Robert started his career as a young graduate in the Mineral Resource Department at the Council for Geoscience in 2003. In 2010 he joined an environmental consulting firm working as an associate specialist geochemist in mostly mine mineral waste risk assessments and water quality assessments and modelling. He joined the UFS in 2016 as a Lecturer and in 2021 became the director of the newly established Centre for Mineral Biogeochemistry, where he presently still is.