Principal Specialist Innovation Translation📣 إعلان

About Ma'aden and the Role

Ma'aden, established in 1997, is one of the world's fastest-growing mining companies and the largest multi-commodity mining and metals company in the Middle East. Based in Riyadh, we are committed to developing the mining industry as the third pillar of Saudi Arabia’s economy by building a world-class, fully integrated mining value chain. We are seeking a Principal Specialist, Innovation Translation, for a full-time position requiring over 10 years of experience.

Role Purpose

The Principal Specialist, Innovation Translation, serves as a critical link between scientific discovery and industrial deployment. This role focuses on transforming high-potential technologies into scalable, investment-ready business solutions for Ma'aden. The specialist ensures that innovation opportunities are technically proven, economically viable, and operationally integrated before significant capital is committed to industrial implementation. This position accelerates value creation by reducing technical uncertainty, validating performance, and establishing credible scale-up pathways to support confident investment decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Establish scalable pathways that convert scientific concepts into industrially deployable solutions.
• Build robust design bases, operating parameters, performance criteria, and scale-up frameworks.
• Develop and maintain integrated techno-economic models that quantify value, risk, and investment attractiveness.
• Strengthen investment decisions by providing clear assessments of economic viability, performance assumptions, and critical value drivers.
• Establish structured maturity assessment frameworks that guide progression from pilot validation to industrial deployment.
• Reduce technical and commercial uncertainty through disciplined experimentation, testing, and readiness reviews.
• Define technology integration requirements across process, operational, infrastructure, maintenance, and control environments.
• Ensure technologies are prepared for successful industrial adoption through robust engineering-ready design information and handover packages.

Strategic Technical Leadership and Collaboration

This role provides expert technical leadership to enhance decision quality across innovation programs and technology investments. It involves challenging assumptions, validating technical claims, and applying rigorous scientific and engineering evaluation to complex opportunities. The Principal Specialist will also build high-value partnerships with technology providers, research institutions, OEMs, and specialist organizations, leveraging external expertise to accelerate technology development and foster knowledge transfer across innovation initiatives.

Expected Outcomes and Success Factors

Success in this role is defined by several key outcomes, including the progression of innovation concepts through maturity stages based on clear evidence, validated performance, and quantified value. The role is successful when technology opportunities demonstrate reduced technical uncertainty and stronger investment readiness. This includes establishing scale-up pathways and industrial design bases with confidence and traceability, ensuring first-of-a-kind (FOAK) deployments transition successfully into industrial execution environments, and supporting technology investment decisions with credible techno-economic analysis and risk assessments. Ultimately, success means innovation projects deliver measurable business value while reducing implementation and operational risks.

Qualifications and Experience

Candidates for this Principal Specialist role must possess a strong background in innovation translation and technology commercialization.

• A minimum of 10 years of relevant professional experience in technology development, scale-up, and industrial deployment.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct rigorous techno-economic assessments and manage technology maturity governance.
• Proven expertise in bridging scientific discovery with practical industrial application.
• Experience working across diverse teams including innovation, PD&E, operations, and external technology ecosystems.