Vice President Human Resources

Vice President Human Resources

Location

Bangkok Metropolitan Area, Thailand

Axentia Global has been retained on an exclusive and confidential basis to appoint a senior human resources leader for a long-established multinational manufacturer.

Manufacturing experience is a must. Please read that requirement before applying.

This is not a corporate HR role with a manufacturing employer attached to it. The successful candidate will carry direct, personal ownership of the people agenda across the client's Thai production operations, including union relationships, the employee welfare committee, negotiation cycles and full compliance with Thai employment legislation. Candidates whose exposure to manufacturing has been observed from a head office rather than owned on site will not be competitive for this appointment.

The role

The appointment is based in Thailand and carries full generalist ownership of human resources for the Thai business, including its production operations. Responsibility extends beyond Thailand to employee populations in additional markets, and the appointee holds a seat on the business leadership team.

Core areas of responsibility:

• Trusted counsel to business leadership on organisation design, capability, succession and the people implications of commercial and operational decisions
• Direct ownership of industrial and employee relations across unionised manufacturing operations in Thailand
• Building the talent, leadership capability and succession picture across the markets in scope
• Compensation and benefits governance in market, talent acquisition, and HR policy and process
• Alignment of the local people agenda with the group's wider frameworks

What the client is looking for

The organisation is not seeking continuity in this seat. It is seeking a step change in the quality of thinking applied to people decisions.

The successful candidate will hold an independent point of view, will test a proposal before implementing it, and will anticipate the second and third order consequences of a people decision before it lands rather than after. The client has been explicit on this point. This role will not succeed in the hands of a capable executor. It requires someone who is consulted before a decision is taken, not briefed once it has been made.

It equally requires someone who will then do the work themselves. The team is lean and the manufacturing sites expect to see their HR leader in person.

Requirements

• Approximately twenty to twenty-five years in human resources, of which at least eight to ten carrying responsibility across more than one country
• Direct, personal HR ownership at manufacturing sites, covering Thai labour law, union negotiation, welfare committee, and shift and headcount structures
• Thai language fluency to native or near-native standard, together with English at the standard required to hold a senior leadership table and work daily with an international head office
• Currently resident in Thailand
• Generalist depth across talent, organisation capability, compensation and benefits, talent acquisition and employee relations
• Demonstrated stability, including at least one appointment held for five years or more
• Evidence of having changed a business decision through the strength of an HR argument, rather than simply having executed one well

Valued

• FMCG or comparably regulated manufacturing environments
• Experience of joint venture or partner-company structures, where influence operates without direct authority
• Exposure to a US or European headquartered governance environment

This role is unlikely to suit

• A country HR leader whose responsibility has never extended beyond a single market
• A shared services or centre of expertise specialist seeking a first generalist seat
• A leader who prefers a clearly defined brief handed down from above