Senior Reliability Engineer

About Us

At Covalent Lithium, we are genuinely passionate about creating a clean energy future and supporting our teams who enable this vision.

We have recently opened our mine at Mt Holland, and are constructing a refinery in Kwinana, which will produce high-quality lithium hydroxide for lithium batteries around the world. Our project will enable approximately 1 million electric vehicles to go on the road, every year for the next 50 years.

We are proud to foster a culture where people with different skills, experiences and backgrounds are welcomed and set-up for success.

We support, empower and reward our people with a range of benefits:

• Competitive remuneration, and annual incentives for eligible employees
• Access to discounts, recognition and rewards
• Access to flexible work arrangements
• Dedicated wellbeing program support and discounted health insurance
• Equal access to paid parental leave, financial support, return to work and parenting room
• Salary sacrifice options for superannuation and novated leasing
• Discounted FIFO parking with Perth Airport
  
  

The Role

The position will be accountable for providing leadership and direction to the reliability engineering function within the Fixed Plant maintenance team in delivering the annual maintenance targets for equipment, with zero harm to employees, contractors and the environment.

The Senior Reliability Engineer is responsible for establishing the relevant business processes and systems to ensure all reliability engineering activities including the development of equipment maintenance strategies, monitoring equipment performance and health, managing threats, eliminating defects, and expert technical advice is provided in an efficient and sustainable manner. This will be reviewed regularly to ensure it is constantly improved and sustained into the future.

This role is full-time, permanent, FIFO opportunity on an 8:6 roster, from Perth to our Mt Holland mine site

Key Responsibilities

Health, Safety, Environment and Community

• Actively lead and participate in the establishment of a health and safety culture, leading by example, and setting the required health and safety standards.
• Ensure a safe working environment where all work is undertaken in a safe and efficient manner, in accordance with statutory requirements and Covalent policies & procedures.
• Ensure all health, safety and environmental incidents are reported, investigated, and appropriate corrective action taken to prevent recurrence.
  
  

Technical/Functional/Role

• Develop integrated business processes and systems for Fixed Plant, to provide effective equipment performance and equipment health monitoring to sustain the required equipment reliability.
• Develop an asset management strategy based on the expected life of the operation, including specific equipment maintenance strategies based on expected failure modes.
• Responsible for the daily and weekly reliability engineering activities at the Fixed Plant to ensure maximum reliability of equipment.
• Ensure statutory compliance of all Fixed Plant equipment.
• Provide technical input to the Fixed Plant maintenance operations, including management, progress and design.
• Strong understanding of both production and maintenance strategies for large scale processing plant.
• Delivering performance of the maintenance function against key reliability performance indicators.
• Identify risks that have the capacity to compromise Fixed Plant performance outcomes and drive resolution of these issues to mitigate any impacts to desired outcomes.
• Drive value creation across the maintenance department by implementing continuous improvement in line with Operational Excellence.
• Review, monitor and audit consultants and contractor performance against statutory obligations, contract requirements, technical standards and procedures to ensure that quality, schedule and cost risks are minimised.
  
  

Leadership and Team

• Strong leadership skills, including providing technical direction and guidance for the maintenance teams.
• Develop a team culture of continuous improvement aligned with Covalent’s values.
• Build organisational capability (people & organisational structure, personnel, and contractors) through supporting and coaching of team members, considering succession planning requirements and expectations, to successfully deliver the asset management strategy.
  
  

Develop and maintain constructive relationships with colleagues, business partners, regulators, government, and other stakeholders, utilising these relationships to successfully resolve issues if, or when, they arise.

Financial and Budget

• Responsible for the preparation of budgets, including personnel, capital justification and the collation of data on a systematic basis for progressive forecasting and future estimating.
• Manage relevant expenditure to remain within approved budget and forecasts in compliance with commercial protocols and procedures.
• Liaise with the Commercial Team to relay and close out commercial and contractual variations raised by Contractors.
  
  

Role Requirements

• 10+ years in Fixed Plant maintenance and mineral processing, including at least 3 years in a supervisory and/or leadership capacity
• Mechanical or Electrical Engineering qualification and/or Trade background.
• Experience with Operational Readiness activities combined with considerable experience in transitioning from plant commissioning to steady state operations.
• A clear understanding of reliability centred maintenance and preventative maintenance.
• Previous experience in equipment maintenance strategy development for hard rock processing plant (preferably in hard rock lithium processing).
• Experience in managing multi-discipline teams driving a high-performance culture through positive working relationships and leveraging company values and behaviours
• Knowledge of legislative requirements, statutory and regulatory codes.
• Knowledge of budgeting, capital expenditure management and project management.
• Demonstrated track record of problem solving and solution implementation delivering significant process improvements
• Ability to work in remote and/or arid environmental conditions.
• Knowledge of the Mine Safety and Inspection Act & Regulations.
• Competent with maintenance strategy development process and software.
• Competent with root cause analysis software (Apollo, FMEA, 5 Why’s, etc.)
• Computerised Maintenance Management System experience (SAP or Pronto desirable)
• Previous appointment as classified plant inspector desirable but not essential.
• Valid drivers licence
• First Aid certificate desirable but not essential
• Accepts responsibility and understands their accountability for Safety.
• Ability to manage tasks and scheduling resources based on business priorities.
• Ability to drive a high-performance culture by building positive quality working relationships and leveraging company values and behaviours.
• Strong people management skills and the ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams.
  
  

A competitive remuneration package commensurate with the role, candidate experience, skills and qualifications will be offered.

Our team members are encouraged to bring their whole selves to work. Candidates from all backgrounds and ages are encouraged to apply, including First Nations People, those who identify as LGBTIQ+, people with disabilities and those with neurodiverse, intersectional, or multiple diverse characteristics.

Covalent Lithium is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer, with a focus on our employees. We recognise skills, expertise, commitment and living our values of Purpose, Care, Accountability and Collaboration. Our goal is to attract, develop, motivate, reward, and retain the best people in the industry.