Our client is one of the fastest-growing hotel management operators globally, redefining modern hospitality across luxury, upscale, lifestyle, extended-stay and mixed-use hospitality assets. With an expanding footprint across Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe and Africa, the group's growth strategy is driven by operational excellence, owner partnerships, technology-enabled guest experiences, and an uncompromising focus on people and culture.
As the organization continues its rapid international expansion, the company is seeking an exceptional Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) to lead the people agenda across a highly diverse and dynamic portfolio of markets. This role will serve as a strategic business partner to the CEO and Executive Leadership Team while building a world-class people organization capable of scaling aggressively across multiple geographies and cultures.
This executive search assignment is being exclusively managed and fronted by Hospitality.SG, a specialist hospitality executive search and talent advisory platform focused on leadership appointments across the global hospitality industry.
Position Summary
The Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) will lead all aspects of the human capital strategy across Southeast Asia, India and EMEA, overseeing the full employee lifecycle for corporate, operational and property-based teams.
The successful candidate will architect and execute a forward-looking people strategy that supports hypergrowth, operational excellence, employer branding, leadership capability, organizational effectiveness, workforce planning and cultural transformation across a multinational hospitality platform.
This executive will be responsible for driving talent acquisition at scale, strengthening leadership pipelines, building high-performance cultures, optimizing organizational design, elevating employee engagement, and ensuring HR governance and compliance across complex regional jurisdictions.
The CHRO will play a pivotal role in enabling the organization to scale from a rapidly growing regional operator into a globally recognized hospitality management powerhouse.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic HR Leadership
- Develop and execute an enterprise-wide people strategy aligned with the company's aggressive international expansion plans and long-term business objectives.
- Serve as a key member of the Executive Leadership Team, contributing to overall corporate strategy, operational scaling and organizational transformation.
- Advise the CEO and Board on organizational health, succession planning, leadership effectiveness, workforce risks and talent strategies.
- Build a globally scalable HR operating model capable of supporting accelerated hotel openings, acquisitions, management transitions and geographic expansion.
- Lead enterprise transformation initiatives including change management, restructuring, organizational redesign and culture integration.
Talent Acquisition & Workforce Scaling
- Build and lead a best-in-class global recruitment function capable of hiring at scale across corporate, hotel operations, technical services, pre-opening and executive leadership functions.
- Develop innovative recruitment strategies across emerging and mature hospitality markets.
- Strengthen employer branding to position the company as an employer of choice within global hospitality and lifestyle sectors.
- Oversee executive hiring and succession pipelines for General Managers, Area Leaders and C-suite positions.
- Drive workforce planning strategies to support rapid hotel openings and regional expansion.
Leadership Development & Succession
- Design and implement leadership development frameworks across all organizational levels.
- Build succession planning processes for critical leadership and operational roles.
- Establish high-potential talent programs and future leadership academies.
- Create scalable learning ecosystems leveraging digital platforms, operational academies and management development initiatives.
- Champion coaching, mentoring and leadership capability-building across the organization.
Organizational Culture & Employee Experience
- Shape and institutionalize a high-performance, values-driven and service-oriented culture.
- Lead initiatives focused on employee engagement, retention, diversity, inclusion and belonging.
- Develop employee experience frameworks that enhance engagement across frontline, operational and corporate populations.
- Partner closely with operations leadership to strengthen culture consistency across all managed properties.
- Drive recognition, wellness and employee advocacy programs globally.
Compensation, Benefits & Rewards
- Develop competitive and regionally appropriate compensation and benefits strategies.
- Oversee executive compensation benchmarking and incentive structures.
- Build scalable reward frameworks aligned to operational performance, guest satisfaction and commercial outcomes.
- Ensure compensation governance, pay equity and market competitiveness across all regions.
HR Operations & Governance
- Oversee HR operations, policies, systems and compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
- Ensure compliance with labor laws, employment regulations, union environments and local governance frameworks across Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
- Lead HR digital transformation initiatives including HRIS optimization, people analytics and automation.
- Establish robust people analytics and workforce intelligence capabilities to support executive decision-making.
- Build scalable HR shared services and centers of excellence where appropriate.
Business Partnership & Operational Alignment
- Partner closely with regional presidents, operations leaders and hotel general managers to align talent strategies with business performance objectives.
- Support hotel openings, owner transitions, operational integrations and management conversions.
- Act as a trusted advisor on organizational effectiveness, employee relations and leadership dynamics.
- Drive labor productivity optimization while maintaining strong employee engagement and service standards.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
- Champion inclusive hiring and leadership representation strategies.
- Build culturally intelligent HR practices across highly diverse international markets.
- Develop measurable DEI goals and reporting frameworks.
- Foster equitable career development opportunities across all employee groups.
Mergers, Acquisitions & Integration
- Lead people-related due diligence and post-acquisition integration initiatives.
- Develop integration frameworks for acquired assets, management companies and operating platforms.
- Ensure cultural alignment and organizational continuity during transformation activities.
Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Psychology or related discipline required.
- Master's degree or MBA strongly preferred.
- Minimum 18–25 years of progressive HR leadership experience, including substantial international hospitality experience.
- Prior CHRO, Global HR Head or Regional HR Executive experience within a major hospitality, hotel management, travel, lifestyle or service-oriented multinational organization.
- Proven track record supporting high-growth, multi-country organizations with large operational workforces.
- Strong understanding of hotel operations, pre-openings, owner relations and hospitality talent ecosystems.
- Demonstrated success leading HR transformation and scaling organizations across complex international markets.
- Experience managing large multicultural teams across multiple geographies.
- Strong commercial acumen with the ability to align people strategy to business performance.
- Deep expertise across talent acquisition, organizational development, compensation, employee relations and HR operations.
- Experience operating within matrixed and fast-paced environments.
