Mine-Autonomy Engineering GCC Transfer Leader

The mandate

An autonomous haulage zone entered a prolonged stop when fleet control failed over to a software baseline incompatible with two retrofitted vehicles. India engineers had identified the version mismatch but could only raise supplier tickets, while site teams lacked the test evidence to choose recovery. The autonomy transfer executive departed after a second mine suspended rollout pending clearer design and acceptance authority.

The interim will start in Sydney within three weeks and lead for twenty months, with monthly travel to mines, suppliers and India. Recruitment for a permanent autonomy capability executive begins after two mine deployments pass mixed-fleet and degraded-network acceptance, expected by month twelve. The successor will chair a site-readiness decision and supplier defect arbitration during an eight-week handover.

Handover requires four autonomy subsystems to have complete configuration ownership, supplier and captive interfaces, site acceptance evidence, safe-state and rollback definitions and India technical leadership. Three mixed-fleet simulations and two mine deployment gates must run under the new authority. The successor receives software baselines, safety assumptions, supplier defects, site exceptions, talent decisions and unresolved integration risk.

The interim may stop a deployment, reject supplier evidence, require a controlled proving-ground test, assign subsystem engineering authority and commit up to AUD 42 million within the approved programme. Site managers retain mine operations, authorised safety leaders approve operating conditions and procurement controls commercial award. India subsystem owners gain acceptance recommendations and source-control decisions under stated boundaries.

Mining production, fleet purchasing, physical vehicle maintenance, radio-network replacement, statutory safety approval and autonomy products outside the four subsystems remain excluded. The seat covers engineering transfer, configuration and test evidence, supplier boundaries, India leadership and succession. It cannot direct mine operations or redefine the original-equipment manufacturer’s legal obligations.

Why this seat is open

The failover exposed a fragmented configuration and acceptance model with immediate production and safety consequence, followed by executive exit. Equipment suppliers, site operations and source engineers each control part of the evidence and disagree over integration ownership. Temporary autonomy authority can build India judgment through controlled deployment and leave explicit mine interfaces.

What you will own

• Reconstruct the failover across fleet versions, retrofit configuration, network state, supplier software, safe-state logic and site decision.
• Define complete subsystem work packages for fleet control, vehicle interface, perception support and deployment tooling.
• Allocate India, supplier, site engineering, operations and safety rights for changes, evidence, acceptance and rollback.
• Establish configuration provenance, mixed-fleet compatibility, simulation coverage and proving-ground evidence before mine deployment.
• Build India autonomy architects, integration leaders and test authorities with site exposure and exercised deputies.
• Command degraded-network, mixed-version, sensor-loss, supplier-delay and emergency-stop scenarios under controlled conditions.
• Transfer subsystem dossiers, site exceptions, supplier actions, safety assumptions and talent evidence through successor-led gates.

Candidate qualifications

• Held executive engineering authority for autonomous mining, off-highway robotics or another safety-critical mobile fleet.
• Recovered a deployment after configuration mismatch, failover weakness or incomplete supplier integration evidence.
• Built India embedded or autonomy teams with authority to reject unsafe evidence and own subsystem baselines.
• Worked with mine operations and independent safety leaders without appropriating their accountable site decisions.
• Challenged major equipment suppliers through controlled test, configuration provenance and contractual evidence obligations.
• Handed a multi-site autonomy programme to permanent leadership after observed deployment, rollback and defect arbitration.

Non-negotiables

• Can start in Sydney within three weeks and sustain monthly mine, supplier and India travel for twenty months.
• Will accept exclusive executive accountability and continuous escalation for the four autonomy subsystems.
• Brings live autonomous-fleet deployment plus India engineering transfer; robotics research alone is insufficient.
• Must disclose mining, equipment, autonomy-software, network, safety-assurance and engineering-service relationships.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe an autonomy deployment you stopped because software baseline evidence was unsafe.
2. 49 words maximum. Which subsystem decision can India own without taking the mine manager’s operating authority?
3. 49 words maximum. State your Sydney start and the largest mixed-fleet autonomy rollout you directly led.