Rio Tinto has started building an in-house software development function that could grow to “more than 500” people over the next five years.
The miner will initially concentrate efforts on establishing the capability at its Brisbane hub in Australia, which for some time has been home to digital innovation and IS&T functions.
However, it appears the software development workforce will ultimately span its global operations.
The miner has brought in consultancy Endava to “create a framework to instil best practices and development capabilities” in the new team.
“Developing in-house product software development capability will be core to accelerating our digital transformation,” Rio Tinto CIO Dan Evans said in a statement.
“We are a mining and metals company, but if you look at our autonomous trucks and drills, remote operations centres, advanced process automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence, there’s no doubt that we are also a technology company.”
