Manager People Services Manager

MAF; Australia; Remote; AUD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Globally remote role

Impactful transformation initiative

Collaborative cross-country team

Job summary

MAF International seeks a seasoned Head of People Services to lead the new People and Culture function, overseeing three sub-functions—employee lifecycle, policy management, and the PCMS—across 850 staff in 31 units and 3 offices, with internationally mobile personnel. You’ll shape the cloud system from day one, ensuring data quality and automation.

Based in a flexible location with a preference for Australia, this role requires strategic thinking, practical delivery, and cross-border

Qualifications

• Experience leading global People service-delivery teams across multiple countries.
• Proven track record in a People-services or shared-services function, including service standards, SLAs and continuous improvement.
• Hands-on PCMS ownership and data-quality management.
• Experience implementing global People policy frameworks across jurisdictions.
• Process design mindset with customer-centric focus.
• Strong knowledge of employment-law principles across jurisdictions.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of People professionals across three sub-functions, building a customer-centric, high-performance culture.
• Own PCMS requirements: service priorities, data quality and access controls, through go-live and beyond.
• Run employee lifecycle services across all units and offices: contracts, onboarding, transitions, offboarding, records.
• Coordinate the People policy lifecycle: review, publication, implementation; standardise and localise where needed.
• Champion digital self-service and automation to increase employee self-sufficiency and reduce admin.
• Turn clean data into insight; provide reporting to drive organisation-wide decisions.

Skills

Global team leadership

Shared services leadership

Cloud HR systems

PCMS ownership

Policy framework implementation

Customer-centric process design

Employment law knowledge

Values alignment

Tools

PCMS

Job description

Lead People Services in a newly built People and Culture function - services, policy and a new cloud People system.

Location: Flexible, with a preference for the successful candidate to be based at one of our MAF International entities.

MAF International is a Christian not-for-profit organisation that uses aviation to deliver essential services - medical evacuations, supplies, disaster relief and education - to remote communities across Africa and Asia Pacific. With an 80-year history, MAF International is undergoing a major transformation - integrating a historically federated structure into a single global organisation, with the goal of reaching more than 5,000 remote communities by 2045. Its new People Operations and Strategic Projects function is being built now, and this role helps shape it from the start.

Why this role matters

Every contract issued on time, every record accurate, every colleague able to self-serve in seconds rather than days - that is what strong People Services delivers, and it lets the wider organisation focus on its work.

As People Services Manager you lead a core department in the new function, delivering three sub-functions - employee lifecycle management, policy management, and the People and Culture Management System (PCMS) - to around 850 staff across 31 units and 3 support offices, including some 120 internationally mobile staff.

The timing could hardly be better. We’re implementing a brand-new cloud People system from the ground up, and you'll be its business owner - shaping service priorities, data quality, self-service and automation from day one, working with Digital/IT and implementation partners.

Please note: Candidates must hold existing legal working rights for their proposed location of employment.

Salary: Competitive and flexible, with remuneration aligned to the successful candidate’s location, experience, and local employment context.

Responsibilities

What You'll Be Doing

• Lead and develop a team of People professionals across three sub-functions, including the PCMS Specialist, building a customer-centric, high-performance culture.
• Own People Services requirements for the PCMS - service priorities, data quality and access controls - working with Digital/IT, the vendor and implementation partners through go-live and
• Run employee lifecycle services - contracts, onboarding, transitions, offboarding and records - across all 31 units and 3 support offices, to clear service standards.
• Coordinate the People policy lifecycle - from specialist review and approval to publication and implementation: standardise wherever it helps, localise where it matters.
• Champion digital self-service and automation so our people spend their time on impact, not administration.
• Turn clean data into insight: your reporting feeds the analytics that drive organisation-wide decisions.

Closing date: Applications close on the 27th November

We reserve the right to close this vacancy before the advertised closing date if we receive a sufficient number of applications. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible

Qualifications, Skills & Experience

What You'll Bring

You will bring solid aviation experience combined with a strong understanding of quality assurance and safety management. You will be confident working with people at different levels and from different cultural backgrounds, and be able to turn quality requirements and data into practical improvements.

We're looking for an experienced People Services or HR service-delivery leader who can combine strategic thinking with practical delivery.

You’ll bring:

• Evidence of building and leading high-performance People service-delivery teams across multiple countries.
• A track record managing a People-services or shared-services function, including service standards, SLAs and continuous improvement.
• Strong knowledge of modern cloud HR systems and experience as business owner of an PCMS, including data quality and vendor management.
• Proven experience implementing global People policy frameworks and managing compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
• A process designer's mind with a customer's heart - efficiency that never loses sight of the person behind the ticket.
• Sharp attention to detail, sound knowledge of employment-law principles across jurisdictions, and the ability to balance global consistency with local realities.
• You share our vision, mission and values.

What we offer

• A rare chance to build, not just run - you join as the function takes shape, with genuine influence on its design.
• Work from anywhere: this role is globally remote, because talent matters more than time zone.
• A small, expert team with real influence, in an organisation whose work has measurable impact.