Principal Data Scientist
Australia
About BHP
At BHP we support our people to grow, learn, develop their skills and reach their potential. With a global portfolio of operations, we offer a diverse and inclusive environment with extraordinary career opportunities. Our strategy is to focus on creating a safe work environment where our employees feel strongly connected to our values and objectives, and where the capability of our people is key to our success.
Come and be a part of this success.
About the Role
The Digital WAIO team builds and operates reliable, safe and impactful solutions that improve operational decision-making across complex systems. This includes applying decision science, optimisation and advanced analytics techniques across planning, scheduling and operational use cases.
While contributing across a range of advanced analytics initiatives, a key focus of this role is the application of optimisation and decision science techniques to planning and scheduling problems.
As Principal Data Scientist, you will work closely with technical and operational stakeholders to design and deliver robust, production-ready decision-support solutions. You will contribute to a growing decision science capability, supporting the translation of complex problems into practical, scalable outcomes that improve safety, productivity and cost performance.
As a successful Principal Data Scientist, you will:
- Be connected to operational stakeholders and collaborate to frame complex problems into structured analytical solutions
- Design and develop analytical models and decision-support solutions across planning, scheduling and operational systems, using a combination of optimisation, machine learning and statistical techniques
- Apply a range of techniques including optimisation (e.g. linear and mixed-integer programming, heuristics), simulation-supported approaches, machine learning and statistical models; selecting the right method for the problem and the operational context.
- Be connected to operational stakeholders and collaborate to frame complex problems into structured analytical solutions
- Design and develop analytical models and decision-support solutions across planning, scheduling and operational systems, using a combination of optimisation, machine learning and statistical techniques
- Apply a range of techniques including optimisation (e.g. linear and mixed-integer programming, heuristics), simulation-supported approaches, machine learning and statistical models; selecting the right method for the problem and the operational processes.
- Build, deploy and support production-ready analytical models and pipelines, ensuring solutions are scalable, reliable and maintainable
- Collaborate with engineering and data teams to integrate models into systems, workflows and digital products
- Monitor and maintain deployed models, including performance, stability, data quality and ongoing improvement
- Contribute to broader analytics initiatives including simulation, machine learning and emerging digital capabilities, helping shape standards, tools, and best practices.
- Build trusted relationships across technical and non-technical stakeholders to enable successful delivery of outcomes
About You
The successful candidate will have:
- Experience applying data science, optimisation or other advanced analytical techniques to real-world problems
- Strong programming capability in Python, with experience writing maintainable and production-quality code
- Demonstrated experience delivering analytical solutions into operational or production environments
- Experience developing, validating and deploying machine learning or statistical models in applied or industrial contexts
- Experience working with stakeholders to define problems, assumptions and value outcomes
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate with external vendors, partners or co-build teams to design, deliver and support analytical solutions
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate across technical teams, including engineering, data and domain specialists
- Understanding of model lifecycle management, including deployment, monitoring and ongoing support
- Experience working within or alongside complex operational environments
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS or Azure), cloud-based data services and an understanding of security, cost and reliability considerations in cloud environments.
- Tertiary qualification in a relevant quantitative or technical discipline such as Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, Computer Science.
- Experience in mining, resources, supply chain or industrial operations
- Exposure to scheduling or planning systems and large-scale optimisation problems
- Experience with simulation or system modelling approaches
- Familiarity with MLOps or analytics deployment practices
About Our Process
At BHP, we are committed to employing individuals who align with the BHP Charter Values and meet the requirements of the role. As part of the recruitment process, there are a number of checks which may be conducted to demonstrate applicants suitability for a role including police / criminal background checks, medical, drug and alcohol testing, due diligence checks, right to work checks, and/or reference checks.
If you are already employed directly by BHP, please log in using your BHP email address or apply via our internal jobs portal.
Supporting a Diverse Workforce
The size, stability and magnitude of our business not only provides significant opportunity for professional development, but also attractive salary packages with performance-based bonuses and a best-in-class employee share program. We know there are many aspects of our employees' lives that are important, and work is only one of these, so we offer benefits to enable your work to fit with your life. These benefits include flexible working options, a generous paid parental leave policy, other extended leave entitlements and parent rooms.
At BHP, we know that we are strengthened by diversity. We are an Equal Opportunity employer that is committed to making BHP a safe and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive and be at their best every day. We are focused on creating a workforce that’s more diverse and represents the communities where we work and live. providing a work environment in which everyone is included, treated fairly and with respect. We are an Equal Opportunity employer and recognise that true diversity includes gender, age, race, disability status, sexual orientation, religion, neurodiversity, education levels, and many more aspects of your identity.
BHP is committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible for all. If you have a disability, we know that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. If you would like to reach out to someone about your situation and our recruitment process, please email us at inclusion@bhp.com.