Associate Director, People Excellence Lead

Who We Are

About your role

The Associate Director, People Excellence Lead is responsible for shaping and driving the People Excellence strategy to build a high‑performing, future‑ready organization. This role partners closely with senior leaders, P&C Business Partners, and Centres of Excellence to design and deliver world‑class people processes, elevate employee experience, strengthen leadership capability, and enable organisational productivity through data, insights, and continuous improvement.

The role serves as a strategic advisor, transformation driver, and guardian of P&C operational excellence across the enterprise.

What You'll Do

P&C Services support

• Managing and leading the People Excellence teams who are responsible for query resolution related to core HR processes, MSPS (SuccessFactors) system data management, P&C Hub Knowledge Management, policies and standard operating procedures
• People management which includes performance management and developing team member capability and growing talent
• Balancing resource allocation to query volume, including analyzing query types and volume, digital employee experience, to promote efficiency and effectiveness of the process and team resources
• Use people analytics to generate actionable insights and improve organisational decision‑making

Stakeholder Partnerships

• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration to deliver enterprise level people initiatives, influence leaders through data insights and strong communication
• Proactively receive feedback, work on improvements, handle escalations and implement solutions
• Work with HRIS to provide routine reporting on call volumes, queries and tracking team progress
• Partner with CoE teams (Reward, Talent & Learning), on delivery of employee engagement activities, L&D programs, annual budgets and benefits operations

Payroll & Benefits Administration support          

• Builds a global governance standard of payroll integrity and operational continuity including MSPS and payroll integration governance and performance
• Managing and directing a team who are responsible for delivering payroll accurately, timely, securely and within compliance standards
• Ensuring adherence to risk, compliance and data protection standards across designated processes

Improve customer experience and service

• Highlight areas of improvement and suggest actions to maintain best practice
• Analyses dashboards to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of processes and team resources
• Monitors performance, provides feedback, defines or approves/disapproves changes in controls
• Leads ongoing process simplification and improvement as well as documentation of procedures, processes, and protocols

Employee Experience & Culture Transformation

• Drive an integrated Employee Experience (EX) framework across the employee lifecycle
• Lead culture enhancement efforts – empower inclusion, well-being, recognition, and engagement
• Drive adoption of new ways of working and support change readiness across the team

Process Excellence & Continous Improvement

• Own and optimise People Excellence processes ensuring consistency, scalability and compliance
• Deploy continuious improvement methodologies to streamline workflows and enhance quality, driving a culture of accounability and innovation
• Lead governance forums, process audits, and risk mitigation for people processes

What's in it for you

What You need to be successful

• Strong understanding of HR analytics, process excellence, and change management methodologies
• Bachelor’s or Masters degree in human resources, organisation development or any related field
• At least 10 years of professional experience as People Excellence and/or Payroll & Benefits, with at least 5 years in managerial role
• Experience of managing and directing a team who are responsible for delivering payroll accurately, timely, securely and in a compliant one;
• Fundamental P&C knowledge, skills and abilities including the practices and procedures related to all areas of employee transactions (including specialist areas for specialist team leads)
• Ability to lead, coach, empower, and advise team members and build high-performing teams and communicate with different stakeholders
• Ability to operate in a fast paced environment with stringent deadlines and possess good analytical, organizational and multi-tasking skills
• Ability to influence, tailor communication, customer focused with higher adaptability and change management skill 

Our DEI Commitment

At Suntory, we recognize that diverse knowledge, perspectives, and backgrounds contribute to our collective success. We are committed to fostering a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace where all individuals can bring their whole selves to work every day, regardless of race, color, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or any other protected characteristic.

Our recruitment and selection processes are designed to highlight what Suntory offers as an employer while allowing candidates to share their unique skills and experiences. We understand that career trajectories vary, and if you believe your experience/background can benefit our team, we encourage you to apply. We endeavor to make our interview process as inclusive as possible and offer reasonable accommodations as needed. Together, we can cultivate a workplace where everyone can thrive and propel our mission of Growing for Good.