Strategic HR Director: Talent & Workforce Growth

CDHORIZON United Arab Emirates; Dubai; On-site; AED 480,000 - 720,000; Full time

Job summary

CDHORIZON United Arab Emirates seeks an accomplished HR leader to drive Talent Acquisition, Talent Development, and organizational capability for a high-performing, asset-intensive operation in the UAE. The role requires extensive leadership experience and a strong track record across recruitment, learning, and succession planning.

With 12–15 years in HR and 5+ years in a senior leadership role, you will guide workforce planning, competency management and GCC HR practices to support

Qualifications

• Master's degree in HR Management, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Professional HR certification such as CIPD, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or an equivalent qualification is preferred.
• Minimum 12–15 years of progressive HR experience, including substantial leadership experience in a medium-to-large organization.
• Minimum 5 years in a senior HR leadership role, preferably as HR Director, Head of HR, or equivalent.
• Demonstrated expertise in both Talent Acquisition and Talent Development, including workforce planning, leadership development, competency management, and succession planning.
• Proven experience in Oil & Gas, Heavy Equipment Rental, Construction, Engineering, Industrial Services, or a comparable asset-intensive industry.
• Experience managing technical, operational, project-based, and multinational workforces.
• Experience developing HR strategies, policies, organizational structures, and performance management frameworks.
• Strong knowledge of applicable labor laws and HR practices in the relevant GCC markets, where applicable.
• Experience implementing HRIS, talent management systems, and HR analytics is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning: develop strategies, lead end-to-end recruitment for senior leadership, engineering, technical, commercial, and operational roles.
• Build talent pipelines for critical positions including operators, mechanics, technicians, engineers, project managers, and HSE professionals.
• Establish recruitment partnerships, talent pools, referral programs, and employer branding initiatives.
• Oversee manpower planning, workforce forecasting, succession coverage, and recruitment budgeting with business leaders.
• Optimize recruitment channels, time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, and quality-of-hire metrics.
• Ensure recruitment processes comply with labor laws, company policies, and industry requirements.
• Support mobilization of project-based and site-based employees.
• Lead Talent Development & Organizational Capability: design learning strategy, identify capability gaps, develop leadership and technical training programs.
• Establish competency frameworks and career development pathways.
• Develop succession planning and high-potential initiatives.
• Measure training ROI and align development with business needs.
• Performance Management & Employee Engagement: implement KPIs, objectives, performance reviews, and link to profitability.
• Drive engagement, retention, recognition, and wellbeing initiatives.
• Advise on employee relations, disciplinary matters, and culture.
• Improve retention of critical technical staff.
• HR Strategy, Policies & Organizational Development: develop and execute HR strategy aligned to business plan.
• Lead organizational design, job evaluation, and manpower optimization.
• Maintain HR policies, governance, and service standards.
• Review compensation, benchmarking, benefits, and incentives.
• Provide strategic HR advice to CEO and leadership; lead change management.
• Ensure HR systems and reporting support data-driven decisions.
• Compliance, Governance & Reporting: ensure compliance with labor legislation and company policies in operation countries.
• Oversee budgets, headcount reporting, analytics, and dashboards.
• Establish HR KPIs to monitor recruitment, retention, development, productivity, and costs.
• Maintain HR documentation, audits, and internal controls.
• Partner with HSE and operations to promote wellbeing and safety culture.
• Manage HR risks and advise senior management.

Skills

Talent Acquisition

Talent Development

Organizational Capability

Performance Management

Employee Engagement

HR Strategy

Organizational Development

Compliance & Governance

HR Analytics

Education

Master's degree in HR Management

HR professional certification (CIPD/SHRM-SP/SPHR)

Tools

HRIS

Job description

CDHORIZON United Arab Emirates seeks an accomplished HR leader to drive Talent Acquisition, Talent Development, and organizational capability for a high-performing, asset-intensive operation in the UAE. The role requires extensive leadership experience and a strong track record across recruitment, learning, and succession planning.

With 12–15 years in HR and 5+ years in a senior leadership role, you will guide workforce planning, competency management and GCC HR practices to support