About the position
Our client, a leading mining company is looking to appoint a Commissioning Manager to join their team based in Kathu, Northern Cape for a 12-month renewable contract.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's Degree in Engineering in Mechanical, Electrical, or related fields
- Commissioning or related certifications
- Quality certifications (advantageous)
- Operational readiness (advantageous)
- Project Management (advantageous)
- Must have a valid driver's license and own vehicle.
- 10-15 years relevant experience in commissioning and system turnover on medium size mining/industrial projects, with demonstrated responsibility for coordinating construction completion, commissioning readiness, documentation control and handover to operations.
- At least 5 years in a senior commissioning lead/coordination role.
- Strong working knowledge of the full commissioning lifecycle (pre-commissioning, cold commissioning, hot commissioning, performance testing and handover), including practical understanding of discipline interfaces (Civil, SMPP, EC&I) and subsystem/system boundaries.
- Proven experience integrating commissioning requirements into construction schedules, understanding C1 (Construction Completion) principles, punch management sequencing, and the programme impact of incomplete quality documentation.
- Advanced proficiency in administering and optimising Document Management Systems (DMS) for commissioning control, including databook compilation, certificate tracking, system turnover packages and audit readiness.
- Comprehensive understanding of quality management systems, discipline-specific ITP requirements and commissioning certification processes, ensuring compliance prior to energisation and start-up.
- Strong knowledge of safety, MHSA and safe energisation principles applicable to commissioning activities, including controlled introduction of energy and process materials.
- Demonstrated capability in managing punch listing processes, commissioning certificates and system acceptance documentation, ensuring traceability, timely close-out and alignment with contractual requirements.
- Ability to identify and manage risks, documentation gaps and sequencing constraints that may compromise commissioning readiness, start-up performance or programme integrity.
- Advanced knowledge of safety procedures and the specific documentation required to ensure safety compliance during all stages of the commissioning process.
- Proficient in tracking and analysing commissioning progress, generating comprehensive and actionable reports tailored to stakeholder needs.
Duties & Responsibilities:
Safety, Health, and Environment
- Support a safe and healthy work environment where workers, external service providers, and contractors can deliver their outputs within a controlled risk environment.
- Keep environmental impact within statutory requirements to ensure compliance.
- Support the compliance to MHSA in the workspace.
- Participate in VFL initiatives and submit the required number per month.
- Lead safe introduction of energy, water, and process material into systems.
Performance and Delivery
Commissioning Strategy and Management
- Define and own the commissioning strategy, systemisation approach and subsystem boundary philosophy for each project.
- Provide technical authority for progression between pre-commissioning, energisation, performance testing and handover.
- Lead commissioning planning and execution across multiple concurrent projects.
- Own and manage end-to-end commissioning maturity progression from C1 (Construction Completion) through C5 (Operational Handover).
- Develop fit-for-purpose commissioning plans aligned to project size and complexity.
- Facilitate and lead the development of integrated commissioning schedules with key stakeholders and contracting parties
- Coordinate pre-commissioning, cold commissioning, and hot commissioning activities.
- Manage contractor commissioning teams and vendor specialists.
- Identify and resolve technical and sequencing issues impacting start-up.
- Prioritise commissioning and related technical support resources across multiple projects to ensure delivery.
- Lead brownfield integration strategy, managing tie-ins, shutdown coordination and operational risk mitigation to ensure safe and seamless integration of new systems into existing operations
- Act as the primary interface with contractors during commissioning to establish seamless communication and issue resolution.
Quality Management Integration
- Define and govern C1 (Construction Completion) criteria in alignment with commissioning readiness requirements, ensuring subsystem turnover supports controlled progression through C1-C3 maturity stages.
- Ensure discipline-specific quality requirements, durations, practical constraints and schedule interfaces are fully integrated into commissioning planning across all maturity stages.
- Identify and escalate quality gaps that may compromise commissioning progression, energisation readiness or operational acceptance.
- Establish and enforce structured punch management governance, ensuring defects are prioritised, tracked and resolved in alignment with commissioning stage-gate requirements.
- Oversee the integrity and accuracy of punch tracking and quality records within the DMS to maintain real-time visibility of commissioning readiness.
- Ensure commissioning activities comply with approved quality management plans and discipline-specific requirements prior to system acceptance, energisation and start-up
- Hold contractors accountable for timely defect resolution and compliance with agreed quality close-out criteria.
Commissioning Process and Documentation
- Oversee the coordination of all commissioning processes and documentation across multiple projects
- Ensuring alignment with project commissioning standards, guidelines and the successful handover to operations.
- Ensure the development of project specific procedures, checklists, control philosophies, risk assessments and related technical documentation required for each discipline that will enable all commissioning steps.
- Monitor and manage commissioning certification, completion documentation and system turnover packages.
- Drive document management best practice (DMS)
Performance Testing & Handover
- Lead performance verification activities to confirm system operability.
- Coordinate contractor and vendor performance obligations.
- Facilitate beneficial handover to operations.
- Support initial operational ramp-up and stabilization.
- Ensure commissioning documentation supports operational sustainability
Operational Readiness Interface
- Coordinate closely with Operational Readiness teams to align commissioning schedules with training and readiness activities.
- Confirm operational readiness elements required to support start-up (training, maintenance readiness, spares, procedures).
- Provide visibility of commissioning sequencing to unlock operational preparedness milestones (integrated planning and scheduling)
- Escalate misalignment risks between commissioning progress and operational readiness timelines.
Governance and Reporting
- Lead the extraction, consolidation and presentation of commissioning data from the DMS, delivering accurate and timely portfolio-level reporting.
- Maintain structured, complete and accessible documentation for each commissioning area and equipment package, ensuring all records are audit ready.
- Coordinate with Quality teams and Contract Administrators to confirm databooks and data index requirements are complete and aligned.
- Provide structured commissioning status reporting across all key projects.
- Embed daily, weekly and monthly routines to manage, monitor and control commissioning activities.
- Identify, escalate and manage risks, bottlenecks, resource constraints and documentation gaps impacting commissioning progress or programme integrity.
- Drive continuous improvement and standardisation of commissioning practices and lessons learned across projects.
Desired Skills:
- Commissioning
- Mining
- Projects
Desired Work Experience:
Desired Qualification Level:
