Principal Innovation Product Development - Minerals Americas | BHP Innovation | Chile | 5:2

Date: 3 Oct 2025

Job Posting End Date:

Job Country:

Chile

Job State/Province: Santiago

Job Location/Region:

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

Reporting into the Manager Leaching Innovation, this role is part of a global team that is a true organizational catalyst on the cusp of leading us into the future to fulfil our commitments and shape new aspirations; ultimately making us an innovative, productive, safer, and a more sustainable enterprise.

The role will be focused primarily on innovation in the hydrometallurgical processes and associated technologies, but also take in elements of intelligent processing to leverage sensing, advanced data analytics, machine learning, and automation to enhance performance. You will play a pivotal role in identifying, developing, testing, and implementing these technologies and processes that drive step change improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of our mineral processing operations.

This team will deeply partner with our Assets, other Functional teams and within the broader Innovation team to future-proof the Mining Industry through alignment of emerging technologies to solve for Asset challenges and to unlock the resources of tomorrow. The team drives development of solutions that solve for internal business needs and external trends that will be the foundation of the BHP mineral processing in the future.

As Principal Innovation Product Development, you will form part of a team working with our Assets and the broader BHP business, including other innovation sub-teams. You will be responsible for the development and delivery of a balanced portfolio of concepts & technology solutions consolidated into the product development roadmaps. You will also provide relevant technical subject matter expertise across the teams.

Accountabilities

Development of Technology Product Roadmaps that meet the asset requirements and unlocks future growth options across the short, medium and long term horizons.
Management of the forward work plan to allow effective progression of technologies through the innovation pipeline.
Work in collaboration with Ecosystems team for the identification of new prospective innovative technologies and concepts of operation for opportunities that target step change business opportunities and gaps in the portfolio to solve business needs.
Develop the technical risk-based learning plans, budgets and schedules for technologies to be effectively and efficiently developed from early phases of maturity to be ready for onsite demonstration of technical, practical and economic viability.
Development of business cases inclusive of commercial considerations to allow for early phase assessment of technology economic attractiveness.
Active management of the development test work programs both with internal BHP resources and external vendors to derisk technologies. Facilitating transition of prospective innovations through to onsite demonstration.
Close collaboration with the Delivery Team for the development of the requirements to gate into onsite testing of prospective innovation and subsequent ongoing technical support to facilitate the successful onsite piloting.
Provides relevant technical subject matter expertise across the team for the assessment of new technologies and technologies that are being site tested.
Facilitation and participation with the RCoE, Assets and other Functional teams in Technical Working Groups focuses on strategies, sharing of information, leveraging global expertise and resources.

About You

Advanced Degree in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Materials Science, or a closely related field.
Experience in hydrometallurgy, with a deep focus on copper leaching technologies (e.g., heap, dump, and agitation tank leaching).
Proven track record of leading the end-to-end development and successful commercialization of new products or processes in the mining, chemical, or related industries.
Extensive hands-on experience with leaching reagent chemistry (e.g., acids, alternative lixiviants, catalysts, additives) and mineralogy.
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including executives and customers.
Passion for innovation with an ability to turn the creative and novel ideas into practical solutions
Ability to develop and manage technical work programs with both internal and external stakeholders.
Technical expertise to assess work program outcomes/results and make data-driven recommendations for business decisions.
Financial acumen to effectively assess innovation technologies.
Proven ability to build relationships and work collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders.
Ability to think strategically and assess multiple future scenarios.

Highly Desirable

Experience in scaling processes from laboratory to pilot plant to industrial scale.
Established network within the academic and industrial hydrometallurgy community.
Experience working with major mining companies on field trials and technology deployment.
Knowledge of project management principles and stage-gate methodologies.
Business acumen and understanding of market dynamics in the copper and mining chemicals sector.
Proven ability to apply technical knowledge into the system thinking linking multiple technologies into a whole of process concept of operation.

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 recognize 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.