Commercial & delivery excellence CHRO — Technology (Africa)

Position overview

Gladwin International Leadership Advisors is representing a confidential organisation in Technology & Digital on a senior CHRO leadership mandate anchored in Africa. The remit explicitly spans Australia.

This is a P&L-owning regional leadership mandate with full accountability for revenue, margin, talent, and governance across the defined geography.

The client values executives who build repeatable operating mechanisms, not heroic firefighting that resets every quarter.

Context you will inherit

• Market & sector: Building diverse, inclusive engineering organisations in a sector historically skewed toward homogeneity
• Geographic spine: Primary hub Africa with explicit corridor responsibility across Australia.
• Organisation stage: Recent leadership turnover created ambiguity on priorities; you will need to re-establish a crisp enterprise storyline.
• Stakeholders: Key interfaces include headquarters strategy, regional risk and legal, local regulators (where material), and anchor channel partners.
• Secondary lens: Leading AI/ML and GenAI transformations at pace — requiring leaders who can bridge deep technical architecture with business product strategy

The mandate (12–24 month arc)

1. Culture diagnostics: Replace annual surveys with pulse and qualitative insight tied to business outcomes.
2. Role clarity: Clean up overlapping mandates between functions — reduce “everyone owns everything” ambiguity.
3. Internal mobility: Make moves across units easier; reduce hoarding of high potentials inside silos.
4. Alumni & boomerang: Professional offboarding and selective re-hire paths where brand and IP protection allow.
5. HR tech debt: Rationalise HRIS / ATS stack; improve self-service so HRBP time shifts to strategic work.
6. Board people reporting: Succession, diversity, and conduct themes with substance — not compliance theatre.

Responsibilities (representative)

• Upgrade manager capability — especially feedback, coaching, and performance management at scale.
• Simplify rewards; reduce exception culture that undermines internal equity.
• Own employee listening and action planning tied to retention drivers.
• Partner with legal on investigations, policies, and regulatory people topics.
• Build HR analytics that support board and audit committee oversight.

Leadership profile

• Judgment: High signal-to-noise under pressure; ethical clarity; willingness to halt initiatives that break risk appetite.
• Education: Strong undergraduate grounding; MBA / advanced degree / professional qualification common at this level.
• Communication: Executive presence in English; additional languages valued where market-relevant.
• Business partnership: HR seen as a strategic function, not only policy and service delivery.
• Geographic muscle: Comfort operating from Africa with regular engagement across Australia.

Team & culture

The organisation runs hot — ambitious targets and thin buffers. You need to channel energy into sustainable rhythms: predictable planning, honest risk surfacing, and recovery time for teams after major pushes.

Success measures (examples)

• Value creation: EBITDA / cash trajectory vs. owner or board case — especially under stress scenarios.
• Execution: On-time delivery of named transformation milestones; reduction in repeat incidents or audit findings.
• Leadership: External hires and internal promotions that stick; reduction in key-person concentration.
• Innovation: Launched offers or capabilities that move the needle on differentiation, not pilots that stall.

First 90 days (orientation arc)

• Days 1–30: Map cash, covenant, and customer concentration risks before announcing initiatives.
• Days 30–60: Align owners and board on a 12-month value story — financial and non-financial.
• Days 60–90: Launch two quick operational fixes that build credibility with frontline managers.
• Deep-dive on talent — who is load-bearing, who is blocking, where external hire is mandatory.
• Socialise a simple KPI tree so every function sees how their metrics roll up.

Stakeholder map (illustrative)

• Internal: Executive committee, functional peers, shared services leads, and programme PMOs.
• External: Key suppliers, technology partners, and joint-venture boards where applicable.
• Board / owners: Expect deep dives on risk, liquidity, talent, and transformation — slides light, substance heavy.

Travel & mobility

Multi-hub rhythm — plan for weekly or bi-weekly cross-border travel during integration or transformation peaks.

Compensation

Package aligned to CHRO benchmarks in Technology & Digital — typically fixed, variable, benefits, and mobility where applicable. Structure detailed at shortlist.

Application status

This mandate is no longer accepting new applications. The search progressed through Q4 2025 and closed for submissions in February 2026. We retain this posting for transparency on the type of leadership work we carry in Technology & Digital and Africa. For similar active mandates, browse open roles or submit a general profile through executive search inquiry.

Reference: technology-digital · CHRO · Africa · Gladwin International Leadership Advisors