Job Description

Principal Advisor Growth and Ventures

Join our Growth and Ventures Global Team

Diverse & challenging projects

Location, London or Singapore

About the role

Rio Tinto Innovation (RTI) is committed to advancing the frontiers of mining technology and finding better ways. By bringing together the best in talent and ideas, combined with fast decision making, we are committed to accelerating and incubating the highest value innovation projects for Rio Tinto, the mining or adjacent industries and our value chains.


Growth & Ventures is an exciting pillar of RTI, combining our existing Venture Capital fund with a dedicated Growth team focused on commercial Incubation and Scale-up capabilities. Our Ventures team invests across pre-seed and seed through a structured Accelerator programme and makes more tailored Series A and B investments to support Growth and other key Group priorities.


For our Ventures team, we are seeking a Principal Advisor to play a critical role in executing our VC fund strategy. You will be primarily responsible for supporting the team, but also from time to time leading the lifecycle of investments. Whether supporting or leading, we expect you to help pro-actively forming investment hypotheses aligned with our strategy, scouting for opportunities and ultimately executing the investment(s), as well as supporting our portfolio companies to scale and deliver impact. This is a rare opportunity to deepen your investment expertise, take on more leadership in deals and portfolio support, and help shape the future of mining and materials innovation.


This is a highly visible role, reporting to the Head of Growth & Ventures and working in a collaborative and exciting environment, where you will:

Challenge the status quo, think of new opportunities and work with a "founder first" approach

Support investments by:

Creating investment hypotheses, as well as scouting for relevant opportunities from a variety of sources aligned to our strategy and focus areas Evaluating the investments, bringing in and managing external advisors and internal experts from areas specific to the opportunity Supporting negotiations on deal terms, managing financial modelling and writing excellent and impactful investment memos

Support portfolio companies by:

Liaising very closely with the G&V Growth team to identify scale-up opportunities from our portfolio or from new potential investments Identifying partnerships opportunities with our start-ups and parts of Rio Tinto (and/or external partners) and helping to evaluate associated business cases Serving as a thought partner to founders and management teams--providing strategic guidance, industry insights and other ad-hoc support Supporting the management of the overall Ventures portfolio to optimize our financial risk-adjusted return across maturity, theme, risk, cash flow and other considerations

Demonstrate leadership by:

Contributing to a team culture of inclusiveness and fostering collaboration, including being a relentless supporter of "playing to win" vs. "playing not to lose" Communicating complicated ideas in a simple way (verbal, written, slides) to a variety of internal and external stakeholders and senior leaders Raising awareness of Ventures and its value proposition within the start-up and investor community, and within the Rio Tinto Group

What you'll bring

A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team Degree in a technical discipline or significant exposure to engineering and science in heavy industry Demonstrable VC deal experience, with a minimum track record of 5 years in venture capital either from a corporate or fund, preferably from a deeptech/climate vertical Outstanding communication (written and oral) and interpersonal skills Excellent in networking with startup and VC ecosystem globally High organizational skills to manage a fast-moving workflow and attention to detail

What we offer

Be recognised 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 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 programs and pension plan Wellbeing benefits Generous Rio Tinto employee share program Employee Assistance Program Ongoing individual wellbeing support for you and your family for personal and professional matter Leave for all of life's reasons (vacation/annual, paid parental, sick leave)

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 and meet opportunities.

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.

Every Voice Matters

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.