Director, People at Bridge International

About the Role

We are looking for an operationally focused, relentlessly driven star to lead our People Operations across the Region. This is a high-impact role for someone who loves challenges. You will be laser focused on motivating and retaining our best staff, and will work to ensure that our service delivery positively impacts all staff – particularly those who work tirelessly in our academies. 

The ideal candidate comes from a strong commercial background. You may have retail, operations, or consulting experiences, with a strong track record managing organisations and people in very fast-paced environments. You are energetic, tireless, relentless, and you are comfortable dealing with people of all backgrounds. 

What You Will Do

• Ensure top-notch global People Operations service delivery. This means ensuring that all processes that touch employee needs are running smoothly. This includes employee on-boarding (sometimes hundreds of employees at once), handling the employee lifecycle, payroll, and leave management.
• Execute on a data-driven approach across all People Operations activities. You will work closely with technology to leverage our systems and data most effectively.
• Align company processes and policies with best practices and employment/labour regulations in all countries of operation.
•  Execute on performance and talent initiatives and resource planning.
•   Supervise the Administration Manager to ensure smooth Administration operations.

What You Should Have

• Bachelor’s degree in business or other related field with top academic marks; MBA/grad degree a plus.
• IHRM Certified
• Minimum of ten years of significant leadership experiences in operational roles for rapidly scaling companies.
• Strong analytical thinker, ideally with previous experience in board commercial and operational areas.
• Self-starter; highly driven individual that will take ownership from the get-go and proactively look for improvement.
• Emerging markets experience a major plus.
• Strong leadership skills and demonstrated ability to work with a very diverse workforce.

You’re also

• A detailed doer – You have a track record of getting things done. You’re organized and responsive. You take ownership of every idea you touch and execute it to a fine level of detail, setting targets, engaging others, and doing whatever it takes to get the job done. You can multi-task dozens of such projects at once and never lose sight of the details. Likely, you have some experience in a start-up or other rapid-growth company.
• A networking mastermind – You excel at meeting new people and turning them into advocates.  You communicate in a clear, conscientious, and effective way in both written and oral speech. You can influence strangers in the course of a single conversation. Allies and colleagues will go to bat for your ideas. You have an existing network from prior experience in the country, preferably in the regulatory, education, or business sectors.
• A creative problem-solver – Growing any business from scratch comes with massive and constant challenges. On top of that, Bridge works in often fragile, sometimes volatile low-resource communities and with complex government systems. You need to be flexible and ready to get everything done effectively, quickly, and affordably with the materials at hand. 
• A relentless advocate – The children we serve and teachers we empower never leave your mind. You know them, get them, have shared a meal with them (or would be happy to in the future). You would never shrink back from shaking a parent’s hand or picking up a crying child, no matter what the person was wearing or looked like. Every decision you make considers their benefit, experience, and value.
• A malleable learner – You believe you can always do better. You welcome constructive criticism and provide it freely to others. You know you only get better tomorrow when others point out where you’ve missed things or failed today.
• A data-driven decision-maker – When making decisions, you don’t rely on your intuition alone. You collect data, you analyze it and make decisions with clear justifications.
• A curious investigator – You ask why a lot. You don’t just take what you see and accept it. You wonder why it is that way, and are aware that the world we see is created by human choices and actions – and it could be different. You wonder, and see the world as wonderful even when you want to change a part of it that is unjust.