Associate Director - HRBP

Since its inception in 2000, our client has emerged as a prominent and fast-growing retail group serving markets across the Middle East. The organization partners with world-class fashion and lifestyle brands, delivering globally inspired products and experiences to discerning consumers throughout the GCC. Guided by a vision to become a leading regional gateway for international retailers, the company has successfully built a broad portfolio across diverse consumer categories. Its collaborative approach with global brand partners, combined with extensive market expertise and a customer-first mindset, has enabled sustained growth and ongoing expansion across the region. Today, our client remains well-positioned to capitalize on emerging opportunities within the dynamic Middle Eastern retail market.

Responsibilities:

Strategic HR Leadership:

• Act as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, influencing business strategy through human capital insights. 
• Lead the development and execution of enterprise-wide people strategy aligned with business growth objectives. 
• Drive workforce planning, organizational design, and operating model effectiveness across multiple business units.

Talent Strategy & Leadership Development:

• Oversee succession planning and leadership pipeline development for critical roles.
• Drive enterprise talent reviews, ensuring alignment with long-term business needs.
• Shape and sponsor leadership development and capability-building initiatives in partnership with COEs. 

Organizational Performance & Effectiveness:

• Lead the performance management framework, ensuring alignment with business priorities and outcomes.
• Define and track organizational performance metrics and ensure continuous improvement initiatives are implemented.

Culture, Engagement & Transformation:

• Champion culture transformation initiatives, fostering engagement, inclusion, and high-performance behaviors.
• Drive employee engagement strategies, leveraging insights from surveys and analytics to influence leadership action planning.

Change & Transformation Leadership:

• Lead enterprise-level change management initiatives, including restructuring, integration, and transformation programs.
• Provide strategic counsel on people implications, risk mitigation, and stakeholder alignment during major business changes

Employee Relations & Governance:

• Ensure governance, compliance, and risk management in line with company policies and UAE labor laws.
• Provide oversight on complex employee relations cases, investigations, and escalations.

HR Analytics & Business Insights:

• Drive data-led decision-making, leveraging workforce analytics to inform strategy.
• Present insights on talent trends, productivity, engagement, and organizational health to senior leadership

Collaboration with HR Centers of Excellence:

• Ensure alignment and integration of HR services across Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, L&D, and other COEs.
• Lead the localization and execution of group-wide HR initiatives across company.

Leadership & Team Development:

• Lead and develop HRBP teams, ensuring capability building and succession readiness.
• Foster a high-performing, collaborative HR function aligned to business needs.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Psychology, or a related field.
• A Master’s degree or MBA is preferred.
• 8–10 years of progressive HR experience, with at least 3–5 years in a business partnering or HR leadership role.
• Proven experience supporting senior leadership and driving strategic HR initiatives.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint).
• Familiarity with systems and collaboration platforms (e.g., Microsoft Teams, SharePoint) is preferred.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English.
• Interpersonal Skills.
• Employee Relations. 
• Organizational Development.
• Additional languages (e.g., Arabic) is an advantage.