Process Safety Engineer

Job Description

About Us

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The world is going electric, and PLS is at the forefront of the charge.

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Our collaborative, inclusive culture is a cornerstone of PLS. Humble, down-to-earth and genuinely invested in each other, we are one team united by a common purpose and driven to do great work together.

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Being such a fast-moving company in clean energy transition means there is no shortage of challenge or opportunity. Whether it is taking on new projects, developing new skills or stepping into bigger roles, PLS is a place where careers move and where your potential has room to grow.

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We're not a big corporate, and we don't want to be. At PLS you own your work, you're backed by people who care about doing a good job, and there's room to innovate and make things happen.

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Positioned to be a major force for change, this is a great time to join us as we play a critical role in addressing the global energy crisis. If you want to be part of an organisation that is all about great people shaping the next era of battery minerals, we would love to hear from you.

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The future is lithium, make it yours.

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What PLS Offers

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• Annual or quarterly short-term incentive bonus recognising individual and business performance
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• PLS employee share scheme
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• Access to newly refurbished facilities at Pilgangoora, including gym, tennis, pickleball and volleyball courts, sports oval and scenic walking tracks
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• 18 weeks parental leave for primary carers and 4 weeks for secondary carers
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• Health and wellbeing allowance
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• Novated leasing through salary sacrifice
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• Paid community leave
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• Monthly employee recognition awards
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• Access to PLS' KidsCo School Holiday Program
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• Access to our Employee Assistance Program and Company Chaplains
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The opportunity

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Reporting to the Site Health and Safety Manager, you'll lead Process Safety Management activities (with a focus on the Mid-Stream plant) to ensure safe and reliable operations. This role exists to ensure process safety risk across the Mid-Stream plant is clearly understood and practically controlled.

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The Process Safety Engineer is a hands-on technical partner to the operations, maintenance, engineering and projects teams - working alongside them on the plant rather than auditing from a distance - to identify hazards and see the right controls implemented and proven to work.

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The role takes a risk-based and proportionate approach. The Mid-Stream plant is not a Major Hazard Facility, and the Process Safety Engineer is expected to apply the right level of rigour to the hazards actually present: concentrating effort where the consequences are greatest (and avoiding process that adds cost/workload without reducing risk).

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Success is measured by risk genuinely reduced and embedded in how the plant is run day to day - through sound Management of Change (MOC), effective safeguards, practical procedures and a team that understands its hazards - not by the volume of audits, reports or open actions generated.

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This is a permanent full-time role which operates on a 8/6 FIFO roster from Perth or DIDO in the Pilbara region.

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Key Responsibilities

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The Process Safety Engineer will provide the organisation with technical process safety engineering discipline support including developing, implementing and monitoring process safety management systems (and supporting elements) to ensure effective and consistent use to manage risk.

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Core Duties And Responsibilities Of This Role

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Process Safety Risk Management

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• Identify and assess process safety hazards across the Mid-Stream pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical circuits - including thermal, chemical, stored-energy and loss-of-containment hazards - and maintain a clear, prioritised view of where the most significant risk sits.
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• Facilitate and document practical risk studies (HAZID, HAZOP, LOPA, Bowtie) scaled to the hazard, ensuring outputs are usable decisions and actions rather than documents that sit on a shelf.
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• Implement the Management of Change (MOC) process for plant, process and operating changes, ensuring process safety risk is assessed proportionately before any change is made.
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• Maintain accurate process safety information (P&IDs, PFDs, chemical and equipment datasheets, design and safe operating limits) so risk decisions reflect how the plant actually runs.
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• Define and assure the integrity of safety-critical equipment and safeguards (relief and venting systems, interlocks, alarms, and SIL-rated functions where relevant), focusing assurance effort on the controls that genuinely prevent or mitigate a major event.
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• Lead or support Pre-Startup Safety Reviews (PSSR) so new or modified plant is confirmed safe to operate before commissioning.
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Hazards and Issues Resolution

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• Ensure identified process safety hazards or issues are explored and investigated sufficiently to ensure a verified, closed-out result - working with operations, maintenance and engineering to design controls that are compatible to the hazard and reasonably practicable to be implemented/used.
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• Apply focus to prioritise the issues that materially reduce risk (and resist low-value activity or gold-plating that adds burden for little gain).
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• Ensure developed actions are specific, measurable, achievable, owned/accountable, resourced and time-bound, and follow them through with action owners (until the risk is demonstrably reduced so far as is reasonably practicable).
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• Embed process safety into routine operations through operating procedures, Trigger Action Response Plans (TARPs), permits and practices (so controls live in the way the plant is run rather than in a separate compliance system).
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• Provide Process Safety related hands-on technical support during operations and process upsets, trips and near-misses, helping the team understand what happened (and ensure controls are implemented and effective - or improvements are identified, communicated and initiated).
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Health, Safety & Environment

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• Strong commitment to health, safety and environment, safe work practices, field interactions and control verifications including Management of Change (and associated Process Safety Management elements).
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• Lead (and/or participate and support) process safety related incident investigations to understand the event, identify contributing factors, analyse the incident, inform recommendations and outline lessons learned for the organisation (to convert learnings into practical, verified corrective actions for sharing across site).
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Communication & Reporting

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• Translate technical process safety risk content and material into clear, practical language for operators, supervisors, engineers and leadership (so people can act on it).
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• Report process safety performance using meaningful lead and lag indicators, focused on risk reduction and action closeout rather than report volume.
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• Build credibility and influence leadership (across operations and maintenance) to enable process safety improvements to be adopted willingly (rather than imposed).
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Standards & Assurance

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• Ensure process safety activity meets relevant Australian regulatory requirements and recognised good practice, applied proportionately to a non-Major Hazard Facility.
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• Benchmark practices against industry standards and communicate potential improvements or value-add opportunities to the relevant stakeholder/s (with a view to adopt those that add real-value to the site's risk profile).
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Capability Building & Cost

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• Build process safety understanding and ownership across the operations and maintenance teams through practical coaching, support, guidance, technical insights and targeted training/awareness or assistance (in toolbox, INX and Moodle where appropriate).
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• Apply a risk-based approach to process safety spend, ensuring studies and controls are justified by the risk they address.
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About you

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• Bachelors' degree in Chemical, Process, Mechanical or Safety Engineering, or a related discipline.
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• Approximately 5+ years' experience in process safety, technical safety or risk engineering within chemical processing, minerals processing, oil and gas or comparable heavy industry.
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• Demonstrated record of taking process safety issues through to practical, implemented resolution in an operating plant - not assessment and reporting alone.
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• Current Australian work rights and authorisation to work in Australia.
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• Bias to action - a proven ability to drive issues to closure, not simply identify and document them.
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• Pragmatic, risk-based judgement; able to separate the risks that matter from the noise and apply proportionate rigour.
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• Strong influencing skills - able to earn credibility on the plant floor and bring operations and maintenance along rather than policing them.
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• Ability to translate technical risk into practical operational decisions and clear, actionable outcomes.
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• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
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• Hands-on, collaborative approach with genuine interest in how the plant runs.
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Supporting an inclusive and diverse workforce

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PLS is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to creating a workplace that values, respects and supports diversity and inclusion. We believe diverse perspectives strengthen our business and help us deliver better outcomes for our people, our communities and the future we're building. We foster an environment where everyone feels safe, included and able to contribute their best. Our recruitment processes are designed to be fair, equitable and accessible for all.

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We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with disability, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, all ages, and people of all genders and sexual orientations (LGBTQIA+).

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We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process to support all applicants. If you require any adjustments, please let us know via the application process or inform our Careers team if you are contacted for an interview.

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Our recruitment process

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As part of our recruitment process, a number of checks will be conducted, including police / criminal background checks, medical assessments, drug and alcohol testing, due diligence, right to work checks and reference checks.

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We respectfully request agencies not to submit unsolicited resumes.

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Acknowledgement of Country

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PLS respectfully acknowledges the Nyamal and Kariyarra People of the Pilbara, the Whadjuk Noongar People of the Perth region and all the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are the Traditional Owners and First Nations peoples of these lands.

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We pay our respects to Elders past and present and acknowledge their continuing connection and care for the land, water and Country.