Careers

Job summary

As the Head of HR Operations - Southeast Asia (SEA), you will provide strategic HR leadership across the region, partnering with senior business leaders to drive organizational effectiveness, workforce transformation and sustainable business performance.

You will play a pivotal role in shaping people strategies, strengthening leadership capabilities, driving talent and succession planning, and leading organizational change across diverse markets. You will also provide strategic oversight of complex employee and industrial relations matters, ensuring effective people governance and compliance with local employment regulations.

This role requires a strategic, commercially minded and people-centric leader who can navigate organizational complexity, influence senior stakeholders and develop high-performing teams within a large, geographically dispersed organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic HR Leadership & Business Partnership: Serve as a trusted advisor to regional and country leadership, translating business priorities into effective people strategies that strengthen organizational performance, workforce capabilities and long-term business sustainability.
• Talent Management & Succession Planning: Partner with business leaders and HR Centers of Excellence (CoEs) to identify critical roles, assess leadership capabilities, develop succession pipelines and implement talent development strategies that strengthen organizational readiness and leadership continuity.
• Change Management & Organizational Transformation: Lead and drive regional change management and transformation initiatives, including organizational restructuring, operating model changes and workforce transitions. Develop strategies to strengthen employee engagement, leadership alignment and change adoption while minimizing business disruption.
• People Leadership & Capability Development: Lead, coach and develop People Operations leaders and teams across SEA, fostering a high-performance culture, strengthening leadership capabilities and building an engaged, accountable and collaborative workforce.
• Organizational Effectiveness & Workforce Planning: Partner with business leaders to assess organizational structures, workforce capabilities and future talent requirements. Develop strategic workforce plans that support business growth, operational efficiency and organizational agility.
• Employee & Industrial Relations: Provide strategic leadership on complex employee and industrial relations matters, including union relationships, collective bargaining, grievances, disciplinary actions and workforce disputes, ensuring fair, consistent and compliant outcomes.
• Employee Engagement & Culture: Partner with business leaders to strengthen employee engagement, organizational culture and workplace effectiveness, identifying opportunities to improve employee experience, retention and overall workforce performance.
• Regional HR Governance & Compliance: Ensure consistent People Operations standards and practices across SEA while maintaining compliance with local employment legislation, regulatory requirements and company policies.
• Executive Stakeholder Management & Influencing: Build strong partnerships with senior leadership, providing strategic counsel, constructively challenging decisions and influencing outcomes on complex people and organizational matters.
• People Analytics & Continuous Improvement: Leverage workforce analytics, talent insights and employee trends to identify organizational risks, strengthen succession readiness and drive continuous improvement in People Operations delivery.

Key Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent qualification in any discipline.
• Minimum 10 years of progressive Human Resources, People Operations or HR Business Partnering experience, with demonstrated regional leadership responsibilities across multiple Southeast Asian markets.
• Proven experience supporting large, complex and geographically dispersed organizations, preferably within multinational corporations or matrixed environments.
• Strong track record in talent management, leadership development and succession planning, including identifying critical talent, developing leadership pipelines and strengthening organizational capabilities.
• Demonstrated experience leading organizational change and business transformation, including restructuring, workforce transitions, organizational redesign and change adoption.
• Proven people leadership and management experience, with the ability to build, coach, motivate and develop high-performing teams across diverse markets.
• Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence, with the ability to build trust, navigate sensitive situations, manage conflicts and influence stakeholders at all organizational levels.
• Strong expertise in employee and industrial relations, employment compliance, workforce risk management and complex employee matters.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with senior executives, influence strategic decisions and translate business priorities into actionable people strategies.
• Strong commercial acumen, strategic thinking and sound judgment, with the ability to balance business performance, organizational effectiveness and employee needs.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, negotiation and influencing skills, with the ability to lead through ambiguity and complex organizational environments.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities, with the ability to leverage workforce insights and talent data to support strategic decision-making.
• Experience in large-scale, operationally intensive or labor-intensive industries such as logistics, transportation, aviation, manufacturing or supply chain will be an added advantage.