Associate Director - Country HR

At TAPI, we’re not just a company—we’re a community committed to advancing health from the core. As the world’s leading supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), we partner with 80% of the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies. With a legacy spanning over 80 years and a portfolio of more than 350 products, as well as custom CDMO services, we’re shaping the future of health worldwide.

Our strength lies in our people—a team of over 4,200 professionals across 13 state-of-the-art facilities in Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Israel, Mexico, and India. Together, we innovate, solve problems, and deliver excellence. Join us and be part of a mission that transforms lives.

Objective of Role:

• Championing the global HR strategy for the site pertaining to all HR systems/policies pertaining to the employee lifecycle and oversee smooth implementation.
• Liaise strategically with the site leadership team to understand the needs of the organization and deliver value through strategic business partnership.
• Champion organizational transformation while balancing the requirements from all stakeholders at the site and anchoring the journey and a change agent through prudent and pragmatic means to ensure achievement of organizational objectives.
• Ensure strategic talent development across the site to future-proof the business in alignment with organizational vision and requisite skill sets.
• Champion the cause of employees and act as the voice of reason and rationale for management while balancing the organizational values and culture.

Key Responsibilities

Business HR Partnership:

• Championing the key focus areas of HR for the site in line with the overall organizational HR strategy
• Liaise with the site leadership team, function heads, cross-functional teams and HR partners to sponsor the HR focus areas for the site and provide partnership to people related processes that align with future business needs.
• Ensure awareness and tracking of emerging requirements related to people and HR processes that align with future growth aspirations of the business.
• Influence CoEs to plan and execute timely interventions to resolve outstanding issues and business requirements.
• Provide leadership in effectively operationalizing all HR processes and systems that impact the employee lifecycle.
• Design and implement change management initiatives in alignment with the business to achieve organizational goals.
• Create and maintain an environment of equal employment opportunity, diversity and competitive advantage in support of the company's diversity and inclusion strategic plan.

Workforce Planning and Cost Management:

• Design and review the workforce plan for the talent pipeline requirements in line with the business strategy.
• Allocate the overall budget and track the allocation across various interventions and ensure adherence to the planned budget.
• Understand the talent needs of the business and plan the talent pipeline accordingly by overseeing all recruitment processes for emerging talent requirements for current and future roles; ensuring that the plan optimizes manpower costs.
• Identify and interact with sourcing channels to provide an understanding of position profiles and related skill requirements, particularly for critical roles.
• Review inputs on interviews for senior level positions and approve final recommendations and offers.
• Oversee the process of on-boarding and induction of new employees to enable a standard induction process.

Talent Management:

• Provide expertise and support in the design, development and implementation of the site talent review processes required to achieve business goals and results in the creation of an internal bench of top talent.
• Drive execution of talent processes to ensure continuous identification and development of key talent in line with overall organizational strategy.
• Oversee the preparation and adherence of action plans related to identification of critical talent and mitigation of associated risks.

Capability Development:

• Drive training and development processes to ensure that technical and functional skill development needs are adequately met – including programs to build specialized capability in specialist and critical roles.
• Ideate and develop manager led developmental interventions for the site to enable a highly capable and ready-to-future talent pool.
• Support the site leadership in embedding the agile and high performing culture based on “70:20:10 Principle”.
• Provide coaching and leadership to nurture the internal team as well as the business leaders to build a high-performance culture.
• Participate in reviews to understand needs in terms of capabilities and existing gaps.
• Design & participate in execution of site-specific training programs to suit business needs and ensure implementation of planned training programs.
• Ensure regular and continuous upskilling of the HR team (technical & behavioral).

Employee & Industrial Relations:

• Champion the site ER + IR strategy & framework through consultations with business to enable a productive and disciplined environment and maintain harmonious industrial relations in line with the overall strategy.
• Provide all necessary ER + IR support to the site, periodically assess the ER+IR health, and deploy appropriate actions.
• Collaborate with Site Leadership to deploy appropriate management measures to proactively eliminate industrial relations challenges and establish methodology for proceeding/handling related issues.
• Assist in establishing the methodology for proceeding/handling disciplinary issues as well as grievance redressal mechanisms.
• Oversee management of legal issues in conjunction with the legal team to appropriate closure including litigations with local external counsels and extend all necessary support to them to ensure that company’s interests are protected appropriately.

Employee Welfare & Engagement:

• Partner with the GFM and other teams at the site to ensure employee welfare activities and solutions are managed and executed effectively, efficiently and timely.
• Ensure active Employee Engagement initiatives including employee welfare to create an engaged workforce.
• Oversee employee engagement activities across sites to increase engagement levels.
• Influence site leadership to ensure constant employee connection through multiple channels via constant communication.
• Drive identification of actual on-ground requirements in terms of engagement activities through surveys and internal requirements.
• Ensure welfare activities are conducted across site with active participation.
• Undertake recognition measures to motivate and encourage employees to drive a culture of high performance and integrity.

Compliance Management:

• Oversee adherence of all statutory compliances including monitoring of Compliance Management Tool and regular returns to various authorities
• Sponsor planned and ad-hoc audits to mitigate business risk arising from non-compliance including being involved in conducting audits wherever required.
• Drive compliance with statutory regulations and leverage industry networks to identify best practices and update business leaders.

Contract Labour Management:

• Oversee the entire contract labour management process in line with local regulations to ensure support on business operations while de-risking the business.
• Review contract labour requirements on a regular basis
•  Ensure compliance on all statutory requirements both by the vendor and the principal employer and de-risk the organization through regular review and audit of practices involving contract manpower.
• Educate the business on associated risks and strive for a healthy balance of workforce composition.
• Manage strict disciplinary procedures regarding contract manpower to ensure no disruption to business operations.
• Ensure welfare of all individuals engaged at the site without discrimination and bias.

• MBA in HR with at least 5 years of experience as Business Partnership role at a manufacturing location or sales driven organization with Industrial/Employee Relations and 15 years of overall HR experience.
• Should have worked Pharma / API companies.
• Expertise in handling Employee Relations.
• Expertise in human resource management systems related to the disciplines Talent Management, L&D, Employee Engagement & Diversity.
• Extensive, proven success with the global talent management framework skills.

Make Your Mark with TAPI

Your journey with TAPI is more than a job—it’s an opportunity to make a lasting impact on global health. If you’re ready to lead, innovate, and inspire, we’re excited to welcome you to our team. Together, let’s shape the future of pharmaceuticals. Apply on top of this page and our talent acquisition team will be in touch soon!