Senior Manager, People & Culture

Job Description

Managing a team of three direct reports (covering People Partnering, Industrial/Employee Relations, and People Experience), your mandate is to take complete ownership of day-to-day operational execution, policy governance, and budget tracking. As a gatekeeper, you will operate with a high degree of independent authority bynfiltering, resolving, and finalizing local people matters autonomously, ensuring that only macro-level strategic or high-risk financial decisions are escalated to the M3 level.

• First Line of Authority: Act as the primary filter and operational decision-maker for the Malaysia SSC. You are expected to own and resolve 80% of localized escalations independently, removing day-to-day bottlenecks from the M3 Head of People.

• Operational Demarcation: Independently manage and approve standard HR interventions, local policy applications, performance mitigations, and team allocations without requiring constant oversight.

• Escalation Governance: Discern when to finalize a case and when to escalate, ensuring that matters brought to the M3 level are strictly high-liability risks, entity-wide structural shifts, or macro budget exceptions.

• Lead and Develop the Frontline: Directly manage, mentor, and govern a team of 3 specialists (IC3 People Partner, IC2 IR/ER Specialist, and a People Experience specialist), ensuring seamless cross-functional coverage and building an internal talent pipeline.

• Risk & Dependency Mitigation: Eliminate key-person dependency risks within the local team by establishing robust standard operating procedures (SOPs) and clear succession tracking.

• Policy Custodian: Manage the localized implementation, enforcement, and governance of all global and local HR policies across the 900-headcount employee lifecycle.

• Budget Oversight: Act as the frontline governor for the local HR budget. Track expenditures, manage run-rate costs, and ensure strict fiscal discipline before routing high-value financial requests to the M3 level for final sign-off.

• Process Excellence: Continuously audit and optimize HR service delivery workflows within the SSC to drive operational efficiency.

• Compliance Ownership: Take ultimate tactical ownership of all local IR/ER topics, ensuring flawless compliance with the Malaysian Employment Act, statutory regulations, and Industrial Court precedents.

• Conflict & Grievance Resolution: Autonomously oversee disciplinary frameworks, Domestic Inquiries (DIs), Mutual Separation Agreements (MSAs), and high-risk performance management paths.

• Leadership Coaching: Partner with and coach C-2 and C-3 business leaders on organizational design, talent reviews, succession planning, and performance calibration.

• Change Management: Drive local execution and communication strategies during business unit reorganizations, ensuring seamless business adoption with minimal disruption.

Qualifications

• Proven expert knowledge of HR principles, industry best practices, and successful program delivery

• Experience: Minimum of 8–10 years of progressive HR experience, with at least 3+ years in an M1 (or equivalent leadership) role directly managing people.

• SSC Fluency: Proven experience operating within a fast-paced Shared Services Center (SSC) environment or managing a headcount footprint of 500–1000+ employees.

• Proven Autonomy: A demonstrated track record of operating as a trusted second-in-command or localized entity lead, with verifiable experience managing complex cases from start to finish without heavy managerial intervention.

• Expertise: Deep, authoritative knowledge of Malaysian Labor Law / Employment Act and practical experience handling complex IR/ER landscapes.

• Attributes: Exceptional emotional intelligence, a high threshold for ambiguity, and the executive presence required to confidently act as the primary voice of HR for the entity.

• Excellent data analysis skills and exposure towards influencing automation using AI.