Regional Mining Program Manager

The organisation

Nobian is a European market leader in the production of salt, essential chemicals and energy for industries ranging from construction and cleaning to pharmaceuticals and water treatment. The company excels in the safe and reliable supply of high-purity salt, chlor-alkali, chloromethane and hydrogen, thanks to its integrated value chain with modern production sites in the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.

Nobian has a strong history in salt production dating back more than one hundred years, and has in-depth experience in underground energy storage. With 1,600 employees Nobian is committed to becoming safer, more efficient, and more sustainable ensuring that today's essential products continue to improve our lives in the future through chemistry you can trust.

Nobian plays an active role in the energy transition, through its knowledge and expertise with creating underground storage of energy in former salt caverns, including natural gas, compressed air and hydrogen. Creating energy storage caverns as part of the hydrogen backbone in the Netherlands is an important policy priority for the Dutch government. One of Nobian challenges is how it can continue and secure its salt production and daily operations, as well as creating energy storage, in a complex societal debate about mining in the Netherlands. The Regional Mining Program Manager will play a crucial role in addressing this pressing topic.

The position

Nobian is a leading producer of salt, essential chemicals and energy. With salt mining as a core activity, and the mission to actively contribute to the energy transition (by building energy storage caverns) Nobian operates in a high-potential, but politically complex and sensitive field. The Regional Mining Program Manager has a strong appetite for challenge and impact, and will lead Nobians mining project portfolio in the North or East of the Netherlands. 

Tasks & responsibilities

The Regional Mining Program Manager leads the project portfolio around existing and new mining operations and sustainability solutions, for Nobian’s mining location in Hengelo or Delfzijl. They report to the Mining Director, with direct contacts to the Executive Team. They work extensively with members of the project organization – including project managers, engineers, and specialists – as well as with several site directors and Community Managers. Although this role has been freed up from any HR responsibilities, the Regional Mining Program Manager has the full mandate to staff project teams.

There is always a degree of technical complexity in mining projects. But on top of the technical challenges, the stakeholder field of local residents, press, and politicians is complex as well. The Regional Mining Program Manager designs and leads multiple projects to enable future Mining and Energy operations, with a strong eye for these technological, societal, and political complexities.

“We work with different stakeholders to ensure mutual understanding and knowledge sharing between ourselves, the public, and policy makers. With the partners involved, including the Ministry of Economic Affairs, but also Gasunie, we design and build underground energy storage solutions. But stakeholder interaction is not always easy. Especially in the Northern Netherlands, mining and drilling, is a complex operation. The Regional Mining Program Manager is an excellent and honest communicator with high EQ and IQ, who effectively navigates this field.” – Ellis Deelen, Executive VP and Chief Operations Officer at Nobian

As the leading producer of salt in Western Europe, salt availability is of crucial importance to Nobian’s future. The Regional Mining Program Manager develops and executes a regional salt mining strategy aligned with Nobians overall Mining Strategy. They also oversee the risks and opportunities relating to salt mining in all its facets, including the development of an alternative salt supply strategy. The Regional Mining Program Manager ensures the right expertise is brought on for planning and executing each project. They also set the project roadmap and re-prioritize its elements if needed, keep track of and reports on progress, and steer the project teams in the right direction (in close cooperation with the project managers).

The overall project portfolio is diverse and ever-changing. The projects vary from extremely Greenfield to straight forward execution. Project examples are: how to stabilize caverns; how to fill old caverns; where to source the filling material or how to implement vibration measurements & response protocols.

The right candidate for this role has extensive project management experience in complex environments. They show excellent communication and planning skills and are happy to take charge. They also feel comfortable in dealing with pushback from stakeholders or providing pushback themselves. They can build (project) teams based on the proper assessment of necessary strengths and skills given the issue at hand. In this role, a candidate who enjoys problem-solving and creates trust with stakeholders has the opportunity to realize tremendous impact, for both Nobian and the Dutch energy transition.  

Candidate profile*

• Over 10 years of experience
• In managing complex projects
• Within (civil) engineering, chemistry, offshore, infrastructure, or related sectors
• In politically sensitive landscapes
• Roadmap creation
• Agility, both in project prioritization and stakeholder management

* Research shows that while male candidates feel confident enough to apply when they meet about 60% of the requirements, female candidates only apply when they tick every box. So if this role has your name on it, but you’re not sure about the criteria, we still want to hear from you.

Interested?

You can apply to this position by using the link below. Nobian is working with Top of Minds to fill this vacancy.