Commercial Director

KoBold Metals · Remote

  • Senior
  • Full-time
  • Posted 2026-08-31
  • Confirmed live on 25 September 2026

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Job description

Commercial Director

About the company:

In the coming decades, our world needs far more critical minerals including copper, lithium, and cobalt, to build electric infrastructure, vehicles, data centers, and electronics. The mining industry is making 10x fewer discoveries per dollar spent on exploration compared to 30 years ago because the easy-to-find, near surface deposits have largely been discovered.

KoBold is the leading scientific mineral exploration, mine development, and technology development company. Our goal is to turn mineral exploration into a repeatable science to discover the minerals the world needs—by integrating artificial intelligence, human intelligence, and new technology. Our multidisciplinary teams of data scientists, engineers, and geologists work together to build data systems, design new sensors, and establish industry-leading workflows to develop and test subsurface predictions on our exploration projects.

Our first discovery, Mingomba, is a high-grade copper deposit in Zambia, found after spending materially less than industry average. We are developing Mingomba with the same technical rigor that we apply to exploration. The Mingomba team brings together mine and processing engineers, geologists, data scientists, software engineers, and community, health & safety, construction, and operations specialists. By combining industry knowledge and cutting edge technology, we are developing Mingomba into a world class project that has safer and more predictable outcomes for ourselves, partners, and communities. It is expected to create thousands of good jobs for generations.

KoBold runs exploration programs in eight countries, all with the potential for another discovery.

KoBold is privately held; investors include institutional asset managers T. Rowe Price and Canada Pension Plan Investments; technology venture capitalists Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BOND Capital, Durable Capital, StepStone, and Standard Investments; and strategic natural resources companies BHP and Mitsubishi.

About the role

This is a senior commercial leadership role for the development of a significant Copper mining complex in Zambia. The Mingomba deposit contains over 10 million tonnes of copper more than half of which exceeds 6% grade. This role will help turn that world class deposit into a world class mine.

The Commercial Director establishes the commercial strategy, contracting approach, procurement and market engagement plan, and contractor management disciplines required to deliver the Mingomba project safely, competitively, and predictably. The role owns the commercial pathway from PFS and engineering delivery through package strategy, tendering, negotiation, award, contract administration, contractor performance, transition to operations and commercial close out. The Mingomba project is expected to require capital expenditure of more than US$2 billion, so the role requires a commercial leader who has built and run major-project commercial functions before.

What this role is accountable for delivering

This role provides the strategic commercial leadership for a significant greenfield project by setting the commercial direction, developing and implementing the strategies that flow from it and building and directing the team that delivers them. The successful candidate will be measured on:

• A commercial strategy — delivery model, contracting approach, market engagement, and packaging — approved through project governance, delivered on schedule, and updated as conditions change.

• A capable, high performing contracting, procurement and supply chain team built, developed and directed to deliver the targets with clear accountabilities and growing local capability

• Major packages tendered and awarded to the baseline schedule with no critical path slippage attributable to procurement or contract formulation

• Final contract outlays within the agreed band of the approved estimate, with commitments, cost exposure and forecasts visible to the project and finance at all times.

• Claims and variation exposure quantified, contained and actively managed with no material unresolved disputes at handover to operations

• Local content targets met with auditable evidence of local supplier participation and capability development

• A procurement and contracting function that passes independent commercial audits and stage gate review without material qualification

• A clean integrity record with no sanctions, bribery or conflict of interest findings in the supply chain and contracting workflows.

Responsibilities

• Commercial governance and routines: Establish the commercial policies, approval thresholds, procurement gates, contract governance, tender review cadence, award recommendations, change controls, claims controls, and vendor management routines needed to support safe, competitive, and predictable project delivery.

• Project delivery model and contracting options: Devel

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