Principal Specialist International Research & Development Scientist📣 إعلان

About Ma'aden and the Role

Ma'aden, established in 1997, is recognized as one of the fastest-growing mining companies globally and the largest multi-commodity mining and metals company in the Middle East. The company is instrumental in developing the mining industry to become the third pillar of Saudi Arabia’s economy by building a world-class, integrated mining value chain. This full-time position, based in Riyadh, offers an opportunity to contribute to Ma'aden's strategic growth and shape the future of mining in the Kingdom.

Role Purpose

The Principal Specialist, International R&D Scientist is responsible for developing and managing Ma'aden's global innovation ecosystem. This involves building strategic relationships with leading universities, startups, mining laboratories, technology providers, research institutes, and venture ecosystems worldwide. The role focuses on identifying breakthrough technologies, establishing collaborative partnerships, and accelerating the evaluation, demonstration, and deployment of technologies that create measurable business value across Ma'aden's operations. This position serves as Ma'aden's global interface for innovation, ensuring continuous access to emerging technologies that enhance productivity, sustainability, resource recovery, and operational competitiveness.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with leading international universities, mining laboratories, technology providers, startups, mining companies, venture funds, and research organizations.
• Establish long-term collaboration agreements, joint development programs, and technology demonstration partnerships, representing Ma'aden within international innovation networks.
• Sponsor the development of new technologies, methods, and solutions, ensuring alignment with business needs, and oversee the design, execution, and validation of experimental and pilot studies.
• Coordinate technical evaluations with internal business units, facilitating laboratory testing, pilot programs, demonstration projects, and industrial trials.
• Support the development of business cases for technology adoption and ensure successful transition from external innovation into operational deployment.
• Build and manage an international network of innovation partners, organizing executive technology visits, technical exchanges, and collaborative workshops.
• Maintain a global technology pipeline aligned with Ma'aden's strategic priorities, prioritizing opportunities based on business value, implementation readiness, and strategic importance.
• Support the negotiation of collaboration agreements, NDAs, MOUs, JDAs, and technology licensing, working closely with Legal, Procurement, IP, and Business Units.

Technology Scouting and Innovation Focus

The role involves continuous scouting for emerging technologies across various domains to identify breakthrough opportunities. These areas include:

• Mining and mineral processing, material science, and waste valorization.
• Gold recovery from historical tailings, modular processing plants, and small-footprint processing technologies.
• Fast and low-cost exploration, including AI-enabled exploration, geophysics, and multi-sensor drone technologies.
• Ore sorting, water reduction and reuse, decarbonization, critical minerals recovery, and process intensification.

The Principal Specialist will assess technology maturity, technical readiness, commercial potential, scalability, IP position, and strategic fit for Ma'aden.

Qualifications and Experience

Candidates for this role should possess more than 10 years of relevant experience in research and development, innovation management, or a related field within the mining, metals, or industrial sectors. A strong background in identifying, evaluating, and deploying advanced technologies is essential.

Strategic Collaboration and Ecosystem Management

This position is critical for identifying opportunities for co-development, licensing, and joint ventures, while also developing strategic relationships with government innovation agencies and international research programs. The Principal Specialist will track technology landscape evolution and competitor activities, providing regular intelligence reports on emerging technologies and innovation trends to protect Ma'aden's strategic interests throughout external collaborations.