Principal Advisor, Ethics & Compliance Investigations

Be a part of a highly capable and supportive team, with a flexible work culture. A great opportunity to advance your career in complex, high-impact corporate investigations. Be part of a global mining organisation where everyone is valued and respected.

About the Role

We are looking for a Principal Advisor to support the Investigations Director in EMEA and to work in collaboration with the broader Ethics & Compliance team. To succeed in this role, you will be recognised as a specialist in investigations. You will investigate moderate to highly complex allegations of misconduct and make appropriate recommendations with minimal supervision. You will proactively monitor trends and share insights with the Ethics & Compliance Governance & Reporting team and support the business in line with the Corrective and Preventative Action approach to managing misconduct. You will formally mentor and train less experienced staff. In this role you will interface with investigation participants and various stakeholder groups across all levels of the organisation. You must be capable of managing conflicts, collecting and assessing evidence in all forms, assessing witness credibility, have excellent communication and writing skills and the ability to navigate difficult discussions with participants and stakeholders. You must display exemplary and unquestionable personal integrity and be able to take a firm but fair stand, displaying sound judgement, discretion and calm authority when solving complex issues. This is a great opportunity for a values‑led individual looking to conduct fair, people‑centric investigations and to advance their career within the corporate investigations area.

Responsibilities

• Conduct trauma‑informed and people‑centric investigations into allegations of misconduct involving moderate to highly complex matters, including sensitive and high‑risk cases.
• Work closely with a variety of internal stakeholders within our business units, product groups and functions throughout the investigative process, including senior leaders.
• Collect and assess evidence in all its forms, including witness evidence, documentary records, digital evidence and transactional data as relevant.
• Prepare comprehensive investigation reports and be able to demonstrate a fair and reasonable basis for all findings.
• Make post‑investigative recommendations to identify organisational and environmental factors relevant to findings and as they relate to ongoing business integrity risk mitigation and process optimisation strategies.
• Assist the business with the Corrective and Preventative Action process.
• Contribute to the ongoing development of the investigation process including taking a leading role on projects when requested.
• Support the Investigations Director in maintaining high investigative standards.
• Peer review investigation reports.
• Provide coaching, advice, guidance and training to junior investigators.
• Support matters involving external counsel where required.

About You

• Degree level qualification (or equivalent professional investigation accreditations).
• Background in forensic accounting, law, audit, finance or human resources.
• Deep experience in both general workplace/personnel/behavioural misconduct and in integrity‑based misconduct investigations, including confidence in procurement/supply chain related investigations, fraud and self‑dealing, bribery and corruption.
• Demonstrated ability to manage sensitive matters involving senior stakeholders, competing priorities, and reputational risk.
• Experience working across cultures, countries and matrixed organisations.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Excellent oral and written English skills.
• Able to produce clear, high‑quality investigation reports in English.
• French language skills are a significant advantage (including the ability to analyse documents in French and to communicate fluently with investigation participants in French).
• Ability to evaluate large volumes of data in an efficient and organised manner.
• Strong experience in the forensic analysis of evidence, including email review and the analysis of procurement‑related transactional records.
• Significant proven experience in witness interviewing and credibility assessment.
• Knowledge of internal control frameworks.
• Excellent judgement, discretion and resilience, with the ability to navigate difficult conversations with empathy and authority.
• Excellent time management, record keeping and team ethic.
• Ability to mentor and develop junior team members.
• All visa requirements providing you with the ability to work and reside in your work location.

What We Offer

• A work environment where safety is always the number one priority.
• A competitive salary package with annual cash incentive awards for eligible employees.
• Career development & education assistance to further your ambitions.
• Access top tier family‑friendly health and medical programmes and pension plan.
• Wellbeing benefits.
• Generous Rio Tinto employee share programme.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Ongoing individual wellbeing support for you and your family for personal and professional matters.
• Leave for all of life’s reasons (vacation/annual, paid parental, sick leave).

Where you will be working

You will be part of a global team forming part of the Rio Tinto Ethics & Compliance team. Our mission is to provide an effective business integrity compliance programme across the Rio Tinto Group to ensure all employees and third parties working on behalf of Rio Tinto conduct business in an ethical and compliant manner within all countries where we operate. Some travel may be required domestically and internationally. Frequency will be determined by business needs. Rio Tinto encourages flexible working arrangements. Complying with Rio Tinto’s code of conduct (The Way We Work), policies and standards as they relate business integrity and workplace conduct are key priorities of the team. The group also has responsibility for Rio Tinto’s whistleblower programme known as myVoice and the continued development of the group’s investigations process including training and conducting of investigations into alleged misconduct.

Respect and Inclusion

At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQIA+ 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.