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.
As Principal Mine Planning (RCoE), you will provide enterprise‑wide technical leadership and subject‑matter expertise to uplift mine planning outcomes across BHP’s portfolio. You will shape how mine planning is applied as an integrating discipline—supporting asset optionality, capital allocation, and long‑term value—through strong governance, standards, and economically rigorous planning practices that are consistent, risk‑aware, and aligned to enterprise priorities.
Operating as a senior second‑line technical leader, you will enable confident, high‑quality decision making through independent assurance, governance oversight, and trusted technical advice across all planning horizons. You will partner closely with asset teams, studies teams, Practice Leads, and senior leaders to strengthen decision quality, manage mine planning risk and uncertainty, drive continuous improvement, and build sustainable mine planning capability aligned to BHP’s future growth agenda.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide technical leadership for mine planning, partnering with asset and functional leaders to resolve material mine planning issues, shape enterprise‑wide solutions, and uplift planning outcomes across the portfolio.
- Champion mine planning as the integrating discipline that underpins asset optionality, capital allocation, and decision quality, ensuring plans are bottom‑up, economically rigorous, and aligned to enterprise value drivers.
- Enable and embed best‑practice front‑end loading of the Capital Allocation Plan (CAP) cycle, with a strong focus on enterprise optimisation, economic rigour, and trade‑off transparency across planning horizons and commodities.
- Execute second‑line assurance for mine planning, providing authoritative oversight of global standards, guidelines, Independent Peer Reviews, and alignment with BHP’s risk management and governance framework.
- Lead and deliver high‑value initiatives that materially improve mine planning capability, standards, and business performance.
- Represent BHP externally as an industry leader in mine planning, contributing to thought leadership, professional engagement, and the advancement of leading practice.
You are a people‑focused technical leader with deep mine planning experience and a strong track record of influencing outcomes in complex environments. You bring:
- Degree qualified mining engineer (Bachelor of Mining Engineering- or equivalent).
- A minimum of 10 years’ experience in mine planning, underpinned by strong business acumen, including involvement in economic modelling and business analysis of minerals assets.
- Deep technical expertise in mine planning as an integrated discipline, with experience across all planning horizons.
- Experience across multiple commodities, and both site and corporate environments will be highly regarded.
- Proven ability to lead and influence diverse, highly skilled mine planning professionals, working collaboratively across functions, geographies, and organisational boundaries, and communicating complex issues clearly to drive positive change.
- A strong risk, governance, and decision‑quality mindset, with experience operating in second‑line assurance, governance, or independent review environments (desirable).
- Evidence of a strong commitment to continuous learning and professional development.
- Deep subject matter expertise in mine planning in one or more of the following areas: iron ore, coal, underground metalliferous, open pit mining, underground ventilation, benchmarking and business improvement.
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 [email protected].
