ABOUT THE ROLE The Principal, Business Improvement role will play a key leadership role in designing, implementing, and sustaining the Hermosa Operating System while driving continuous improvement across the project and future operation. Working closely with project leaders and cross-functional stakeholders, you will help shape how the business plans, measures performance, identifies opportunities, and delivers value.
This is a unique opportunity to influence the development of a major mining project from construction through operations, establishing the processes, governance, and improvement culture that will support long-term operational excellence. This role is based at the Hermosa mine site near Patagonia, AZ.
Other key responsibilities include, but aren't limited to:
Operating System
- Lead the development of the Hermosa operational MOS by partnering with project resources and external resources from scoping through development and implementation
- Provide support to embed the Hermosa Operating System across functions and operations
- Act as the operation champion and coach for the Hermosa and global Operating Systems, educating, raising awareness, and providing feedback to the central Innovation & Business Optimisation team.
- Support capability-building in the Operating System practices
- Support the design of overall visualisation and implementation approach for the Hermosa MOS
Business Improvement Future State Development
- Support the planning of the future state of the Hermosa Business Improvement team
- Partner with Hermosa personnel, other South32 Operations, and global functions to develop a framework for Hermosa Life of Operation (LoOP) planning routines
- Collaborate with other Operations to ensure Hermosa's improvement routines incorporate learnings and align with Hermosa's mine of the future vision.
Full Potential and Improvement Pipeline (Once Operational)
- Perform annual full potential diagnostics to inform maximum technical capability (MTC) and set improvement targets and identify key focus areas based on highest value opportunities.
- Govern and manage the operation improvement pipeline to ensure sufficient pipeline health, cadence of initiative delivery and gap closure to MTC and Improvement target(s).
Business Planning and Alignment
- Coordinate development, management and quarterly reviews of the project business plan, in alignment with the South32 Business Planning and Alignment process.
- Support Hermosa Lead Team (HLT) to maintain operation-level Business Calendar and govern its accuracy
- Support the project in updating and reporting on scorecard metrics
Visualisation and Analytics
- Support the design of the operation based on Operating System requirements, to accelerate delivery of outcomes through data-enabled decision making.
- Partner with Digital Technology to develop an overall visualisation and analytics plan for the operation, aligned with the Full Potential and Improvement Pipeline process and embedded within the Operations Technology Plan.
- Partner with Digital Technology team to provide visualisation and analytics capability uplift through provision of training, coaching, tools and templates.
- Where applicable, lead and provide an analytics capability for the operation including data analytics, data science and simulations to enable specific high-value improvement initiatives.
Frontline Improvement (Project though to Operations)
- Support South32 leaders to systematically promote and manage frontline employee and contractor-initiated ideas to generate improvement outcomes
- Govern the project/operation frontline improvement pipeline to ensure frontline improvement processes are working effectively and frontline feel engaged and empowered
Improvement Capability
- Identify and manage improvement capability needs for the project/operation
- Provide improvement capability uplift across the operation through coaching and training where required
- Support capability-building in Improvement practices and where relevant, provide technical and project support for improvement activities to ensure delivery of operational outcomes
Other Operational Support
- Facilitate and support the project/operation to manage critical business processes (i.e. Business Planning, future Life of Operation Plan, etc)
- Support the project/operation to deliver accurate budgets and forecasts (including appropriate stretch target setting, development of operating cost forecasts and incorporation of improvement initiatives); challenge the status quo and influence plans as required
- Support the Vice President Project Delivery/Operations and HLT by providing advice on key commercial decisions; prepare and analyse evaluations to ensure key decisions consider value, risk, cost and opportunity
ABOUT YOU- Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Business, Finance, Commerce, or a related field required.
- Minimum 8 years of experience working with cross-functional teams and engaging both technical and non-technical stakeholders in a heavy industrial environment; mining experience preferred.
- Certification or formal training in Continuous Improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, Theory of Constraints, or Value Stream Mapping preferred.
- Demonstrated experience leading business improvement, operational excellence, change management, or transformation initiatives.
- Proven experience developing, implementing, and managing operating systems and continuous improvement programs.
- Experience managing projects and delivering results on time, within scope, and in alignment with business objectives.
- Prior people leadership or team leadership experience preferred.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, including root cause analysis, process improvement, and performance optimization.
- Experience with process mapping, value stream analysis, performance measurement, and identifying opportunities for operational improvement.
- Proficiency in performance reporting, data analysis, dashboard development, and data visualization.
- Experience conducting operational assessments, audits, health checks, and developing actionable improvement recommendations.
- Working knowledge of continuous improvement pipelines, benefits realization, budgeting, forecasting, and business performance management.
- Familiarity with operational excellence practices, management operating systems (MOS), workforce planning, and frontline execution processes.
- Strong leadership and influencing skills with the ability to drive organizational change and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to engage effectively at all levels of the organization.
- Strong consulting and collaboration skills, with the ability to build partnerships across operations, technical teams, and corporate functions.
- Ability to develop and deliver clear, data-driven presentations and recommendations to support decision-making.
- Demonstrated commitment to teamwork, continuous learning, and achieving sustainable business results.
