Global Head of CoE, China (CN)

Our client is one of China's preeminent diversified conglomerates, operating an expansive portfolio of businesses across multiple industry verticals. Recognised as a global leader in several of its core sectors, the group has built a highly integrated ecosystem that combines scale, innovation, and operational excellence. With a workforce of over 150,000 employees worldwide, including a sizable and strategically important presence in China, the organisation continues to accelerate its expansion into new growth areas while delivering significant commercial impact and contributing meaningfully to its global success.

This is one of the most strategic and influential HR leadership positions within the group, entrusted with architecting and driving the company's global people agenda amid its rapid international expansion and increasingly diversified business portfolio. Reporting to the Group CHRO and partnering closely with senior business leaders worldwide, the Global Head of CoE leads an integrated HR Centres of Excellence organisation spanning Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, Organisation Development, Leadership Development, and other critical people domains. The role oversees a significant global team of more than 200 professionals and is responsible for establishing world-class people practices, frameworks, and governance across the enterprise. Beyond functional leadership, the mandate is fundamentally transformational in nature. The role is expected to build scalable, future-ready people capabilities that can support the company's large global workforce, while balancing global consistency with local market relevance. The individual will drive enterprise-wide initiatives across talent strategy, organisational effectiveness, workforce planning, leadership succession, and rewards philosophy, ensuring that the organisation continues to attract, develop, and retain the capabilities required for its next phase of growth. This position requires an exceptional HR leader who can operate comfortably at both strategic and executional levels—someone capable of shaping long-term people strategy, influencing executive stakeholders, and leading large, complex, and globally dispersed teams. Equally important is the ability to navigate the unique dynamics of a leading Chinese multinational enterprise, combining global best practices with pragmatic execution and the agility required to support a fast-evolving and entrepreneurial business environment.

We are seeking a seasoned, globally minded HR leader with a proven track record of building and leading large-scale Centres of Excellence within complex, multinational organisations. The successful candidate should bring deep expertise across multiple HR CoE disciplines, including Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, Organisation Development, Leadership Development, and broader people strategy domains. However, first and foremost, this individual must be a recognised expert in Global Total Rewards. Given the scale and complexity of the organisation, the ideal candidate should possess substantial experience designing and driving global compensation and benefits strategies across diverse markets, including executive compensation, long-term incentive programs, rewards governance, job architecture, performance and reward frameworks, and pay philosophies that support both business growth and talent competitiveness. The individual should be highly analytical, commercially astute, and capable of translating business strategy into scalable and differentiated rewards programs that can support the employees globally. Beyond technical expertise, we are looking for a leader who has successfully operated in highly matrixed, multinational environments and understands how to establish enterprise-wide frameworks while balancing local market requirements. The individual should have demonstrated experience leading large, geographically dispersed teams and driving transformation across multiple CoE functions at scale. Equally important is the leadership profile. The successful candidate should combine strategic thinking with pragmatism and execution excellence. They must possess the maturity and influence to engage credibly with senior executives and boards on complex people and reward matters, while also demonstrating the agility, resilience, and entrepreneurial mindset required to thrive in a fast-growing and rapidly evolving Chinese multinational environment. Ultimately, we are seeking an enterprise HR leader who can leverage world-class Total Rewards expertise as a strategic lever to strengthen organizational capability, enable global growth, and build an integrated, high-performing people ecosystem for one of China's leading diversified conglomerates.

This is a great opportunity to influence senior leaders and help shape business strategy. It offers excellent exposure to senior leadership populations and a solid platform to make a tangible impact at this level.

This is a challenging and demanding role in an environment where the bar is set high and expectations are consistently elevated. The successful candidate must be comfortable operating in a dynamic, fast-paced setting and thrive under pressure—this is not a role for someone who shies away from being stretched and challenged.