Group VP of People and Culture

Role overview

This is a senior global leadership position based at the company’s Singapore headquarters. The role is responsible for shaping and modernising the group’s people strategy, HR operations, and workplace culture across the Cladtek Group. It supports the wider transformation of HR into a more standardised, automated, and unified global function, while acting as a strategic partner to the Executive Leadership Team on business growth and workforce planning.

The scope covers an international workforce of about 2,000 employees across manufacturing and construction operations in Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Singapore, and Indonesia. A key focus is ensuring staffing levels are aligned with project-driven demand, managing costs responsibly, strengthening retention, improving diversity, and putting in place consistent policies, digital processes, and optimised global HR and medical insurance arrangements.

The position also plays a hands-on mentoring role, building capability across regions by training site HR leaders directly and enabling them to develop their local teams.

Key responsibilities

The incumbent will set departmental direction, establish goals and KPIs linked to the group’s annual business objectives, and create standard templates, procedures, and monitoring mechanisms. They will track delivery against plan, budget, and policy requirements, while leading change initiatives that improve operating efficiency and support continuous improvement.

This role requires strong relationship management across internal departments and external partners such as suppliers, contractors, and related entities to keep operations running smoothly.

On the people strategy side, the role includes quarterly organisation chart reviews, enterprise-wide manpower planning, and oversight of compensation and benefits structures across countries. The leader will ensure staffing is sufficient for project execution without unnecessary overhead, while also supporting diversity goals, attrition control, and ESG-aligned workforce practices.

The position is also expected to review salary structures, allowances, and benefits with the Executive Leadership Team and direct reports, ensuring they reflect market conditions and sound framework design.

In the area of talent development, the role involves assessing workforce capability, designing ongoing training beyond onboarding, and building a train-the-trainer culture that helps local teams adopt group standards. Succession planning and targeted development plans for key roles are also part of the remit.

For performance management, the leader will manage the annual PMS close-out process, including review and approval of merit increases and bonuses, in line with financial policy and with appropriate executive visibility.

The role also carries responsibility for organisational discipline, data tracking, and policy adherence across global hubs. It requires close collaboration with regional HR managers to reduce people-case issues, limit fragmentation, prevent labour disputes, and strengthen consistent policy execution.

From an HR modernisation perspective, the role will lead improvements to global payroll systems, claims processes, and travel booking tools in partnership with Finance and IT. It includes developing global compensation frameworks that balance internal equity, statutory obligations, tax considerations, and local market practices.

The incumbent will help drive a move toward centralised digital workflows and AI-enabled automation, standardise HR policies worldwide, provide quarterly workforce updates to the ELT, and work with Legal on HR agreements, templates, consultants, recruitment partners, and jurisdiction-specific structures for pay, benefits, and allowances.

Other responsibilities include staying current on international tax structures, union frameworks, and labour law requirements; supporting digital tracking of cross-border employee movement; educating staff on HR policies, leave, travel rules, and delegation of authority; and overseeing the global medical insurance programme, including renewal, premium negotiation, and cost control.

This role also manages HR budgets and overheads linked to recruitment, systems, and external consultants, and includes authority to approve costs only within approved budgets. International travel to sites and offices, including Brazil, KSA, and Indonesia, is required as needed for training, cultural alignment, and health checks on local HR operations.

Additionally, the role has a safety and compliance dimension, ensuring HR teams and onboarding pathways comply with HSE requirements, supporting implementation of corporate HSE systems, and meeting legal obligations related to employee wellbeing, occupational safety, and labour law.

Requirements

The ideal candidate should hold at least a bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Law, or a related discipline. A master’s degree, MBA, or senior HR certification such as CIPD Level 7, SPHRi, or an equivalent qualification is preferred.

The role calls for a strong understanding of digital workplace systems, cross-border people governance, employee travel rules, tax implications, and international medical insurance structures. Experience with automation, global project coordination, and modern corporate workflow tools is important.

A minimum of 12 to 15 years of progressive HR experience is required, including at least 5 years in a global leadership role such as VP, Head, or Senior Director. Background in manufacturing, construction, engineering, or oil and gas is preferred. Experience across multi-country HR operations, including Singapore and GCC markets such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, as well as emerging markets like Brazil and Indonesia, is advantageous.

The role also requires proven ability to lead distributed multicultural teams through coaching and a train-the-trainer approach, plus hands-on involvement in HRIS rollouts, digital expense or travel tools, and medical insurance portfolio management. Experience presenting HR matters to executive committees or boards, handling union relations and collective bargaining, and understanding cross-border employment tax issues is important.

Strong English communication skills, high integrity, discretion, commitment, empathy, and a practical approach to problem-solving are essential. Working knowledge of Arabic, Portuguese, or Bahasa Indonesia is a plus.

Additional required training includes Cladtek integration onboarding, ESG global strategies and diversity reporting, IQMS, HSE awareness, PPE and onsite safety rules, and role-specific regulatory and competency training under the department matrix.

Health, safety, and location conditions

The successful candidate must be medically fit for the role and compliant with the company’s medical check standards. The position is based full-time at the Singapore headquarters and requires presence in the office five days per week.

International travel will be required several times a year to company offices and facilities for hands-on training and direct operational review.

Compliance is required with HSE documentation and current legal standards, including the Risk Management Program, Occupational Health Medical Control Program, and Occupational Health Certificate requirements.

Additional information

This role is intended for a senior leader who can help unify HR practices across the group while balancing operational discipline, cultural alignment, legal compliance, and cost effectiveness. The company places emphasis on standardisation, transparency, automation, and practical execution across all regions.