Principal Mine Planning Engineer

About the role

The Principal Mine Planning Engineer is the senior technical authority for underground mine planning, responsible for the integrity, optimization, and execution-readiness of short-term, mid-range, and life-of-mine plans. This role provides strategic and operational leadership for a large underground mining operation, ensuring mine plans are safe, practical, compliant, and aligned with production, safety, and business objectives.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior technical authority for underground mine planning, providing independent expert judgment, technical direction, and assurance for short-term, mid-range, and life-of-mine plans.
• Lead and mentor engineers, surveyors, technicians, interns, and technical contractors in the development and execution of mine plans and planning strategies.
• Develop, optimize, and technically govern mine plans that integrate geology, geotechnical conditions, ventilation, utilities, equipment capabilities, and operational constraints.
• Direct and technically govern mine design activities, including development layouts, sequencing, pillar design, and supporting infrastructure.
• Provide technical oversight of underground utilities and systems—including ventilation, atmospheric monitoring, power, water, compressed air, and communications—to ensure regulatory compliance, safety, and execution feasibility.
• Convert strategic and long-range mine plans into actionable, clearly sequenced execution plans that operations can reliably implement.
• Serve as the primary interface between mine planning and execution, ensuring plans are clearly communicated, understood, and executable by operations and frontline leadership.
• Facilitate technical syndication of mine plans across operations, maintenance, safety, leadership, and other stakeholders to ensure alignment, feasibility, and shared ownership.
• Facilitate and participate in technical reviews, planning forums, and execution-readiness discussions to proactively identify risks, conflicts, and constraints prior to implementation.
• Apply advanced analytics, scenario modeling, and trade-off studies to optimize mine design, sequencing, production rates, recovery and capital efficiency.
• Support ground control inspection, monitoring, and risk mitigation programs in collaboration with geotechnical teams.
• Support exploration programs, including drilling, seismic activities, and geologic modeling; contribute to mineral resource and reserve estimation and validation.
• Audit plan performance through reconciliation and variance analysis; integrate lessons learned and operational feedback into continuous plan improvement.
• Create and sustain high-quality planning deliverables, including schedules, layouts, models, and technical documentation that clearly articulate design intent and assumptions.
• Guide production scheduling and mine services planning while driving continuous improvement in planning processes.
• Identify, assess, and escalate planning-driven risks and constraints that may impact safety, production, schedule, or capital outcomes; lead mitigation planning in collaboration with stakeholders.
• Lead or contribute to capital projects related to underground development and infrastructure upgrades.
• Support annual budgeting, forecasting, long-range capital planning, and resource and reserve reporting.
• Enforce compliance with safety standards, regulatory requirements, and company engineering practices while optimizing operational and economic outcomes.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Mining Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Geology, or a related discipline, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 10 years of progressive experience in underground mining operations with increasing technical responsibility.
• Demonstrated expertise in short-term, mid-range, and life-of-mine planning for underground operations.
• Demonstrated advanced proficiency in mine planning tools and methodologies, with emphasis on planning quality and design support rather than software operation alone.
• Proficiency in mine planning, surveying, AutoCAD, ventilation modeling, and related software (e.g., Deswik, Maptek, Leica Geosystems, GPS, VnetPC, Ventsim, and AggFlow).
• Strong data literacy; experience querying databases and building dashboards and analytics in Power BI.
• Experience managing and/or mentoring technical teams.
• Experience managing a salaried and hourly workforce.
• Experience working in unionized environments.

Qualifications

• Professional Engineer (PE) license preferred.

Skills

• Advanced proficiency in mine planning tools and methodologies.
• Data literacy and experience querying databases and building dashboards and analytics in Power BI.
• Experience managing and/or mentoring technical teams.
• Experience managing a salaried and hourly workforce.
• Experience working in unionized environments.

Benefits

Compass Minerals offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, financial security, and overall well-being. This includes medical, dental, and vision coverage, retirement savings plans, paid time off, and more.

Pay

The salary range for this position is $100,000 - $150,000 annually, depending on experience and qualifications.

Schedule

The position is full-time and based in our headquarters in Utah. Hours of work will be determined based on the needs of the organization and the candidate's skills and experience.