Senior Manager, People & Culture

Join Helen Keller International as a Senior Manager for People & Culture, overseeing HR across Bangladesh and Nepal, ensuring effective service delivery and team development.

• Support Senior Director, Multi-country office, and country leadership teams in both offices and the HRBP on workforce planning within the assigned scope — staffing levels, team structure, capability requirements, and multi-country workforce design.
• Lead the country-level HR delivery dimensions of organizational changes — restructuring, role changes, workforce reductions, and OE-related transitions — managed with empathy, legal rigor, transparent communication, and preservation of staff trust.
• Manage the HR aspects of workforce reduction or office transition scenarios, covering legal compliance, severance entitlements, staff costing, Employee Assistance integration, talent pool planning, and roster development.
• Partner with the Lead, Strategic Initiatives & Org Capability on the country-level dimensions of operating model changes and role assessment work.
• Coach country leadership teams through periods of change, equipping managers to communicate transitions and maintain trust and performance.

• Develop proposals and program initiatives independently, recommending priorities and approaches based on professional analysis and assessment of operational effectiveness.
• Set priorities across initiatives and manage tradeoffs, sequencing work to ensure effective and efficient delivery against organizational objectives.
• Coordinate across stakeholders with differing priorities, building alignment through the quality of independent professional judgment and clear, evidence-based communication.
• Carry end-to-end accountability for HR service delivery across the assigned scope — whether a single large country office or a cluster of smaller adjacent country offices — ensuring every HR touchpoint meets Helen Keller Intl's standards for professionalism, empathy, and consistency.
• Serve as the senior HR advisor to Country Directors and country leadership teams within the assigned scope, providing strategic and operational guidance on workforce planning, organizational design, compensation, performance, and complex employee matters.
• Act as the HRBP's senior delegate in the country or sub-portfolio, handling HR work that exceeds what a P&C Manager should carry alone and escalating only those matters that genuinely require portfolio-level authority.
• Translate global People & Culture strategies and Employee Experience frameworks into locally relevant, contextually appropriate practice across the assigned scope.
• Provide surge support to other country offices and HR colleagues across the portfolio when requested by the HRBP — including during major recruitment drives, complex employee relations situations, restructuring, leadership transitions, or HR staffing constraints.
• Promote consistency and shared learning across Bangladesh and Nepal while recognizing country-specific legal, cultural, and operational contexts
• Directly supervise P&C Managers, country HR staff, and HR focal points within the assigned scope, setting clear performance expectations, providing regular coaching and feedback, and holding accountability for the quality of HR service delivery.
• Invest deliberately in the professional development of country HR staff, building their capacity to handle increasingly complex HR situations and grow into the next generation of senior HR professionals.
• Build a cohesive, collaborative country HR team within the assigned scope — creating shared practices, peer learning opportunities, and a culture of mutual support.
• Ensure all HR staff within the assigned scope understand and work consistently within Helen Keller Intl's HR standards, policies, and values, and that departures are identified and corrected promptly.
• Build a cohesive and collaborative Multi-Country Office HR team across Bangladesh and Nepal.
• Lead the handling of complex, sensitive, and high-risk employee relations matters — including disciplinary processes, grievances, performance exits, senior-level conflicts, and cases with legal, reputational, or safeguarding dimensions — ensuring outcomes are fair, legally sound, rigorously documented, and consistent with Helen Keller Intl's values.
• Coach and guide P&C Managers and line managers in handling employee situations with confidence, empathy, and procedural correctness, while holding a clear line on what must be escalated.
• Maintain close coordination with the Global Safeguarding Advisor and the HRBP on the HR dimensions of safeguarding cases within the assigned scope.
• Ensure all employee relations matters are handled with appropriate confidentiality, documented to an evidentiary standard, and escalated to the HRBP where risk or complexity exceeds the role's authority.
• Serve as the senior in-country HR presence during disciplinary hearings, conciliation processes, and legal proceedings, working with external counsel where required.
• Maintain working knowledge of labor laws, employment regulations, and donor compliance requirements applicable to the assigned scope, and ensure that the Bangladesh and Nepal offices operate in compliance at all times.
• Own the compliance posture of the assigned scope — ensuring statutory filings, contract renewals, handbook updates, and regulatory changes are tracked, actioned, and documented to withstand audit, legal, or donor scrutiny.
• Identify and escalate emerging compliance risks, high-turnover patterns, labor market dynamics, or legal developments affecting Helen Keller Intl's ability to attract, retain, or manage staff.
• Contribute substantively to the annual HR and culture risk assessment, providing country-level and sub-portfolio risk intelligence and mitigation recommendations.
• Partner with HR Compliance & Admin in the Employee Experience pillar on the country-level dimensions of global compliance programs.
• Oversee recruitment for senior and complex positions within the assigned scope — including Senior Director, Multi-country office, and leadership-team hires where delegated — ensuring fair, rigorous processes aligned with Helen Keller Intl's standards.
• Drive implementation of Helen Keller Intl's talent management frameworks — performance conversations, succession planning, career development, and talent reviews — working through P&C Managers.
• Identify learning and development needs across the assigned scope and communicate them to the HRBP and the Employee Experience pillar.
• Partner with the L&D Advisor and Talent Management Advisor on the country-level rollout of global learning programs and performance framework updates.
• Identify and develop high-potential country HR staff, building succession pipelines and HR bench strength across the assigned scope.
• Design and implement an annual learning and development strategy aligned with the Helen Keller strategic priorities.
• Identify organizational capability gaps and develop plans to address them
• Design, coordinate, and oversee technical, leadership, compliance, and skills training as required
• Maintain a structured feedback loop with the HRBP and, through them, the Senior Director, SDP, sharing sub-portfolio insights on HR service quality, staff experience, and people risks.
• Contribute to the development of HR service standards, tools, and operating procedures at the portfolio and pillar level.
• Participate in the HR Manager and Senior Manager community of practice across the portfolios.
• Track and report on HR metrics across the assigned scope, feeding the HR delivery dashboard maintained by the Senior Director, SDP.
• Represent the country and field perspective in cross-pillar working groups, framework reviews, and strategic initiatives.

• Education: Bachelor's degree in human resources, business administration, or a related field required; advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 7 years of progressive HR experience, with at least 3 years in a senior country-level HR role in a complex, multi-country organization- including direct experience of HR delivery at scale (100+ staff), in legally complex environments, or across multiple country offices.
• Demonstrated expertise across core HR disciplines - recruitment, employee relations, talent management, performance management, labor law compliance, and compensation and benefits - applied in field-based, resource-constrained environments at senior level.
• Experience supervising HR staff, with clear evidence of building team capability and holding accountability for HR service quality across more than one location.
• Genuine fluency in the legal, cultural, and operational context of the country or countries within the assigned scope - working knowledge grounded in experience.
• Experience leading substantive country-level HR projects -such as compensation benchmarking and salary scale design, workforce reductions, restructuring, or compliance remediation -with the analytical and documentation rigor such work demands.
• Strong interpersonal and advisory skills- able to build trusted relationships with Country Directors and senior leaders, navigate difficult conversations, and maintain credibility under pressure.
• Demonstrated expertise in Bangladesh labor law, employment practices, and HR operations, with the ability to effectively support the Nepal operating environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Bangla.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly within the assigned scope, as required by the role.
• High degree of discretion with sensitive HR and compensation information, maintaining confidentiality as a professional standard.
• Professional HR certification (SHRM-SCP/CP, CIPD, SPHR, or equivalent).
• Experience in international development, global health, or nonprofit sectors, with familiarity with donor compliance requirements (USAID, FCDO, UN) and their HR implications.
• Knowledge of HRMS platforms and people analytics tools.
• Working knowledge of compensation benchmarking survey methodologies (Birches Group, Mercer, WTW, or equivalent).

• Lead country-level compensation exercises of genuine scale and complexity — salary benchmarking, grade scale development, salary structure redesign, and pay equity reviews — partnering with the Global Compensation & Benefits Analyst and owning country-level execution end-to-end.
• Oversee the annual compensation review cycle within the assigned scope, coordinating merit increases, cost-of-living adjustments, and promotional changes with consistency, transparency, and defensible rigor.
• Support the development of offer packages for senior and specialist roles, drawing on benchmarking data, the global salary structure, and local market intelligence.
• Manage the country-level interface with external compensation and benefits vendors under the governance of the Employee Experience pillar.
• Regular travel is expected between Bangladesh and Nepal (approximately 20–30% of time). The position is based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with periodic travel to Nepal to support country operations, leadership engagement, workforce planning, and complex People & Culture matters.