Location: Singapore
Level: Director
Reporting to: VP Human Resources
Coverage: Southeast Asia, China, Japan
Travel: Regional travel required (40%)
About the Role
Our client is a global B2B ingredients and solutions organization with a strong innovation and technical backbone. As the business accelerates its Asia expansion, they are appointing a Regional HR Business Partner Director based in Singapore to lead HR strategy, execution, and transformation across multiple high-growth markets.
This is a senior, hands-on HR leadership role combining strategic partnering, people leadership, and system transformation in a technically demanding environment.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic HR Business Partnering
- Act as a trusted advisor to regional and country leadership teams across SEA, China, and Japan.
- Translate business strategy into effective people, capability, and organization plans.
- Support regional expansion, workforce planning, and leadership development initiatives.
Talent Acquisition & Retention (Critical Focus)
- Lead strategies to attract, assess, and retain highly specialized mid-level technical talent in a competitive B2B market.
- Partner closely with hiring leaders to address talent scarcity, niche skill demand, and long hiring cycles.
- Design retention and engagement approaches for critical technical and innovation roles.
Regional Team Leadership
- Lead and develop HR teams located in Singapore, Thailand, China, and Japan.
- Drive consistent HR standards while respecting local market and cultural nuances.
- Build strong succession pipelines within the HR function.
Performance Management & HR Systems Transformation
- Own the regional implementation of a new performance management and HR analytics platform, transitioning from in-house systems.
- Ensure successful adoption, change management, and capability building across markets.
- Leverage HR data and analytics to support decision-making, workforce insights, and performance outcomes.
Organizational Effectiveness & Change
- Support organizational design, role clarity, and capability development during periods of growth and change.
- Lead change initiatives related to systems, processes, and evolving business needs.
Governance & Compliance
- Ensure HR practices align with local labor laws, global policies, and ethical standards.
- Partner with global HR COEs on rewards, learning, talent, and employee relations.
Candidate Profile
Experience & Background
- 12–18+ years of progressive HR experience, with significant HRBP leadership at regional level.
- Strong exposure to B2B, manufacturing, ingredients, chemicals, food, or industrial environments.
- Proven experience supporting technical, R&D, engineering, or innovation-heavy populations.
- Track record of leading multi-country HR teams in Asia.
Systems & Transformation
- Hands-on experience implementing or rolling out performance management systems and HR analytics platforms across regions.
- Comfortable working with both in-house and enterprise HR systems.
Leadership & Mindset
- Commercially astute, pragmatic, and comfortable operating in complex, matrixed organizations.
- Strong influencer with the ability to challenge and partner senior stakeholders.
- Culturally agile, resilient, and comfortable with ambiguity.
- Willing and able to travel regularly across the region.
Why This Role
- High-impact regional leadership role with visibility at senior levels.
- Opportunity to shape HR strategy during a critical expansion phase.
- Meaningful ownership of people, systems, and capability transformation across Asia.
- Exposure to complex, technically driven talent challenges that require innovative HR solutions.
