Senior HR Manager - Talent Acquisition and Operations

This is a hands-on HR leadership role where talent acquisition is the #1 priority. We are not looking for someone who will post jobs and wait — we need a recruiter-turned-HR-leader who knows how to source, hunt, and close candidates across competitive SEA talent markets.

You will own the full employee lifecycle — from sourcing and hiring to onboarding, engagement, performance, and retention — but the immediate mandate is clear: fill critical roles fast with high-quality talent, especially in engineering, product, sales, and customer success across multiple countries.

You have done this before. You have personally sourced candidates on LinkedIn, run Boolean searches, worked your network, negotiated offers, and closed hires in competitive markets. You understand what it takes to sell a startup opportunity to someone who has multiple offers. You report directly to the CEO.

• Own end-to-end recruitment for all roles across the company — from intake to offer close

• Personally source candidates through LinkedIn Recruiter, job boards, referral networks, tech communities, and direct outreach — not just post-and-pray

• Build and maintain a pipeline of candidates for recurring roles (engineers, account executives, customer success managers)

• Partner with hiring managers to define role requirements, scorecards, and interview processes

• Run structured interview processes — phone screens, competency-based interviews, and debriefs

• Negotiate and close offers, managing candidate expectations around equity, relocation, and startup trade-offs

• Hire across SEA markets (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, India)

• Manage relationships with external recruiters and staffing agencies when needed, but always with the goal of reducing dependency on them

• Track and report on recruiting metrics: time-to-fill, pipeline conversion rates, source effectiveness, cost-per-hire

• Build Nimbly’s employer brand — careers page, LinkedIn presence, Glassdoor/JobStreet profiles, and employee stories

• Represent Nimbly at career fairs, university events, and tech meetups in Jakarta, Singapore, and Bangalore

• Create compelling job descriptions and recruitment content that attracts top talent to a scaling startup

• Develop relationships with universities, bootcamps, and tech communities for junior talent pipelines

• Set up and manage HR systems (HRIS, payroll coordination, leave management) across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and Thailand

• Ensure compliance with labor laws in each country — employment contracts, statutory benefits, termination procedures

• Manage work permits and visa processes for cross-border hires

• Coordinate with external payroll providers and legal advisors in each jurisdiction

• Maintain employee records, org charts, and headcount planning

• Design and run an onboarding program that gets new hires productive fast — especially for remote/distributed team members

• Drive employee engagement initiatives for a distributed team across 4+ countries

• Conduct regular pulse checks and act on feedback — we are too small for bureaucratic engagement surveys; you talk to people

• Organize team events, offsites, and culture-building activities

• Implement a lightweight performance management framework — goal setting, regular check-ins, and honest feedback loops

• Support managers in handling performance issues, PIPs, and difficult conversations

• Build career development paths and identify training needs as the team grows

• Manage compensation benchmarking and annual review cycles

• 5–8 years of HR experience with a strong talent acquisition foundation — you have personally sourced and closed 50+ hires, not just managed requisitions

• Hands-on recruiting experience in competitive tech/startup markets in Southeast Asia

• Proficiency with sourcing tools: LinkedIn Recruiter, Boolean search, ATS platforms, and candidate databases

• Experience hiring across multiple countries with different labor laws, cultures, and compensation norms

• Understanding of employment law and compliance in at least 2 of: Singapore, Indonesia, India, Thailand and Malaysia

• Ability to work independently and build HR processes from scratch — we don’t have an existing HR department you’re joining; you are building it

• Strong interpersonal skills — you are someone people trust and open up to, which matters for both closing candidates and supporting employees

• Fluent in English and Bahasa Indonesia

• Experience in B2B SaaS, tech startups, or venture-backed companies

• Prior experience scaling a company from 30–50 to 100+ employees

• Familiarity with regional payroll platforms (Deel, Remote, local providers)

• Experience setting up HR in new countries (entity setup, employment contracts, benefits design)

• Thai, Hindi, or Mandarin language skills

• HR certification (SHRM, CIPD, or regional equivalent)

Days 1–30: Audit the current state — open roles, existing contracts, compliance gaps, team structure. Meet every team member 1-on-1. Start sourcing for the most critical open roles immediately.

Days 31–60: Launch structured recruiting processes with scorecards and pipeline tracking. Set up or improve the ATS. Begin building employer brand content. Close first 2–3 hires.

Days 61–90: Deliver a hiring plan for the next 6 months with headcount projections and budget. Implement onboarding v1. Establish HR compliance across all entities. Have a steady pipeline flowing for key roles.