Head - Human Resource - Pharma/Biotech

Role Summary:

The GCC HR Head leads all HR Business Partnering and local Center of Excellence (COE) operations for our expanding Global Capability Centre in Hyderabad. Sitting on the GCC Leadership Team, this role bridges global HR strategies with regional execution, driving talent acquisition, employee engagement, compliance, and organizational development across our India workforce.

JOB DUTIES:

HRBP Responsibilities:

• Takes overall responsibility for the strategic and operational running of the HR Department in India while taking an active leadership role in Global & Regional HR work.
• Responsible for the overall HR strategy for the India entity, ensuring the development of creative solutions to attract and retain talent across the region by building a strong employer brand, market-competitive total rewards, and an innovative, agile approach to HR.
• Drives the continuous improvement agenda with a focus on engagement & welfare activities, maximizing productivity, devolving HR responsibilities to line managers, and building leadership capability.
• Manages the execution of the HR strategy and daily administration of core HR areas in India including Onboarding, Talent Development, Performance Management, Employee Relations, Reward, and HR Policy. Partners with HR Centres of Excellence on key areas to ensure market-appropriate programs are in place.
• Provides professional leadership, support, and development to HR staff to increase knowledge, share best practices, and ensure relevant professional standards are met.
• Ensures company compliance with current regulations, accepted professional standards, policies and procedures, and relevant employment legislation.
• Regularly coaches, mentors, and supports senior and high-potential colleagues to identify individual strengths and development needs, develop and maintain effective relationships, and encourage retention.
• Ensures managers are sufficiently skilled and enabled to access appropriate guidance and information to manage workforce issues. Supports managers through the annual performance cycle.
• In partnership with technology functions, helps build and develop market-appropriate HR systems (e.g., Workday, ServiceNow).
• Manages the HR Budget for the India entity.
• Partners with Legal counsel on statutory matters relating to employees to identify and resolve employee relations matters successfully.
• Provides Employee Relations support to functional areas to resolve people-related conflicts and acts as ER lead to close out investigations and perform follow-up actions.
• Translates key business needs to the remainder of the HR team to help shape company-wide HR systems and solutions.
• Actively contributes to an HRBP team that shares best practices and balances the needs of their own client group with the needs of the overall business.

COE Leadership:

• Drives and owns culture for all HR resources in India, ensuring high engagement and retention.
• Owns day-to-day management (e.g., time-off requests, expense approval, day-to-day prioritization) of local COE Leaders.
• Supports escalation topics that may arise.
• Works in close collaboration with Global COE Leaders to ensure alignment on priorities and focus areas.
• Partners with Global COE Leaders in assessing the performance of team members and works together to maximize COE impact.
• Acts as part of the extended HR Operations and Solutions Leadership Team, connecting overall functional goals of the department to GCC service delivery.
• Handles any other projects, tasks, or activities as directed by leadership.

Education:

• Minimum of a Bachelor's degree in a scientific discipline or HR-related discipline; an advanced degree such as an MBA or Master's in Organization Development / Human Resources is preferred.

Experience & Skills:

• Minimum of 15 years of HR experience, with a significant portion working within the Indian pharma / biopharma / biotech industry in an HR or management role.
• Proven experience working in a global organization is required.
• Prior experience establishing and growing an Indian Global Capability Centre (GCC) is required.
• Experience across multiple HR disciplines (e.g., Total Rewards, HR Operations, Talent Management, etc.). Multi-site ownership is preferred.
• Demonstrated expertise in talent acquisition and talent development within a technically driven organization.
• Track record of taking initiative, an entrepreneurial approach, and the ability to prioritize essential tasks effectively.
• Diagnostic and solution-driven approach with strong root-cause analysis skills and data-driven decision-making abilities.
• Strong preference for quantitative and qualitative data analysis, comfortable working with HRIS systems (Workday), service tools (ServiceNow), and Microsoft Office Suite.
• High learning agility, ability to manage ambiguity, and ability to translate complex people / data issues into coherent solutions.
• Strong negotiation, influencing, and stakeholder management skills with the courage to challenge established norms and focus on principled outcomes.
• Deep understanding of HR legal and compliance requirements in India.