- Multiple opportunities for experienced maintenance leaders to step into senior frontline leadership roles
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Lead a critical maintenance team in one of the world's most modern aluminium smelters, with the opportunity to influence asset reliability, operational performance, and the development of future leaders.
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This permanent, full-time, role is based in Kitimat, BC. The perfect place to live and work, combining the tranquility of a small community with an unrivaled love for the great outdoors.
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 multiple Maintenance Superintendents to provide visible leadership to maintenance teams responsible for the safe, reliable, and efficient performance of critical assets within our operation. In this role, you will lead teams of tradespeople, supervisors, and technologists, driving safety, reliability, operational performance, cost management, and continuous improvement.
Our Aluminum Smelting operation relies on a diverse and complex asset base that includes heavy industrial equipment, rotating and stationary assets, automated systems, mobile equipment, cranes, electrical infrastructure, and process equipment.
These are great opportunities for proactive and engaging leaders to take on high-impact roles where they can develop people, influence how maintenance challenges are anticipated and addressed, and help shape a more proactive safety and reliability culture.
While we don’t offer fly-in-fly-out arrangements, we do offer 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 Department Manager and working in a collaborative community within your area, you will be working Monday to Friday and:
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Leading a team of supervisors, skilled tradespeople, and technicians while fostering an interdependent safety culture through visible leadership, human performance principles, and critical risk management.
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Coaching, mentoring, and developing team members while creating an environment built on trust, accountability, and genuine care for others.
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Driving maintenance execution excellence by improving equipment availability, reliability, productivity, and overall asset performance.
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Fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, ensuring best-practice maintenance processes are in place and identifying opportunities to optimize performance and costs.
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Leading safety and incident investigations, ensuring effective corrective actions are identified and implemented to prevent recurrence.
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Developing and managing departmental budgets and operating plans, balancing cost management with the achievement of business objectives.
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Building strong partnerships with Operations, HSE, People Experience, and other stakeholders to support department and site-wide priorities.
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Providing leadership support during major shutdowns, critical breakdowns, and emergency events, including participation in the plant-wide leadership on-call program.
About you
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A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team.
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A bachelor’s degree, trade qualification, or technical diploma in a related field, along with a valid driver's licence equivalent to a minimum Class 7 BC driver's licence.
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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.
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Proven success leading maintenance 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.
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Strong business and operational acumen, including the ability to analyse data, make informed strategic and operational decisions, and drive issues through to resolution.
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Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills
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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. We value transferable experience and are committed to providing support to help you build knowledge specific to our site, systems, and business.
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.
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A work environment where safety is always the number one priority
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Career development & education assistance to further your technical or leadership ambitions
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Leave for all of life’s reasons (vacation/annual, paid parental, sick leave)
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Exclusive employee discounts
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Domestic or International relocation program, subject to eligibility
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.
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 Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQIA2 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.
À propos de Rio Tinto
Rio Tinto est un chef de file mondial du secteur des sociétés minières et des matériaux. Nous sommes établis dans 35 pays où nous produisons du minerai de fer, du cuivre, de l’aluminium, des minéraux critiques et d’autres matériaux nécessaires à la transition énergétique mondiale et à la prospérité des personnes, des communautés et des nations.
Nous exerçons nos activités depuis 150 ans, en nous appuyant sur les connaissances accumulées au fil des générations et sur les différents continents. Notre mission – trouver de meilleures façons de fournir les matériaux dont le monde a besoin – nous guide dans notre quête d’innovation et d’amélioration continue, dans le but de fabriquer des produits à faibles émissions et répondant aux bonnes normes environnementales, sociales et de gouvernance. Mais comme nous ne pouvons pas y arriver seuls, nous nous attachons à créer des partenariats nous permettant de résoudre des problèmes, de créer des situations mutuellement avantageuses et de saisir des occasions.
Respect and Inclusion
Chez Rio Tinto, nous accueillons favorablement et encourageons les candidatures d’Autochtones, de femmes, de membres de la communauté LGBTQ2S+, de travailleurs âgés, de personnes handicapées et de représentants d’origines diverses.
Nous sommes déterminés à créer un milieu inclusif où les employés se sentent à l’aise d’être eux-mêmes. Nous souhaitons de plus que chacun ait l’impression que sa voix compte, que toutes les cultures sont respectées et que les points de vue, aussi variés soient-ils, sont non seulement bienvenus, mais également essentiels à notre succès. Nous nous traitons mutuellement avec équité et dignité, sans égard à la race, au genre, à la nationalité, à l’origine ethnique, à la religion, à l’âge, à l’orientation sexuelle ou à tout autre aspect distinctif.
