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
