Recruiting Lead APAC (Excluding China)

Roche; Petaling Jaya; On-site; MYR 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global healthcare company is seeking a Recruiting Lead APAC to drive strategic recruitment initiatives across the region. This position requires over 10 years of experience in recruitment, particularly in biotech or pharma, and strong leadership skills to build and manage agile teams. The role will focus on aligning recruitment strategies with business goals, ensuring quality hires, and fostering an inclusive workplace culture. Candidates must have a bachelor's degree and be fluent in English, with additional languages preferred.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in Recruitment or Executive Search, ideally in biotech, pharma, or tech.
• 5–7 years of people leadership in complex, matrixed, or global environments.
• Demonstrated success in building agile and networked recruitment teams.
• Proven experience in translating business strategies into talent strategies.

Responsibilities

• Drive the strategic and operational delivery of recruitment across regions.
• Lead, coach, and develop geographically dispersed teams of Talent Acquisition Partners.
• Ensure adherence to standardized global recruitment processes.
• Partner with business leaders to anticipate talent needs and build hiring strategies.

Skills

Strategic Thinking

Agile Recruiting

Data Analysis

People Leadership

Cultural Agility

Education

Bachelor's degree

Job description

At Roche you can show up as yourself, embraced for the unique qualities you bring. Our culture encourages personal expression, open dialogue, and genuine connections, where you are valued, accepted and respected for who you are, allowing you to thrive both personally and professionally. This is how we aim to prevent, stop and cure diseases and ensure everyone has access to healthcare today and for generations to come. Join Roche, where every voice matters.

The Position

As a core member of Roche’s global Recruiting Practice leadership team, theRecruiting Lead APAC drives the strategic and operational delivery of recruitment across the responsible areas. This role builds and leads high-performing, networked, and agile recruiting teams aligned with the company’s People & Culture operating model & Strategic Framework, business network needs, and 10-Year Ambitions. You will actively contribute to the strategic vision and direction of the AoP and continuously seek opportunities for innovation and value creation. You are accountable for providing a close link to our customers, prioritizing work within the responsible areas and elevating local needs to the REC Enabling Team based on strong cultural and business understanding. This role will ensure consistent approaches within the Mega Countries or Region and harmonized processes.

You will inspire and coach recruiting leaders, build skills and capabilities to drive people development for the AoP and a high performing Recruiting AoP

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Leadership

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the Global Recruiting Practice Lead, translating enterprise and business area strategies into actionable recruitment plans.

• Lead the design and execution of responsible areas’ recruiting strategies that ensure speed, quality, and equity in hiring across diverse geographies and business units.

• Drive adoption of agile ways of working and lead recruiting innovative or continuous improvement initiatives aligned with the People & Culture North Star and IWS model.

• Align responsible areas’ recruitment strategy with global workforce planning, pipelining, and employer branding initiatives.

Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, coach, and develop a geographically dispersed team of Talent Acquisition Partners (TAPs) and/or Recruiting Leads in the team .

• Build an inclusive, psychologically safe culture that fosters collaboration, autonomy, and performance.

• Champion capability development, onboarding, and performance feedback for recruitment professionals.

Operational Excellence

• Ensure adherence to standardized global recruitment processes while enabling regional/local adaptations.

• Oversee headcount and requisition capacity planning, team structuring, and operational forecasting.

• Define and track KPIs, service levels, and quality benchmarking across the region.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Management

• Partners with business leaders and P&C colleagues in the network to understand the business goals, anticipate talent needs and build recruitment strategies that look at hiring holistically.

• Ensures that recruitment efforts are globalized and streamlined for the business networks he/she represents in line with the global recruiting standards.

• Partner with leaders & partners in the IWS AoPs, P&C BPs, and other cross-functional teams to collaborate for best hiring outcomes while engaging in external regional recruitment communities.

• Serve as the primary partner of responsible geographical areas to senior stakeholders in the business and region, elevating hiring insights, risks, and opportunities.

Partnership throughout the People and Culture ecosystem (where we need)

• Serve as the primary partner or Point of Contact in REC throughout the P&C ecosystem (i.e. PIT, PR&R, P&OG, BP, PSS or IWS other AoPs) whenever needed

• Influence hiring decisions with a skills-first approach to attract top talent to Roche.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Leverage data and systems to optimize sourcing strategies, recruitment cycle time, and decision quality.

• Drive experimentation with new technologies, sourcing channels, and AI-driven solutions.

• Create a culture of continuous learning and improvement within the regional recruitment practice.

• Lead through change with empathy, creativity and resilience.

Recruitment Execution

• Recruit for highly complex or senior roles where business situations demand and partner with hiring managers to deliver excellent recruitment service for best hiring outcomes

SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & CAPABILITIES

Must-Have Experience

• 10+ years in Recruitment or Executive Search, ideally in biotech, pharma, or tech.

• 5–7 years of people leadership in complex, matrixed, or global environments.

• Demonstrated success in building agile and networked recruitment teams.

• Proven experience in translating business strategies into talent strategies.

• Strong functional expertise in full-cycle recruiting, workforce planning, and talent strategy.

Core Leadership Skills

• Strategic Thinker & Systems Leader:Sees the big picture and operationalizes it through scalable talent strategies.

• Servant Leader:Coaches and inspires through values-based leadership.

• Data & Technology Fluent:Uses analytics and insights to drive performance and decisions.

• Culturally Agile:Embraces diversity and adapts to complex regional dynamics.

• Change Catalyst:Role models agility, resilience, and innovation under transformation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.

• Coaching certification or relevant training is advantageous.

• Fluent in English and additional local language

• Must be located in one of the strategic offices (Malaysia or India)

Leadership Attributes

• Visionary– Inspires with purpose and long-term vision for recruitment.

• Architect– Builds scalable systems, communities, and structures.

• Catalyst– Drives change and accelerates learning across teams.

• Coach– Develops talent through feedback, mentorship, challenge and support

The application window is open for one week, please apply with your Workday profile.

Relocation support will not be offered for this position.

Who we are

A healthier future drives us to innovate. Together, more than 100’000 employees across the globe are dedicated to advance science, ensuring everyone has access to healthcare today and for generations to come. Our efforts result in more than 26 million people treated with our medicines and over 30 billion tests conducted using our Diagnostics products. We empower each other to explore new possibilities, foster creativity, and keep our ambitions high, so we can deliver life-changing healthcare solutions that make a global impact.

Let’s build a healthier future, together.

Roche is an Equal Opportunity Employer.