Date: 25 Aug 2026
Job Posting End Date:
Job Country:
Australia
#job-location.job-location-inline { display: inline; }
Job State/Province: South Australia
Job Location/Region: Olympic Dam
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.
Copper SA is seeking a passionate and experienced Principal Asset Approvals to join our Environment Approvals team. This is an exciting opportunity to help shape the future of one of Australia's most significant copper businesses, supporting a pipeline of growth projects and operational excellence initiatives across Olympic Dam, Carrapateena and Prominent Hill.
The Principal Approvals provides subject matter expertise and leadership across environmental, regulatory and permitting activities, delivering approvals solutions that enable safe, sustainable and value-generating outcomes for the business. You will lead complex approvals from concept through to execution, navigate challenging regulatory issues, and partner with internal and external stakeholders to manage risk and unlock opportunities. The role offers exposure to major growth projects, operational approvals and technically challenging environmental issues across a diverse asset portfolio.
Working within a highly capable team of approvals professionals, this role offers autonomy, flexibility and variety. You will have the opportunity to leverage your individual strengths, influence key business decisions and contribute directly to the growth and success of Copper SA.
The role will be Adelaide based working a 5/2 roster with occasional travel to site. The role is permanent within the Copper SA Planning Technical and Environment team.
Reporting directly to the Superintendent Asset Approvals, you will be required to:
Comply to and consistently follow the standards and procedures designed to enable you to work safely and effectively every day
- Lead environmental, regulatory and permitting approvals across a portfolio of growth projects and operational activities within Copper SA.
- Develop and execute approvals strategies that support business objectives while effectively managing environmental and regulatory risks.
- Lead complex environmental impact assessment and approvals programs, including those relating to groundwater, water resources and long-term operational sustainability.
- Build and maintain effective relationships with regulators, technical specialists and key business stakeholders to achieve successful approvals outcomes.
- Provide specialist technical advice and leadership for environmental studies, investigations and approvals documentation.
- Identify, assess and manage environmental and regulatory risks, supporting safe, compliant and value-generating outcomes for the business.
- Support implementation of environmental, permitting and closure requirements across Olympic Dam, Carrapateena and Prominent Hill.
- Provide peer review, mentoring and technical leadership across the Approvals team, helping to build capability and embed organisational knowledge.
- Drive continuous improvement in approvals systems, obligations management and regulatory engagement practices.
- Verify and assure the effective execution of environmental commitments, approvals obligations and project requirements.
- Tertiary qualification in Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Hydrogeology, Natural Resource Management or a related discipline.
- Significant experience delivering environmental approvals, environmental impact assessment and regulatory permitting programs within resources, infrastructure, energy or a similarly complex industry.
- Demonstrated experience leading complex technical work programs relating to groundwater, water resources, environmental management or other natural resource disciplines.
- Strong understanding of Federal and State environmental legislation, approval frameworks and environmental management systems, including ISO 14001.
- Proven ability to develop practical solutions to complex environmental, regulatory and business challenges.
- Considerable experience managing projects, consultants and multidisciplinary technical teams to achieve successful outcomes.
- Ability to build trusted relationships and influence outcomes across regulators, technical specialists, project teams and senior business stakeholders.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex technical information and translate it into clear business recommendations.
- Demonstrated commitment to safe and inclusive work practices, aligned with BHP's Charter Values.
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.
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].
