PH - Resource Manager

Working at Thinking Machines

Thinking Machines is a technology consultancy building AI & data platforms to solve high impact problems for our client. Our vision is for Southeast Asia to become a global hub for data science. To do that, we create data cultures, one organization at a time.

We’re a company made up of intellectually curious, civic-minded, forever-learning individuals. We believe that great data science products are built with care for people, and that the best way to drive inclusive innovation is to start with a diverse team.

Our field of work is incredibly dynamic, so we want to work with people who are committed to growing with us. We want to hire people who can demonstrate an ability to learn, then provide them with personalized coaching, growth opportunities, and a great working environment to get them to world-class.

Having a world class team of engineering, machine learning, and analytics consultants, we are dedicated to helping our customers across large businesses and public sector organizations to reap the benefits of innovative data technology.

Role Description

The Resource Manager owns staffing operations and reporting, and drives resourcing decisions in a fast-moving, smaller organization like Thinking Machines. Success in this role requires comfort with constant change, high-volume stakeholder interactions, and making firm recommendations even when options are limited.

As a technology consultancy, maximizing our individual talent is at the core of our business. As the Resource Manager, you will play a key role in bridging employee goals, client outcomes, and company-wide targets through operational staffing ownership and resourcing decision support, in an environment where allocations change daily and decisions must be driven to closure.

You will take the lead in reviewing our staffing and resource management processes, and be responsible for implementing industry best practices in resource or workforce management. You will be working with a staff size of about 100-150+ data science engineers, analysts, and consultants specializing in analytics, software development, and machine learning, as the company manages about 20-30 consultancy projects a year.

The ideal candidate would have some experience in Tech Delivery, or is at least familiar with the different talents that come together to form a project team at a Data Science / Technology Consultancy.

As the Resource Manager, your responsibilities would include:

• Reporting & Decision Support (Core Responsibility)
• Own and maintain BAU staffing and utilization reports used in weekly resourcing meetings (e.g., bench, staffing requests tracker).
• Produce and ensure the data quality of recurring operational reports, including utilization, realization, and overtime tracking.
• Continuously improve reporting workflows by reducing manual steps, increasing speed, and improving data consistency.
• Proactively iterate reports and explain anomalies (“why do the numbers look off?”), fixing root causes rather than patching symptoms.
• Present data in a way that enables clear yes/no decisions, not rabbit holes.
• Staffing Execution & Decision Driving
• Resolve staffing requests end-to-end and prevent items from becoming open-ended.
• Actively drive stakeholders to make timely decisions in a remote, high-volume environment.
• Make firm staffing recommendations and clearly communicate constraints when alternatives are not available.
• Maintain high quality and reliable output while coordinating multiple and competing priorities and timelines.
• Operating Model & Process Improvement
• Help define and enforce staffing turnaround-time standards and expectations.
• Use staffing and project data (e.g., JIRA, staffing trackers) to identify patterns that lead to preventable staffing gaps.
• Support the leadership team by reducing escalation load through clearer reporting, better decision hygiene, and stronger boundaries.
  

• You do not need to have worked directly on tech projects ( though that will be a good plus! ), but you must understand enough to make tradeoff decisions on staffing.
• Holistic decision-making and leadership: You will often have to make judgment calls on competing considerations. We need someone who can consider all relevant factors before making a decision, and can comfortably back it up with sound rationale. We need someone who can balance both company and individual needs in staffing decisions.
• Strong communication, influencing, and negotiation skills: Your job will require you to problem solve with various levels of employees, including senior leadership. You must be comfortable engaging, brainstorming, and productively pushing back if needed, even if it’s your first time meeting someone and regardless of their seniority or job titles. You will need to influence to get things done without necessarily relying on hierarchy or titles.
• Quick learning agility and strong initiative: Youre not expected to know everything, but we expect you to fill in the gaps quickly, with guidance from our leadership team. We want someone who is highly collaborative with an entrepreneurial, roll-up-your-sleeves attitude.
• Comfortable operating in a small-company environment with fewer silos, higher visibility, and less rigid resourcing structure than larger firms.
• Willing and able to use (Gen)AI tools to accelerate reporting, QA, analysis, and workflow improvements.
  
  

• Competitive salary — the compensation amount is positively correlated with the difficulty of the job, relevant experience, fit, and skill factors.
• Hybrid Set-Up — Hybrid-remote means employees are required to come in an average of two days a week for client engagements and internal in-person days intended for collaboration, socials, and strategic planning.
• Individual professional development budget — an annual budget for conferences, training courses, books, and software is available to sharpen your skills and build new ones to help you grow in your role.
• Full health benefits — generous health insurance package upon hiring, with options to include dependents.
• Apprenticeship and yearly performance reviews with the leadership team to discuss career and personal goals, job progress and any questions and concerns.