Group HR Executive Director

Reporting to the Group Chief Executive Officer.

Role Overview

EtonHouse is seeking a Group HR Executive Director to lead group-wide HR policy, governance, and talent management across a growing multi-country portfolio of schools. HR teams in each Business Unit report directly to their BU CEO. This role provides functional leadership, alignment and governance across the Group.

Organisation Structure

Each Business Unit (EtonHouse Singapore, EBridge Pre-School, EtonHouse China and EtonHouse Global Ventures) has its own HR department that reports directly to the respective BU CEO for day-to-day operations and decision making, with a functional dotted-line reporting relationship to the Group HR Executive Director for alignment on Group HR policies, frameworks, standards, and manpower governance.

The Group HR Executive Director will:

• Establish and align core HR frameworks, policies, and standards across all Business Units.
• Deliver Group-wide manpower oversight and senior hiring governance.
• Lead Group-wide senior leadership talent management and succession planning to ensure pipeline strength across markets.
• Drive a coherent L&D framework for corporate staff, aligning BU training with Group priorities and eliminating low-impact programmes.
• Play a more hands-on HR build and setup role for EtonHouse's new ventures and expansion into overseas markets.
• Serve as a trusted partner to Group and BU leaders, providing strategic counsel, cross-cultural alignment, and early escalation of organisational misalignment.
• Provide expert guidance on complex employee relations and partner with Group and BU CEOs on compliance, investigations, and organisational risk.

Key Responsibilities:

Group HR Governance and Policy Alignment

• Define Group level HR policies, minimum standards, and guardrails (for example, recruitment, compensation frameworks, and performance management).
• Align BU HR policies with Group standards while respecting local labour laws and regulations.
• Run a regular HR leadership forum across BUs to drive consistency, share best practices, and resolve policy conflicts.

Headcount, Manpower Cost, and Role Governance

• Maintain oversight of Group-wide headcount, vacancies, and manpower cost, without direct control of BU staffing decisions.
• Oversee and approve senior leadership appointments across BUs and Group Functions.
• Partner with and support BU HR and BU CEOs on organisation design, span of control, and role clarity.
• Build simple but robust dashboards that allow the Group CEO to see where headcount and cost are drifting off plan.

Talent Management and Succession Planning

• Design and run a group-wide talent management process, including calibration of high potentials and critical roles.
• Build and maintain a succession map for key leadership and critical specialist roles across the organisation.
• Work with BU CEOs and HR leaders to move, stretch, and export talent across markets where it makes sense.

Learning and Developmentfor all corporate employees across the Group.

• Build a pragmatic L&D framework that supports both leadership development and critical operational capability.
• Coordinate group-wide leadership programmes and management training.
• Ensure BU training initiatives align with Group priorities and continuously evaluate their impact, discontinuing programmes that do not add value.

Hands-on HR Build for EtonHouse's New Ventures and Expansion into Overseas Markets

• Act as de facto HR head and builder for new ventures and new school expansion overseas until a stable local HR team is in place.
• Support manpower planning, hiring, compensation setup, and HR operations design for new markets and JV schools.
• Put in place the basic HR systems, processes, and documentation needed for new schools to function.

Stakeholder Management and Leadership

• Be a credible partner to the Group CEO and BU CEOs on all people and organisation topics.
• Partner with Heads of Departments at Global HQ as their senior HR counterpart.
• Provide coaching to BU HR leaders as needed.
• Navigate cultural differences across markets and identify misalignment early.

Employee Relations & Compliance (Risk Management & Support)

• Provide guidance on complex employee relations matters across jurisdictions.
• Partner closely with the Group CEO and BU CEOs on compliance, risk issues, and investigations.

Profile and Requirements

• At least 10 years of senior HR leadership experience, including time in a Group or regional role.
• Proven track record in HR policy, organisation design, workforce planning and talent management.
• Experience working in matrix structures with dotted line relationships.
• Exposure to multi-country operations, ideally in education, services, hospitality or similar people-intensive industries.
• Strong analytical capability and comfort with manpower and cost data.
• Excellent stakeholder management.
• Fluent in English and Mandarin.
• Willing to travel periodically to China, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and other markets.