Specialist, Sales & Operations Planning

Specialist, Sales & Operations Planning

• Use your critical thinking skills to drive business outcomes

• Be part of an inclusive culture and diverse team where unique perspectives are valued

• Based at the Americas commercial hub in Chicago, IL.

• For Illinois-based roles the expected annual salary range is $120,000 – $148,000

About the role

Finding better ways™ to provide the materials the world needs.

We are looking for a Specialist, S&OP to drive and support the Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process for our US‑based Copper business. This role plays a key part in enabling forward‑looking, value‑based decisions through integrated planning, analytics, and cross‑functional collaboration.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone with strong analytical capability, stakeholder management skills, and a passion for optimizing supply‑chain and operational outcomes.

Reporting to the Manager S&OP, you will:

• Lead the monthly S&OP cycle, ensuring timely demand, supply, and financial plans.

• Prepare and present decision‑ready S&OP packs with clear recommendations and quantified impacts.

• Partner with operational leaders, technical experts, sales teams, and corporate functions to resolve planning conflicts and drive alignment.

• Perform supply‑chain analytics to identify bottlenecks, risks, and value‑based trade‑offs across production, demand, inventory, and constraints.

• Develop and maintain planning tools (Anaplan) to improve automation, insight quality, and cross‑horizon reporting.

• Support continuous improvement in data extraction, reconciliation, modelling, and S&OP governance.

What you’ll bring

• A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team

• A university degree in Engineering, Finance or a related field

• Strong proficiency in Excel, data modeling, and translating analytics into insights

• Understanding of mine and refinery production, supply chain logistics, or industrial operations

• Experience with lean principles, continuous improvement, theory of constraints or process optimization

• Strong financial and business acumen

• Ability to influence and collaborate across a networked, multi stakeholder environment

• Experience with planning or analytics tools such as:

  • Anaplan (scenario planning, assumptions, demand/supply models)

  • Power BI (visualization, reporting)

  • SAP, Teams/SharePoint

• Familiarity with data concepts (SQL/APIs) considered an asset

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.

• Competitive base salary reflective of your skills and experience with an annual incentive bonus.

• Access to top-tier family-friendly health programs including medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, life insurance coverage, and various voluntary benefits.

• Excellent retirement plan including up to 6% defined company contribution; Generous 401k matching program.

• Attractive share ownership plan.

• Comprehensive leave policies which cover all the moments that matter in life: PTO (paid time off), paid holidays, and paid bereavement leave.

• A generous parental leave policy, which ensures you’re able to spend quality time with your new family.

• Discount programs for leisure purposes and access to Virgin Pulse with incentives supporting your wellbeing.

• Access to our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which provides confidential counselling or expert guidance for you and your family to help get through life’s challenges.

Where you’ll be working

Our Commercial function at Rio Tinto connects our product groups, customers and suppliers from mine to market. We bring together Sales & Marketing and Trading (Sell), Global Procurement (Buy), and Marine & Logistics (Move) to buy, sell and move the materials the world needs, by partnering across the value chain to optimise outcomes for our customers and the Group. Headquartered in our global Commercial hub in Singapore, and with a strong presence in Chicago, Frankfurt, Antwerp and across Asia in Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul, we work as one team to deliver customer centric value, safely and sustainably.

Join our downtown Chicago office. Easily accessible and close to decision-makers across our key markets, you'll be able to support customers and suppliers deliver value across the Atlantic market.

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

Rio Tinto is committed to equal employment opportunity. All qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, disability, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

We are committed to an inclusive environment where people feel safe, respected and valued. We want our people to feel that all voices are heard and that a variety of perspectives are not only welcome but are essential to our success. We treat all our people fairly and with dignity.

Rio Tinto participates in E- Verify to confirm work authorization. Please visit http://www.ucis.gov/ for more information.