Engineer, Reliability, Senior

At First Quantum, we free the talent of our people by taking a very different approach which is underpinned by a very different, very definite culture - the “First Quantum Way”.

Working with us is not like working anywhere else, which is why we recruit people who will take a bolder, smarter approach to spot opportunities, solve problems and deliver results.

Our culture is all about encouraging you to think independently and to challenge convention to deliver the best result. That’s how we continue to achieve extraordinary things in extraordinary locations.

Job description:

The Senior Reliability Engineer owns asset management planning and strategy. They manage reliability risk, production losses and high-cost assets, develop Asset Management Plans and life-cycle strategies, and build RCM-based business cases to optimise maintenance and guide investment decisions.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Asset Management Planning & Strategy (Owner)

• Own, develop and maintain Asset Management Plans (AMPs) for assigned fleets. These cover maintenance strategy, component life, rebuild and replacement timing, and life-cycle cost.
• Develop and review life-cycle strategies (life extension, rebuild, replace, park-up), backed by life-cycle cost (LCC) analysis and reliability data.
• Turn asset strategy into maintenance budgets, long-term forecasts and capital replacement plans, working with Planning and Finance.
• Build data-driven business cases from RCM, cost and reliability metrics to support capital and operational decisions.
• Run the regular strategy review cycle and report asset performance against plan to management.

Reliability Risk & Engineering

• Identify, assess and rank asset reliability risks. Propose mitigations such as design changes, detection logic, changes to maintenance tactics and training, so risks are reduced and controlled to an acceptable level.
• Work with Section Superintendents to make sure new and modified installations are reliable and maintainable.
• Monitor production losses and high-maintenance-cost assets, and lead defect elimination on the main contributors.
• Develop solutions to repetitive failures and other problems that affect equipment capacity, quality, cost or regulatory compliance.

Maintenance Strategy Optimisation

• Lead Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) analysis and implementation on site.
• Lead Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) and make sure corrective actions are put in place and closed out.
• Carry out cost analysis and reliability breakdowns on major maintenance components.

Performance Measurement & Data Analysis

• Define, track and report the main reliability and maintenance KPIs, such as availability, MTBF, MTTR, utilisation, PM compliance, backlog, planned versus unplanned work and maintenance cost per operating hour.
• Analyse failure, downtime and cost data from the CMMS, condition monitoring, oil analysis, dispatch and telemetry systems to find trends, bad actors and improvement opportunities.
• Apply reliability analysis methods to predict component life, refine replacement intervals and rank interventions.
• Build and maintain reliability dashboards and reports in Power BI or similar tools, for use at shift, section and management level.
• Track asset performance against Asset Management Plans and budget, highlight variances, and recommend corrective actions.

Quality Assurance

• Run quality assurance on scheduled maintenance tasks, such as PMs and services, to confirm work meets standard and to stop faults recurring.

Leadership & Capability Development

• Mentor Junior Engineers, Maintenance Specialists, Foremen and Execution personnel in predictive maintenance, RCFA and maintenance best practice.
• Play a key role in building a reliability culture across Maintenance.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Grade 12 School Certificate or equivalent.
• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering (or Electro-Mechanical or Mechatronics Engineering, with relevant mobile fleet experience).
• Registration with the Engineering Institution of Zambia (EIZ).
• Strong data analysis skills, including reliability analysis methods (Weibull, Pareto, bad actor analysis) and tools such as advanced Excel and Power BI.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management and teamwork skills, including presenting business cases to senior management.

Advantageous

• Certification in RCM, RCFA or reliability engineering, such as CMRP, CRE or an RCM2 practitioner qualification.
• Experience with life-cycle cost (LCC) modelling and capital replacement planning.
• Postgraduate qualification in Asset Management, Reliability Engineering or Engineering Management.

EXPERIENCE

• At least 5 years experience in maintenance or reliability engineering in open pit mining, with a proven track record on truck and shovel operations.
• At least 2 years in a reliability engineering role is preferred.
• Proven experience developing or owning maintenance strategies or Asset Management Plans for major mobile fleet.
• Demonstrated success with RCFA and defect elimination, with measurable improvements in availability, MTBF or cost.
• Experience mentoring or supervising junior engineers or technical staff.

BEHAVIOURAL TRAITS

• Teamwork: Works across Execution, Planning, Operations, OEMs and service providers to agree and deliver asset strategies.
• Bold: Challenges existing maintenance practices with data and takes ownership of reliability problems through to resolution.
• Thinking Safely: Builds safety and risk controls into maintenance strategies, engineering changes and repair procedures.
• Upholding Quality: Sets and holds high standards for maintenance work, data integrity and engineering analysis.
• Technical Skill: Applies reliability engineering, condition monitoring and analysis methods with depth and rigour.

SAFETY REQUIREMENTS

• Follows safe working procedures in all work areas.
• Make sure all personnel follow isolation and lockout procedures.
• Keeps the work environment safe by applying all company policies and safe work practices and show a strong commitment to the safety of employees.
• Apply risk assessment and Management of Change (MOC) to all engineering changes, modifications and new maintenance strategies.
• Make sure critical controls and safety-critical equipment are covered in maintenance strategies and inspection regimes.
• Take part in incident investigations (e.g. ICAM) where equipment failure is a factor and makes sure engineering corrective actions are put in place.

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