Senior Manager, People & Culture

Managing a team of three direct reports (covering People Partnering, Industrial/Employee Relations, and People Experience), your mandate is to take complete ownership of day-to-day operational execution, policy governance, and budget tracking. As a gatekeeper, you will operate with a high degree of independent authority bynfiltering, resolving, and finalizing local people matters autonomously, ensuring that only macro-level strategic or high-risk financial decisions are escalated to the M3 level.

• First Line of Authority: Act as the primary filter and operational decision-maker for the Malaysia SSC. You are expected to own and resolve 80% of localized escalations independently, removing day-to-day bottlenecks from the M3 Head of People.

• Operational Demarcation: Independently manage and approve standard HR interventions, local policy applications, performance mitigations, and team allocations without requiring constant oversight.

• Escalation Governance: Discern when to finalize a case and when to escalate, ensuring that matters brought to the M3 level are strictly high-liability risks, entity-wide structural shifts, or macro budget exceptions.

• Lead and Develop the Frontline: Directly manage, mentor, and govern a team of 3 specialists (IC3 People Partner, IC2 IR/ER Specialist, and a People Experience specialist), ensuring seamless cross-functional coverage and building an internal talent pipeline.

• Risk & Dependency Mitigation: Eliminate key-person dependency risks within the local team by establishing robust standard operating procedures (SOPs) and clear succession tracking.

• Policy Custodian: Manage the localized implementation, enforcement, and governance of all global and local HR policies across the 900-headcount employee lifecycle.

• Budget Oversight: Act as the frontline governor for the local HR budget. Track expenditures, manage run-rate costs, and ensure strict fiscal discipline before routing high-value financial requests to the M3 level for final sign-off.

• Process Excellence: Continuously audit and optimize HR service delivery workflows within the SSC to drive operational efficiency.

• Compliance Ownership: Take ultimate tactical ownership of all local IR/ER topics, ensuring flawless compliance with the Malaysian Employment Act, statutory regulations, and Industrial Court precedents.

• Conflict & Grievance Resolution: Autonomously oversee disciplinary frameworks, Domestic Inquiries (DIs), Mutual Separation Agreements (MSAs), and high-risk performance management paths.

• Leadership Coaching: Partner with and coach C-2 and C-3 business leaders on organizational design, talent reviews, succession planning, and performance calibration.

• Change Management: Drive local execution and communication strategies during business unit reorganizations, ensuring seamless business adoption with minimal disruption.

• Proven expert knowledge of HR principles, industry best practices, and successful program delivery

• Experience: Minimum of 8–10 years of progressive HR experience, with at least 3+ years in an M1 (or equivalent leadership) role directly managing people.

• SSC Fluency: Proven experience operating within a fast-paced Shared Services Center (SSC) environment or managing a headcount footprint of 500–1000+ employees.

• Proven Autonomy: A demonstrated track record of operating as a trusted second-in-command or localized entity lead, with verifiable experience managing complex cases from start to finish without heavy managerial intervention.

• Expertise: Deep, authoritative knowledge of Malaysian Labor Law / Employment Act and practical experience handling complex IR/ER landscapes.

• Attributes: Exceptional emotional intelligence, a high threshold for ambiguity, and the executive presence required to confidently act as the primary voice of HR for the entity.

• Excellent data analysis skills and exposure towards influencing automation using AI.

foodpanda is part of the Delivery Hero Group, the world’s pioneering local delivery platform, our mission is to deliver an amazing experience—fast, easy, and to your door. We operate in around 65 countries worldwide. Headquartered in Berlin, Germany. Delivery Hero has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2017 and is part of the MDAX stock market index.