- Provide thought leadership and lead key work shaping Rio Tinto’s global approach to base pay.
- Lead the development and evolution of global base pay frameworks, methodologies and solutions, including where existing approaches need to evolve to meet changing business needs.
- Bring deep reward expertise and external insight to challenge existing thinking and develop equitable, commercially grounded approaches that work across a complex global organization.
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
We are looking for a Principal Adviser Remuneration Strategy to provide thought leadership and lead strategic design work shaping Rio Tinto’s global approach to base pay. Working within our global Reward area of expertise, you will bring deep remuneration expertise, external perspective and strong commercial judgement to some of our most important base pay challenges.
You will lead the development and evolution of global pay frameworks, methodologies and solutions, from salary structures, market positioning and job architecture through to pay equity and annual remuneration investment.
You will identify where our approaches need to evolve, challenge existing thinking and develop practical solutions that respond to changing workforce and business needs while maintaining appropriate global principles and governance.
This is an opportunity to be a recognized subject matter expert in base pay, influence the direction of our global reward strategy and turn complex remuneration questions into approaches that work in practice across Rio Tinto.
What you’ll be doing
As a senior subject matter expert within our Reward area of expertise, you will provide thought leadership on base pay and lead significant strategic design workstreams from problem definition through to recommendation and implementation. Reporting to the Manager Remuneration Strategy, you will work with Reward colleagues and business stakeholders globally to:
- Provide thought leadership on base pay strategy and emerging reward issues, bringing external practice, evidence and business insight into the evolution of Rio Tinto’s approach.
- Lead the development and evolution of global base pay frameworks, methodologies and standards across your areas of responsibility.
- Identify emerging business or workforce needs that are not adequately addressed through existing approaches and develop fit-for-purpose solutions within Rio Tinto’s broader reward philosophy and governance.
- Lead design work across salary structures, market positioning, job architecture and role valuation, balancing global coherence with legitimate differences in markets and workforce needs.
- Shape recommendations for annual remuneration investment, bringing together market movement, pay progression, pay health, affordability and investment priorities.
- Translate complex remuneration data, external market intelligence and business context into clear points of view, options and recommendations for senior stakeholders and governance forums.
- Partner with Reward and People teams globally to translate strategy and policy into practical approaches and resolve complex remuneration challenges.
- Contribute to the evolution of pay transparency, pay equity and remuneration effectiveness approaches, identifying emerging risks and opportunities to strengthen outcomes.
- Shape reward requirements for data, analytics, reporting and HR technology, helping ensure our tools and insights enable better remuneration decisions.
About you
You bring deep remuneration expertise, intellectual curiosity and strong commercial judgement, with the ability to form a point of view and influence how an organization thinks about reward. You are comfortable working with ambiguity, challenging established approaches and leading complex reward questions from problem definition through to practical, evidence-based solutions.
Required for Success
- A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team.
- Base pay expertise and thought leadership: Deep expertise across base pay strategy and design, including salary structures, market positioning and benchmarking, job architecture and evaluation, pay equity and annual remuneration investment, with the ability to bring a strong external perspective and informed point of view.
- Strategic design and problem solving: Demonstrated ability to lead complex reward strategy and design work, challenge established approaches, diagnose emerging business and workforce needs, and develop innovative, evidence-based solutions.
- Commercial and analytical judgement: Strong ability to interpret market, workforce and financial insights, navigate competing priorities and translate complexity into clear strategic choices, trade-offs and recommendations.
- Policy and framework design: Experience shaping and evolving remuneration policies, frameworks, methodologies and standards that create enterprise coherence while allowing appropriate flexibility for different markets, workforces and business needs.
- Influence and leadership: Ability to operate as a credible subject matter expert, shape thinking and influence senior stakeholders, constructively challenge different perspectives, and build alignment around complex remuneration decisions.
- Enterprise perspective: Ability to think beyond individual issues or markets, identify broader implications and opportunities, and develop approaches that can work effectively across a large, complex global organisation.
Helpful for Success
- Experience developing global or multi-country reward approaches in a large, complex organization, or through reward consulting across multiple clients or markets.
- Experience preparing remuneration proposals and supporting senior leadership or governance discussions on policy, investment decisions or business-specific solutions.
- Experience bringing external market practice, emerging reward trends and new thinking into the development of remuneration strategy and solutions.
- Experience with Workday, Power BI, market survey platforms, remuneration modelling or comparable reward technology and analytics tools.
What we offer
Be recognized 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 an annual incentive program
- Comprehensive medical benefits, including subsidised private health insurance for employees and their immediate family
- Attractive share ownership plan
- Company provided insurance cover
- Extensive salary sacrifice & salary packaging options
- Career development and education assistance to further your technical or leadership ambitions
- Ongoing access to family-friendly health, medical and wellbeing support
- Leave for all of life’s reasons (vacation/annual, paid parental, sick leave)
- Exclusive employee discounts (banking, accommodation, cars, retail and more)
Applications close on 15th November 2026.
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.
