Principal Specialist, Innovation Translation

Role Overview

Principal Specialist, Innovation Translation at Ma'aden, based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Role Purpose

The Principal Specialist – Innovation Translation bridges the gap between scientific discovery and industrial deployment by transforming high-potential technologies into scalable, investment-ready business solutions. The role ensures innovation opportunities are technically proven, economically viable, and operationally integrated before significant capital is committed to industrial implementation. Through rigorous techno-economic assessment and maturity governance, the role strengthens Ma'aden's ability to commercialize emerging technologies while minimizing delivery, operational, and investment risks.

Key Responsibilities

Technology Translation & Scale-Up

• Establish scalable pathways that convert scientific concepts into industrially deployable solutions.
• Build robust design bases, operating parameters, performance criteria, and scale-up frameworks that enable confident progression through maturity stages.
• Accelerate technology maturation while minimizing unnecessary cost, time, and development risk.
• Prove technologies are prepared for successful industrial adoption through robust engineering-ready design information and handover packages.
• Safeguard validated technology intent throughout engineering, commissioning, and first-of-a-kind deployment activities.

Techno-Economic Value Creation

• 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.
• Enable evidence-based prioritization through continuous refinement of business cases and value realization forecasts.

Maturity Governance & Risk Reduction

• 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.
• Provide objective recommendations on progression, redesign, partnership, acceleration, or termination of innovation opportunities.

Industrial Integration & Deployment Readiness

• 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

• Provide expert technical leadership that strengthens decision quality across innovation programs and technology investments.
• Challenge assumptions, validate technical claims, and apply rigorous scientific and engineering evaluation to complex opportunities.
• Embed fact-based decision-making, technical discipline, and continuous learning across the innovation portfolio.

Ecosystem Development & Knowledge Transfer

• Build high-value partnerships with technology providers, research institutions, OEMs, and specialist organizations.
• Accelerate technology development by leveraging external expertise and innovation ecosystems.
• Capture and transfer scale-up knowledge, lessons learned, and best practices across innovation initiatives.

Qualifications & Experience

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering, Metallurgical Engineering, Mining Engineering, Mineral Processing, Mechanical Engineering, Process Engineering, or a closely related applied science discipline.
• Advanced technical degree is strongly preferred.

Experience

• 10+ years of experience in technology development, industrial innovation, process engineering, R&D scale-up, or project development environments.
• Experience leading pilot, demonstration, and/or first industrial deployment initiatives.
• Proven experience translating laboratory or pilot concepts into industrial-scale applications and operating environments.
• Experience within mining, metallurgy, mineral processing, extractive technologies, industrial processing, or other asset-intensive sectors.

Skills & Competencies

Functional Expertise

• Technology Translation & Commercialization
• Industrial Scale-Up Methodologies
• Process Engineering & Process Design
• Techno-Economic Analysis
• Technology Readiness & Maturity Management
• First-of-a-Kind Deployment

Business & Delivery

• Investment Evaluation & Business Case Development
• Risk & Uncertainty Management
• Value Realization Assessment
• Strategic Decision Support
• Systems Thinking
• Portfolio Maturity Governance

People & Collaboration

• Technical Leadership
• Cross-Functional Influence
• Stakeholder Engagement
• External Partnership Management
• Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
• Knowledge Transfer & Capability Building