HR Director
Job Description
A high-growth Tech Group in Abu Dhabi is hiring an HR Director to lead the people agenda across the business. This is a senior, hands-on role for someone who can balance pace and governance: building scalable HR infrastructure while partnering the CEO/Exec team on performance, culture, and org design.
You’re a senior HR leader who’s built (and rebuilt) people functions in fast-moving tech environments — not just maintained policy. You can sit with a CEO and translate growth targets into a practical workforce plan, then turn around and coach managers on performance, accountability, and how to lead properly. You’re equally comfortable in board-level conversations and in the detail of execution when things get messy.
You bring strong UAE experience and you understand how to balance pace with governance: compliant contracts and policies, clean HR operations, and disciplined employee relations — without slowing the business down. You’re calm under pressure, confident handling sensitive ER situations, and you don’t avoid hard conversations. You know how to protect the company while being fair, consistent, and human.
You’re commercially switched on and data-led. You use people metrics to spot risk early (attrition, engagement, hiring bottlenecks, performance distribution), and you can clearly explain what’s happening, why it matters, and what you’re going to do about it. You’ve built scalable frameworks around performance management, compensation, and career paths — and you’ve created hiring standards that improve quality, not just speed.
Most importantly, you’re a builder. You can design the HR infrastructure a growing tech group needs (HRIS, policies, org design, leadership behaviours, talent acquisition engine), and you can win trust across the business by being direct, pragmatic, and outcomes-focused.
Responsibilities Duties:
What you’ll own
- HR strategy aligned to growth plans (structure, capability, workforce planning)
- Leadership of HR operations: policies, employee relations, compliance, contracts, HR governance
- Talent acquisition leadership (in-house + agency), hiring standards, interview frameworks, offer governance
- Performance management: goal setting, calibration, reviews, underperformance processes, manager coaching
- Compensation & benefits: salary frameworks, benchmarking, incentives, retention levers
- Culture + engagement: leadership behaviours, internal comms, change management
- HR analytics: dashboards, attrition, time-to-hire, cost-to-hire, engagement, performance outcomes
- Stakeholder management: board/executive reporting, cross-functional alignment, escalation handling
What we’re looking for
- Proven HR leadership experience in a tech / digital / product-led environment (UAE preferred)
- Strong understanding of UAE labour context and HR governance (mainland/free zone exposure a plus)
- Track record building scalable HR systems in fast-growth environments (not just “keeping the lights on”)
- Confident operator in performance conversations and ER risk management
- Data-led and commercially aware: can link people decisions to delivery, cost, and outcomes
- Credible with senior leaders; able to influence, challenge, and execute
Nice to have
- Experience across multi-entity groups and rapid scaling (M&A / integration exposure a plus)
- Strong TA background for technical hiring (engineering, product, data, cyber, cloud)
- Experience implementing HRIS and standardising processes across business units
Why this role
- Executive-level impact in a fast-moving tech group
- Real mandate to build and professionalise the people function
- Strong package (AED 70k–80k/month) with long-term growth runway