About the role

We are looking for an Operations Superintendent to lead the safe, reliable, and efficient operations of our Reduction Department. Leading a team of six supervisors and an organization of approximately 50 operators, you will drive operational excellence while managing budgets, resources, and business performance across a critical area of our smelting operation.

The Reduction Department is the heart of the aluminum smelter, where the aluminum reduction process, called "smelting", occurs. The smelting process dissolves alumina in a cryolite bath within carbon-lined cells called pots. By passing a strong electric current through the bath, this process separates aluminum metal from the chemical solution, allowing the metal to be siphoned off. While the environment is unique, many of the skills required are highly transferable from other industrial and operational settings.

This role is a great opportunity for a driven and innovative leader to oversee a key area in the aluminum production process, with the opportunity to elevate operational excellence in a fast-paced and impactful environment.

While we don't offer fly-in-fly-out arrangements, we do offer domestic relocation assistance, to help you settle in and thrive. Join us and become an integral part of our vibrant community. Located on British Columbia, Canada's northwest coast, Kitimat is a welcoming, family-friendly community set between the mountains and the sea. Known for its strong local economy, modern amenities, short commutes, and endless opportunities for outdoor adventure, it's an ideal place to build both a career and a life.

Reporting to the Manager Reduction and working in a collaborative community within the Reduction Department, you will be working Monday to Friday and:

• Creating an environment where safety and wellbeing are valued above all else, ensuring teams operate in accordance with Rio Tinto's health, safety, and environment standards and regulatory requirements.
• Leading and developing a team of Operations Supervisors, providing direction to a unionized operational workforce of approximately 50 employees.
• Delivering departmental performance targets across safety, production, quality, and cost through effective collaboration with teams across the site.
• Driving operational excellence by identifying and implementing continuous improvement initiatives, technical advancements, and best practices.
• Developing workforce capability by coaching leaders, supporting employee development, and building organisational effectiveness.
• Managing capital and operating budgets, ensuring resources are aligned with business priorities and performance objectives.
• Applying business evaluation techniques and risk assessment principles to optimize operations and service delivery.
• Acting as a trusted link between leadership and front-line teams through active engagement, effective communication, critical incident support, and participation in the leadership on-call rotation.

About you

• A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team
• Post-secondary education, trade qualification, or equivalent leadership experience in a technical or industrial setting.
• Demonstrated leadership experience within mining, manufacturing, maintenance, or another complex operational environment, with a visible and engaging approach to coaching, mentoring, developing, and empowering teams. Experience leading in a unionized setting is considered an asset.
• Proven success leading production teams while driving accountability, culture change, continuous improvement, and change management initiatives; experience with Lean, Kaizen, Six Sigma, or similar methodologies is considered an asset.
• Strong business and operational acumen, including the ability to develop and manage budgets, analyse data, make informed strategic and operational decisions, and drive issues through to resolution.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills
• Experience using business systems and software (e.g., SAP, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) to support budgeting, reporting, and performance management.

If you are excited about the role and think you have what it takes but your experience doesn't align 100%, we still want to hear from you. Training and support are provided to help you build smelter-specific knowledge.

We encourage women and Indigenous Peoples to apply, as we advance our business to more accurately reflect the world around us.

Applications close on Sunday the 16th of August 2026 (Rio Tinto reserves the right to remove advertised roles prior to this date).

What we offer

Be recognized for your contribution, your thinking and your hard work, and go home knowing you've helped the world progress.

The base salary range for this role is $131,360 - $197,040 CAD in addition to allowances, bonus, equity, health or retirement benefits, and any other discretionary benefits offered at Rio Tinto. Our base salary ranges are based on role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by the skills, experience, and impact you bring to the role. Our talent acquisition partners can share more during the hiring process.

At Rio Tinto, we offer a competitive reward package that reflects the value that each person brings to our business. As part of our pay philosophy, we believe equity represents fairness, and is rooted in our values and aligns with what we stand for.

• A work environment where safety is always the number one priority
• Career development & education assistance to further your technical or leadership ambitions
• Leave for all of life's reasons (vacation/annual, paid parental, sick leave)
• Exclusive employee discounts
• Domestic or International relocation program if eligible

Where you'll be working

Rio Tinto's BC Works is a part of the Atlantic Operations of the Aluminium product group and has been operating in British Columbia for over 70 years. With industry leading new technology and four generations of employee expertise, as well as our hydropower facility at Kemano and the Nechako Reservoir, the Kitimat smelter is one of the world's most competitive aluminium smelters, producing aluminium with one of the lowest carbon footprints in the industry.

Rio Tinto is proud to operate in BC alongside our 1,000 employees, partners, community stakeholders and First Nations, and we look forward to the next 70 years.