Chief Legal & Governance Officer - Oyu Tolgoi

• Play a defining leadership role in one of the world’s most significant copper producing operations and help shape governance, integrity and long-term value creation.

• Influence strategic decisions at Board, shareholder and executive level while leading the Legal & Governance function through a critical growth phase

• Role based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Join one of the world’s most exciting copper-gold mining projects

Oyu Tolgoi is one of the most exciting projects in copper and gold mining for several decades. It contains reserves and resources that make it one of the world’s largest known copper and gold deposits. The project, managed by Rio Tinto, is expanding underground. With a high demand of skills required to complete the project safely and successfully, Oyu Tolgoi is expected to be a significant contributor to Mongolia’s development and the prosperity of the Mongolian people.

Discover more about Mongolia and Oyu Tolgoi

Mongolia’s increasingly becoming a destination for tourism and expatriate residents. As a rapidly developing city, Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar is seen as a comfortable, yet exciting place to live. With an array of cultural and social activities available and a growing network of international schools, housing options, and leisure facilities; it’s home to a growing community of international expatriates.

Located in the South Gobi Desert, just 80 kilometers from the Chinese border, the Oyu Tolgoi open pit mine and camp is a large, well-run and comfortable site with multiple amenities including recreational and sports facilities, a cinema, shops, restaurants and bars catered to a growing community. For more about OT site, please check out this video.

We offer a collaborative, high-performing environment where success is achieved by working together.

About the role

Oyu Tolgoi is looking for a Chief Legal & Governance Officer to help strengthen governance, accountability and enterprise risk management as the operation enters a new era of growth and underground production. This role provides strategic legal, governance and leadership support across the business while building stakeholder confidence with shareholders, government representatives, regulators, employees and communities. This is a unique opportunity for an experienced executive leader to influence long-term business outcomes and governance maturity in a complex operating environment.

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, with a functional reporting relationship to the Rio Tinto Copper General Counsel, you will contribute to the strategic direction of the business while leading governance, integrity, transparency, risk management and organisational accountability across Oyu Tolgoi.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead the Legal & Governance function and provide commercially focused legal advice aligned to business priorities.

• Partner with the Senior Leadership Team, Operational Leadership Team, Board and Board Committees to strengthen governance effectiveness, decision quality and organisational accountability.

• Oversee governance, compliance and integrity frameworks to ensure legal, regulatory and corporate obligations are met.

• Identify, assess and mitigate material legal, regulatory, commercial, governance and reputational risks.

• Build trusted relationships with shareholders, joint venture partners, government stakeholders and regulators.

• Support the resolution of complex strategic issues that impact business performance, reputation and licence to operate.

• Champion a culture of integrity, ethical leadership, transparency and responsible decision-making.

• Lead, develop and inspire a high-performing Legal & Governance team while growing organisational capability.

About you

We’re looking for someone whose experience aligns with the key requirements below. You do not need to meet every “helpful for success” item to apply. If you bring relevant experience and are excited by the opportunity, we encourage you to submit an application.

Required for Success

• A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team.

• A law degree and admission to practise in Mongolia.

• Demonstrated experience in senior legal, governance or executive leadership roles within a large, complex organisation.

• Experience working with Boards, shareholders, government stakeholders, regulators and executive leadership teams.

• Fluency in Mongolian and strong written and verbal communication skills in English.

• Demonstrated capability leading governance, compliance, risk management and integrity frameworks in a regulated environment.

• Strong commercial judgement, negotiation capability and experience managing complex stakeholder issues.

• Proven success building, developing and leading high-performing teams.

Helpful for Success

• Experience in mining, energy, infrastructure or other capital-intensive industries.

• Experience working in multinational organisations, joint ventures or complex shareholder environments.

• Demonstrated ability to balance governance obligations, stakeholder expectations and commercial outcomes in politically sensitive environments.

What we offer

Be recognised for your contribution, thinking and hard work, and go home knowing you've helped the world progress.

• Be recognized for your contribution, your thinking, and your hard work, and go home knowing you’ve helped the world progress.

• A work environment where safety is always the number one priority

• Excellent career opportunity with one of the world's leading mining organisations

• A competitive base salary reflective of your skills and experience with an annual incentive program

• Private health insurance for employees

• Attractive share ownership plan

• Career development & education assistance to further your technical or leadership ambitions

• Leave for all of life’s reasons (vacation/annual, paid parental, sick leave)

Where you’ll be working

Oyu Tolgoi is an operating Copper / Gold open pit and underground mine. The site is located in the Gobi Desert region of Mongolia. The reserves case for the underground project is in the order of 0.5 billion tonnes of ore to be mined from the 95,000 tonnes per day Hugo North Lift 1 (HNL1) panel cave mine with a 20-year operations life. There is also the potential for 3 further block cave districts to increase mine life beyond 100 years.  You will be working in our Ulaanbaatar office. 

Applications close on Friday 11th September 2026 (Oyu Tolgoi reserves the right to remove advertised roles prior to this date).

About Rio Tinto
 

Rio Tinto is a leading global mining and materials company. We operate in 35 countries where we produce iron ore, copper, aluminium, critical minerals, and other materials needed for the global energy transition and for people, communities, and nations to thrive.
 

We have been mining for 150 years and operate with knowledge built up across generations and continents. Our purpose is finding better ways to provide the materials the world needs – striving for innovation and continuous improvement to produce materials with low emissions and to the right environmental, social and governance standards. But we can’t do it on our own, so we’re focused on creating partnerships to solve problems, create win-win situations and meet opportunities.

Respect and Inclusion

At Rio Tinto, we particularly welcome and encourage applications from Indigenous Peoples, women, the LGBTQ+ community, mature workers, people with disabilities and people from different cultural backgrounds.

We are committed to an inclusive environment where people feel comfortable to be themselves. We want our people to feel that all voices are heard, all cultures respected and that a variety of perspectives are not only welcome – they are essential to our success. We treat each other fairly and with dignity regardless of race, gender, nationality, ethnic origin, religion, age, sexual orientation or anything else that makes us different.