, designing and configuring to support their operation across the supply chain
• Ensure best in class processes and techniques to develop and deploy optimisation solutions to the business
• Ensuring models are sustainable and extensible and design can evolve with the business over time
• Provide training and knowledge transfer to support the deployment and continuity of the optimisation products developed and ensure they are solving business problems
• Foster an innovative and “disruptive” technology culture to identify and drive value-creating opportunities
• Influence the technical evolution of data services and data platforms to support the strategic operations optimisation aspirations of the group
• Mentor and guide early career professionals to build their knowledge and capability in Operations Research

About YouIdeally, you will have a masters qualification in Computer Science, Mathematics or a related field, combined with extensive experience in Optimisation and Simulation projects, preferably using agile methodologies.

You should also have experience with some or all of the below:

• The ability to develop a deep understanding of the business process that underpins good optimisation outcomes
• Demonstrated drive to work with and understand customers and end user problems
• A passion for coaching and an improvement mindset to support the introduction of new ways of working
• Experience managing and influencing stakeholders within cross functional teams
• Knowledge in change control using Git and release pipeline experience using Azure DevOps
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to diagnose and logically resolve technical problems
• Agile delivery and project management experience will be highly desirable
• Proficiency in a mathematical software packages (ie. Gurobi, CPLEX, AIMMS, Pulp or Pyomo)
• Proficiency in Python preferred
• Software engineering experience desirable

Where you will be working

This role is based in Perth, Western Australia, out of our Operation Centre (Perth Airport) office, working Monday – Friday, with required time at our Central Park, Perth offices, and ad hoc travel to sites in the Pilbara. We support and encourage flexible working arrangements.

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.

This role is for applicants residing in or willing to permanently relocate to Western Australia.

Applications close on 2nd March 2023 (Rio Tinto reserves the right to remove advertised roles prior to this date)

About Rio Tinto

Every idea, every innovation, every little thing the world calls ‘progress’ begins with a first step, and someone willing to take it: explorers, inventors, entrepreneurs. Pioneers. 

For nearly 150 years, Rio Tinto has been a company of pioneers – generations of people spanning the globe, all with the grit and vision to produce materials essential to human progress. 

Our iron ore has shaped skylines from Shanghai to Sydney. Our aluminium – the world’s first to be certified “responsible” – helps planes fly and makes cars lighter. Our copper helps wind turbines power cities and our boron helps feed the world, and explore the universe. Our diamonds help us celebrate the best parts of life. 

Every Voice Matters

At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQIA2 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.