Superintendent - Operations & Maintenance

Superintendent - Operations and Maintenance

• A challenging and rewarding leadership role leading a large, diverse team

• One of the world’s most unique sites, with the focus now shifting to comprehensive world-class rehabilitation whilst maintaining successful operation of a critical path asset

• Site based role, 14:7 roster from Darwin, Northern Territory, or Brisbane, Queensland

About the role       

Looking for your next step and a chance to make a real impact? This role offers an exciting opportunity to lead a team and shape the way we deliver plant operations and maintenance that support the safe and cost-effective rehabilitation of the Ranger mine.

As Superintendent, you’ll take responsibility for the safe, reliable and efficient operation and maintenance of our brine concentrator and water treatment plants—critical fixed assets in our water processing network. Your focus will be on maximising plant availability, optimising performance, and ensuring compliance with environmental and safety standards.

You’ll lead a team of Operations and Maintenance Supervisors and Coordinators, who manage mechanical fitters, electricians and plant operators. Together, you’ll deliver preventative and corrective maintenance programs, manage scheduled shutdowns, and respond to operational challenges to keep the plants running smoothly. Working within established systems, you’ll strengthen governance and embed best practice while driving continuous improvement in reliability and cost efficiency.

Reporting to the Area Manager - Water Processing and Asset Management, you will:

• Lead with purpose: Set the standard for safety, reliability and operational discipline across fixed plant operations and maintenance teams.

• Optimise plant performance: Oversee day-to-day operations and maintenance activities to maximise uptime and efficiency.

• Manage and execute shutdowns: Manage the planning, coordination and delivery of scheduled shutdowns to ensure safe, timely and cost-effective outcomes.

• Champion preventative maintenance: Implement and refine strategies that reduce unplanned outages and improve asset integrity.

• Collaborate effectively: Work closely with planning, projects, engineering, procurement and health & safety teams to deliver practical solutions.

• Manage resources smartly: Allocate supervisors, coordinators, labour, contractors and vendor support to keep maintenance programs and shutdowns on schedule and within budget.

• Develop your team: Mentor and empower supervisors and coordinators to build capability and foster accountability.

• Ensure compliance: Maintain adherence to environmental, safety and regulatory requirements across all plant activities.

About you

• Trade or engineering qualification in Mechanical, Electrical, or Process Engineering, or equivalent experience in fixed plant operations and maintenance.

• Significant experience overseeing operations and maintenance for large-scale processing plants, ideally within water treatment or similar wet-process fixed plant environments.

• Proven capability in planning and executing scheduled shutdowns and major maintenance activities safely and efficiently.

• Strong understanding of asset integrity, preventative maintenance strategies, and reliability improvement practices.

• Demonstrated leadership experience managing supervisors, and multi-disciplinary teams (mechanical, electrical, operations).

• Strong decision-making ability with the capacity to prioritise effectively and work independently while seeking guidance when required.

• Sound knowledge of safety, environmental, and regulatory compliance requirements in an industrial setting.

• Ability to influence and motivate teams and stakeholders to achieve operational excellence.

• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to build relationships across the business.

• Competence with maintenance management systems (e.g., SAP or similar CMMS) and operational reporting tools.

If you don’t 100% meet these requirements, we still want to hear from you!

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 safety-focused and inclusive working environment 

• A competitive salary package with annual cash incentive awards (STIP) 

• Access to top tier family-friendly health and medical programs 

• Leave for all of life’s reasons (vacation/annual, paid parental, sick leave, cultural leave)

• Ongoing individual wellbeing support for you and your family for personal and professional matters 

• Generous Rio Tinto employee share program

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

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

• Extensive salary sacrifice & salary packaging options

• Relocation

Who we are  

Energy Resources of Australia Ltd (ERA) operated the Ranger Uranium Mine near the town of Jabiru in the Northern Territory, Australia, previously mining and producing uranium oxide. In January 2021, ERA ceased all mining and processing activities at Ranger after 40 years of operation with the focus now shifting to rehabilitation.

The Ranger Rehabilitation Project is committed to the rehabilitation of the Ranger Project Area to a standard that will establish an environment similar to the adjacent Kakadu National Park. In 2024, ERA entered into a Management Services Agreement (MSA) with Rio Tinto to manage the Ranger Rehabilitation Project, which will build on ERA’s existing rehabilitation work with Rio Tinto’s technical expertise in designing, scoping and executing closure projects. We remain committed to working with all key stakeholders, including the Mirarr People to complete this important rehabilitation work.

Applications close Monday 19th January 2026. Rio Tinto reserves the right to close advertising prior to this date.

About Rio TintoRio 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 InclusionAt 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.