About Us

K92 Mining Limited are the owners of the high-grade Kainantu Gold Mine in Eastern Highlands Province. Since commencing operations in 2016, we have delivered consistent production growth. More importantly, we have contributed significantly to the economy of Papua New Guinea, with more than 90% of our employees and contractors drawn from PNG. Our education and skills development initiatives, including scholarships, agricultural support and health outreach programs, help to improve the quality of life and build long-term capacity in the communities in which we operate.

With significant expansion underway across both surface and underground operations, K92 continues to invest heavily in technology, automation and systems that support safe, efficient and resilient mining operations across the full mine life cycle.

About the Role

The Principal – Operational Technology provides strategic and technical leadership for all Operational Technology (OT) systems across the Kainantu operation. The role sets the vision for OT architecture, governance and integration, ensuring alignment with corporate objectives, regulatory obligations and cyber-security standards.

This position drives innovation, oversees governance frameworks, and ensures seamless IT/OT integration to support safe, efficient and resilient operations and support for both the surface and sub-surface requirements in conjunction with the key site stakeholders.

Key Accountabilities

This role leads and governs all aspects of Operational Technology at the site, ensuring systems are safe, compliant, reliable and fit-for-purpose across surface and underground operations.

OT Leadership & Strategy: Provide overall leadership for OT at the Kainantu operation, setting strategic direction, defining standards and ensuring alignment with business objectives, regulatory requirements and Group IT frameworks.

Health, Safety & Critical Controls: Ensure OT systems meet stringent safety, regulatory and critical control requirements, including emergency response, process safety and safety instrumented systems. Promote a strong safety-first, zero-harm culture within OT activities and work practices.

Operational Technology Delivery: Oversee the design, operation and lifecycle management of OT infrastructure, including PLCs, SCADA, DCS, historian systems and industrial networks, supporting both processing plant and underground mining operations.

Underground & Surface Integration: Coordinate surface and underground OT requirements, ensuring effective deployment of underground communications, automation, fleet management, ventilation control and environmental monitoring systems.

IT/OT Integration: Work closely with the IT team and Group IT Manager to deliver seamless IT/OT integration, including network segmentation, data flows, backups, monitoring and cyber-security controls.

Governance, Risk & Cyber Security: Own OT governance frameworks, standards and compliance requirements. Identify, assess and mitigate OT risks and vulnerabilities, embedding cyber-security and operational resilience into all OT decisions.

Project & Continuous Improvement: Act as the technical lead for OT and automation projects, driving continuous improvement initiatives and monitoring system performance, upgrades and enhancements.

Vendor & Contractor Management: Manage relationships with OT vendors and system integrators, including SLAs, commercial performance, procurement, warranties and long-term partnerships.

Budget & Capital Planning: Develop and manage OT budgets and capital plans, providing input into investment decisions and influencing technology strategy at senior leadership level.

About You

To be successful in this role, you will bring deep technical expertise in Operational Technology within mining or heavy industrial environments, combined with strong leadership and stakeholder engagement capability.

You will also demonstrate:

Strong knowledge of surface and underground industrial control systems (ICS) and automation (PLC, DCS, SCADA).

• Expertise in OT networks and protocols (Ethernet/IP, Modbus TCP, OPC, Profibus, PROFINET).
• Exposure to underground fleet management and dispatch systems.
• Experience in mining industry OT teams, processes and systems (e.g., fleet management, dispatch, processing plant automation).
• Experience with lifecycle management of control and automation systems.
• Project management experience in OT/automation.
• Understanding of safety instrumented systems (SIS) and critical controls.
• Backup and recovery solutions for OT environments.
• Experience with OT systems in subsurface or underground mining environments. 

Desirable experience includes exposure to IT/OT convergence projects such as network segmentation, remote monitoring solutions and SOC/SIEM integration; experience with historian systems (Pl System, Wonderware) and cloud-based OT/IT integration technologies (Azure IoT, AWS IoT).

Life at K92

Our core values — Collaboration, Accountability, Respect, Excellence, and Safety — are central to our operations and fundamental to our success. K92 upholds a commitment to equal opportunity, striving to ensure that every individual can reach their highest potential without experiencing discrimination.

Our camp is well managed and provides residents with good, healthy meals made from locally sourced produce, as well as internet access, cable television and a gymnasium.

We believe in sharing our success with our employees. In addition to competitive remuneration, we offer participation in short and long-term incentive plans, and a family-friendly roster.

If you share our values and are looking to take on a senior leadership role at a growing underground mining operation, we encourage you to apply via our website.

TO COMPLY WITH PNG GOVERNMENT REQUIREMENTS ALL EXPATRIATE POSITIONS ARE OFFERED ON A FIXED TERM BASIS