Procurement Business Partner (Marine and Ports)
Strategic business partnering role to our critical assets
Exciting breadth of opportunities from strategic to execution
Ad hoc travel to Karratha region
Perth based
RTIO’s Pilbara ports are an integral part of our overall Iron Ore supply chain, allowing the business to sustain consistent delivery of our products to our clients across the globe.
As technology, innovation, and market changes evolves, long term commercial thinking must be embedded into asset decision making, across automation, digital enablement, AI revolution, condition monitoring and asset life extension / replacement solutions.
To achieve the mission, a collaborative business partnering approach from procurement to business is vital, so that we can deliver value in all levers, across our two ports and Dampier Salt operations.
About The Role
Finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs.
The Principal Advisor Marine and Ports provide strategic commercial partnering to Dampier and Cape Lambert Ports, along with our Dampier Salt business with a focus on long‑term primary asset strategies.
This position partners directly with Marine and Port subject matter experts to provide commercial guidance on long term asset strategies, capital investment decisions and technology roadmaps, and is accountable for whole‑of‑life commercial outcomes including asset optionality, obsolescence risk, supplier co‑commitments and long‑lead purchasing direction across marine assets including tugs, piloting, pilot transfer as well as maintenance activities like dredging and structural integrity.
This role is critical in supporting RTIO ports shift toward long‑term planning, increased technology complexity, and stronger cost and risk discipline.
Key Responsibilities:
Reporting to the Senior Business Partner – Ports, Rail and Services, this role provides the opportunity to:
Develop and articulate long range commercial strategies linked to marine and port assets.
Lead and mentor a small team of specialists in delivering procurement capability to the business
Partner with Ports Operations and senior stakeholders to influence commercial outcomes
Support early-stage commercial engagement on obsolescence management or new and emerging technologies, ensuring RTIO maintains strategic leverage
Identify and manage whole of life commercial assessments clearly understanding commercial risks and value implications of asset life extensions, technology changes and obsolescence.
Engage with OEMs, technology providers and strategic partners to understand future capability, innovation pipelines and commercial models.
Contribute to the development of long-term supplier and technology partnership approaches aligned to asset strategies.
Provide commercial guidance to support resilient, sustainable and future‑ready marine and port assets.
Ensure commercial strategies support safety, reliability, decarbonisation and operational performance objectives.
Collaborate closely with other categories and cross functional procurement team, in delivering value across to the business.
Contribute to a strong procurement team culture and demonstrate Rio Tinto values of Care, Courage and Curiosity
About you:
To be successfully considered for this role, you will be someone where people enjoy working with you, and look towards you as the natural leader.
You thrive in dynamic and complex environments and have a knack in unlocking and optimising relationships across various levels.
You possess strong commercial acumen and have the ability to navigate seamlessly between strategic and operational solutions.
You like to bring forth your curiosity, inquisitiveness and understand the business current and future needs, and guide them along to the right commercial solutions underpinned by our safety and social responsibility values.
You will demonstrate:
Experience working across and influencing outcomes in asset intensive or technical environments.
Translate complex commercial and technical analysis into clear, actionable insights to support decision making.
Strong commercial acumen with the ability to influence long term asset and technology decisions.
Capability to operate in ambiguous, forward looking contexts across multi year planning horizons.
Proven ability to build effective relationships with technical, operational and commercial stakeholders.
Ability to develop and present robust commercial analysis and strategic recommendations.
Where you’ll be working:
You’ll join a supportive, high‑performing team where safety comes first and flexible working is encouraged. As part of Rio Tinto Global Procurement, you’ll help secure the goods and services that keep our operations running, working closely with suppliers and stakeholders to deliver real value. The team focuses on strong partnerships, smarter ways of working, digital tools, and innovation to make a meaningful impact across the business.
Role location:
This role will be based in Rio Tinto’s Central Park office, Perth CBD. Ad-hoc site travel to Karratha will be required.
What we offer:
A work environment where safety is always the number one priority
Flexible working from home arrangements as per operational requirements
18 weeks of gender-neutral and equal paid parental leave, with continued superannuation contributions whilst employees are on unpaid or half paid parental leave
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);
Application Deadline: 26th June 2026
(Rio Tinto reserves the right to remove advertised roles prior to this date)
Please note, in order to be successfully considered for this role you must complete all pre-screening questions.
Rio Tinto does not accept unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles from recruiters or employment agencies. Rio Tinto will not consider or agree to payment of any referral compensation or recruiter fee relating to unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles. Rio Tinto reserves the right to hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to the recruiter or agency. Any unsolicited CVs or candidate profiles, including those submitted to hiring managers, are deemed to be the property of Rio Tinto.
About Rio Tinto
Rio 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 Inclusion
At 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.
