HR Leader

Purpose of this position / Position summary :

ZEISS is evolving from its traditional focus to a more technology-driven organization, with India playing a fundamental role in its global network. As we build capacity to realize our vision of a tech-enabled, world-class manufacturing facility, it is critical to bring in a leader who can drive this transformation from a people perspective.

The HR Leader – Blue Bird role is a strategic position responsible for aligning business objectives with people priorities at a greenfield manufacturing plant, supporting a multi-business manufacturing setup for ZEISS India. This role requires close collaboration with India and global leadership teams, employees, and HR Centers of Excellence to drive key HR initiatives, strengthen employee engagement, and support overall organizational growth.

The incumbent will act as a trusted advisor to business leaders, ensuring that HR policies and practices are aligned with business goals while fostering a high-performance and inclusive workplace culture.

Primary duties and responsibilities :

Organization Design & HR Strategy

• Define a future-ready organizational structure that enables agility, scalability, and operational excellence across the manufacturing facility.
• Partner with business leadership to co-create and operationalize an integrated HR strategy aligned to long-term business and transformation goals.
• Leverage external benchmarking and industry insights to embed global best practices from leading manufacturing organizations in India.

Workforce Planning

• Develop and drive a forward-looking workforce strategy aligned to plant setup milestones, production ramp-up, and evolving capability needs.
• Lead strategic talent ramp-up planning, ensuring timely availability of critical skills and leadership pipelines to support growth.

Strategic Advisor on People Priorities

• Act as a trusted advisor to business leaders on all people-related matters, enabling informed decision-making and driving organizational effectiveness.

• Partner with Talent Acquisition to build a strong, future-ready talent pipeline aligned to technical and cultural requirements.
• Collaborate with Talent Management COEs to institutionalize a high-performance culture through robust goal setting, continuous feedback, and talent calibration.
• Collaborate with Rewards to implement compensation, benefits & recognition programs.
• Champion a culture of continuous learning by aligning capability-building initiatives with evolving business and technological needs.

Culture & Change Management

• Drive cultural transformation by embedding agility, innovation, and adaptability to support a technology-driven manufacturing environment.
• Act as a culture steward, fostering trust, inclusion, and a high-performance work environment through proactive employee engagement.
• Drive engagement initiatives (employment survey, focus group discussions & action planning) to build high performing & engaged teams.
• Enable business leaders to successfully navigate transformation and scale, particularly during critical phases of plant setup and expansion.

HR Policies & Process Reinforcement

• Institutionalize robust HR governance by embedding policies, processes, and frameworks that ensure consistency and operational discipline.
• Partner with Employee Relations and other COEs to proactively manage compliance, mitigate risks, and build a strong foundation of ethical and sustainable practices.

Dimensions / Key Data :

1. Leadership accountability

To guide, motivate, assess, control and develop the subordinate as required for delivering people priorities aligned with business objectives.

1. Key relationship/customers

Looking to get Placed? Try our Placement Guarantee Plan

Get Hired

The incumbent should have the ability to influence very senior level stakeholders both in India and at global level.

Education requirements / Experience / Job Specifications :

Education / Professional Certification

MBA in HR.

2 year full-time postgraduate degree or diploma in Human Resource Management.

Experience

• 12-15 years of experience as an HR Business Partner with exposure to factory HR and corporate functions.
• Exposure to key HR Processes – Talent Management & Development, Employee Engagement, Talent Acquisition, HR Compliance.
• Should have experience in managing very senior level stakeholders (CXO level).
• Experience in greenfield manufacturing HR is an added advantage.

Knowledge / Skills / Other characteristics

• Strong business acumen with the ability to operate in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Proven ability to manage change in a greenfield manufacturing environment.
• Influential stakeholder management and decision-making skills.
• High resilience and adaptability in ambiguous and dynamic project settings.
• Strong IR acumen and experience in manufacturing environments are an added advantage.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with operational execution.