The posting
About the role
We are looking for an experienced Superintendent Health, Safety and Emergency Services (HSES) to lead a critical function and make a meaningful impact on the safety, health and operational readiness of the site.
Reporting to the Manager Safety & Performance and working a 5/2/4/3 roster, you will lead a multidisciplinary team across Health, Safety, Hygiene and Emergency Services.
You’ll work side-by-side with operational leaders to turn HSES strategy into action, strengthen frontline capability and bring safety leadership to life across the operation.
This is a highly visible and influential leadership role where you’ll have the opportunity to shape how HSES is delivered on site. If you enjoy being connected to the operation, developing great people, challenging the status quo and turning insight into meaningful improvement, this is an opportunity to make a genuine difference.
What you’ll be doing
In this role, you will:
- Lead, coach and inspire a multidisciplinary HSES team, building capability and creating a strong, proactive safety culture.
- Partner with operational leaders to embed health, safety and emergency management into everyday decision-making and operational planning.
- Be a trusted source of technical guidance and assurance across health, safety, hygiene and emergency response standards, systems and legislative requirements.
- Challenge the way we work and identify opportunities to strengthen risk controls, prevent incidents and lift health and safety performance.
- Lead emergency preparedness and response capability, ensuring our people, systems and processes are ready when they matter most.
- Turn audits, inspections, assurance activities and performance insights into meaningful action, identifying emerging risks and opportunities for improvement.
- Support high-quality incident investigations and help translate learnings and corrective actions into practical, sustainable risk reduction.
- Build trusted relationships with regulators, contractors, emergency services personnel and operational stakeholders to influence and deliver strong HSES outcomes.
About you
You’ll be a confident and collaborative leader who brings together technical expertise, operational understanding and the ability to influence at all levels. You’ll be comfortable getting into the detail when it matters, while keeping sight of the bigger picture and bringing people with you.
You don’t need to tick every box. If you bring relevant experience, strong leadership capability and a genuine passion for creating safer, healthier workplaces, we’d love to hear from you.
Required for Success
- A genuine commitment to the safety and wellbeing of yourself and others, and the leadership behaviours to bring that commitment to life.
- Demonstrated leadership experience across health, safety, emergency management, engineering or operations within mining, heavy industry or another safety-critical environment.
- Experience implementing and improving health, safety and risk management programs that deliver practical outcomes in an operational environment.
- Strong working knowledge of relevant health, safety and emergency management legislation, standards, systems and assurance processes.
- Proven ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, develop capability, coach leaders and influence outcomes across diverse stakeholder groups.
- A tertiary qualification in health, safety, engineering, emergency management, human factors or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
Helpful for Success
- Experience working with site emergency response teams and building strong emergency preparedness capability.
- Experience leading incident investigations, assurance programs and broader organisational risk initiatives.
- Exposure to complex operational environments involving regulators, contractors and multiple stakeholder groups.
- Experience using performance data and operational insights to spot emerging trends, challenge existing practices and turn insights into improvement.
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 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, personal & cultural leave)
- Exclusive employee discounts (banking, accommodation, cars, retail and more)
- Possible domestic relocation assistance
Where you'll be working
Located approximately 95km northwest of Newman in the East Pilbara, Yandicoogina is one of Australia's highest-producing iron ore mines. The site produces unique Hamersley Iron Yandi (HIY) fines and operates a fleet of autonomous haul trucks and drills, supporting efficient and safe operations.
Yandicoogina is recognised for its strong culture of teamwork, safety, and innovation, with a pioneering spirit. The mine supports a fly-in fly-out workforce from multiple regional hubs, including Perth, Busselton, and Derby - enhancing accessibility and community engagement across Western Australia.
Applications for this role will close on 14th of November 2026. (Rio Tinto reserves the right to remove advertised roles prior to this date)
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 LGBTQ+ 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.
