Specialist Hydrogeologist

Riotinto; Newman; On-site; AUD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary

Annual incentive bonus

Comprehensive medical benefits

Private health insurance for employees

Share ownership plan

Insurance coverage provided

Salary packaging options

Career development & education support

Paid parental leave and family support

Job summary

Rio Tinto’s Hope Downs 4 site in Western Australia seeks a Specialist Hydrogeologist to provide technical hydrogeology support across projects, ensuring safety and alignment with company standards. The role reports to the Superintendent Geoscience and supports dewatering, groundwater modelling, and concept development.

You will mentor peers, contribute to planning, and drive improvements while operating within a FIFO roster from Perth.

Qualifications

• Relevant Degree in Geoscience.
• 4-5 years relevant hydrogeology experience.

Responsibilities

• Demonstrating a strong commitment to safety and ensuring all activities align with Rio Tinto standards, policies and procedures.
• Providing 2WS and QF hydrogeological inputs, including groundwater constraints, drilling schedules and recommendations to support dewatering performance and conformance to plan.
• Monitoring operational water balance health and contributing to site water usage modelling and groundwater management infrastructure planning.
• Providing hydrogeological inputs into conceptual models, including reviewing, accepting and supporting the implementation of new hydrogeological models.
• Identifying emerging groundwater and dewatering risks through the 2YP and defining appropriate mitigation and dewatering strategies.
• Identifying and scoping hydrogeological drilling opportunities to improve short-term to 2YP water supply and dewatering effectiveness.
• Completing end-of-month hydrogeology reporting, model reconciliation, FLA (D3), and delivering ad hoc technical projects and improvement initiatives.
• Providing technical coaching, guidance and training to operational hydrogeology peers to build capability and support effective water management.

Skills

Hydrogeology

Groundwater modelling

Safety leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Technical communication

Education

Geoscience degree

Job description

• The perfect balance, our roster gives you more time for the things that are important in your life and to your family and community
• Opportunities and support to learn and grow your career
• FIFO from Perth – 5 days on, 2 days off, 4 days on, 3 days off roster

We’re Finding Better Ways to provide materials the world needs, now and in the future. Our values – care, courage and curiosity – guide how we work and how we treat each other.

About the role

An exciting opportunity is available for an experienced Specialist Hydrogeologist to join our team at Hope Downs 4. In this role, you’ll provide technical expertise, support and advice across a range of hydrogeology activities while working as part of a supportive and collaborative team. You’ll be encouraged to grow your capability, build your technical expertise and work towards your career goals while contributing to the team’s success.

Reporting to the Superintendent Geoscience, you will be responsible for:

• Demonstrating a strong commitment to safety and ensuring all activities align with Rio Tinto standards, policies and procedures.
• Providing 2WS and QF hydrogeological inputs, including groundwater constraints, drilling schedules and recommendations to support dewatering performance and conformance to plan.
• Monitoring operational water balance health and contributing to site water usage modelling and groundwater management infrastructure planning.
• Providing hydrogeological inputs into conceptual models, including reviewing, accepting and supporting the implementation of new hydrogeological models.
• Identifying emerging groundwater and dewatering risks through the 2YP and defining appropriate mitigation and dewatering strategies.
• Identifying and scoping hydrogeological drilling opportunities to improve short-term to 2YP water supply and dewatering effectiveness.
• Completing end-of-month hydrogeology reporting, model reconciliation, FLA (D3), and delivering ad hoc technical projects and improvement initiatives.
• Providing technical coaching, guidance and training to operational hydrogeology peers to build capability and support effective water management.

What you’ll bring

• A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team
• A current "C Class" WA Manual Driver’s License
• Relevant Degree in Geoscience
• 4-5 years relevant experience in hydrogeology
• Analytical & problem-solving skills
• Stakeholder engagement
• Ability to succinctly communicate complex, technical information

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 work environment where safety is always the number one priority
• A permanent position working directly for Rio Tinto
• A competitive base salary reflective of your skills and experience with annual incentive bonus
• 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, cultural leave)
• To better suit different family needs, our paid parental leave approach gives all parents the option to take 18 weeks of paid leave after a new child arrives – at a time that suits them
• Exclusive employee discounts including hotel stays, banking, accommodation, cars, retail and more

We are committed to elevating Indigenous voices and increasing cultural knowledge in our business. Diversity of skills, life experiences and perspectives within our team enhances our way of working and our ability to achieve success together. To help you on your journey with us, you’ll also have access to:

• Specialist Indigenous Support Advisors are always there for our Indigenous employees and available to support through any aspect of your employment
• Dedicated Indigenous Talent Programme for our Operators and Tradespersons and entry level operational roles. This programme is designed to create long term sustainable careers for our Indigenous Employees to grow into leadership or technical pathways to ensure you have every opportunity to grow your career.
• Indigenous leadership programmes across some professional and operational roles to ensure that we are developing Indigenous Leaders.

Where you’ll be working

Located 50km north-west of Newman, Hope Downs 4 is a joint venture managed and operated by Rio Tinto, working in conjunction with nearby site Hope Downs 1. Hope Downs 4 provides excellent career growth and opportunities and the village provides excellent facilities for its fly-in fly-out workers.
Advertising will close on the Wednesday 18th of November, 2026 (Rio Tinto reserves the right to cease advertising earlier)

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.

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