Global-Mobility Policy Recovery Leader — Engineering Services

The mandate

Engineers move among bids, construction sites, client facilities and design centres through long-term assignments, rotations, commuter arrangements and emergency deployments. Offer letters, immigration approvals, payroll instructions, tax equalisation and project charge-outs do not share one case history. Delayed repatriations and expired work permissions exposed employee risk and unrecorded employer obligations before the mobility director departed.

The twelve-month assignment begins within two weeks and covers population triage, assignment category, approval, immigration dependency, pay delivery, allowances, tax coordination, social security, family support, project costing, extension, localisation and repatriation. The leader must stabilise urgent cases within sixty days and complete one annual mobility cycle while qualified immigration and tax advisers retain formal advice.

Permanent recruitment begins in month six. Handover requires a controlled mobile-worker register, approved policy routes, provider responsibilities, payroll and project-cost reconciliation, six site reviews, two year-end cycles and three disruption scenarios. The successor must resolve an unseen site closure plus visa expiry and explain employee, payroll, tax, cost and repatriation consequences during a seven-week overlap.

The role may pause a deployment lacking required approval or work permission, require provider evidence, set case controls, approve delegated benefits within policy, redirect the authorised SGD 28 million mobility budget and replace temporary operations leads. The executive committee retains workforce strategy, individual employment decisions, policy exceptions above delegation, project staffing, tax positions, immigration representation and permanent appointments.

Tax and immigration advice, legal representation, personal financial planning, project safety, talent selection and client negotiation remain outside scope. The leader may coordinate authorised specialists but cannot keep an employee working where permission or safety is uncertain. Recovery cannot be claimed by transferring cost to projects without agreement or delaying a documented repatriation obligation.

Why this seat is open

Project leaders focus on deployment, Payroll delivers pay, advisers handle country rules and HR partners manage employees, while the departed mobility head supplied the only cross-case control. Expired permissions and delayed returns revealed the fragility. Temporary authority is required through an annual cycle and permanent succession without abandoning mobile employees.

What you will own

• Reconcile employee, home and host entity, assignment type, project, approval, immigration, payroll and provider records.
• Triage expired permission, payroll break, tax filing, social-security gap, family support and overdue repatriation cases.
• Define policy routes for assignment, rotation, commuter, transfer, localisation, extension, emergency move and return.
• Connect allowances, hypothetical tax, social security, equalisation, provider fee and project charge-out transparently.
• Lead scenarios for site closure, visa expiry, border restriction, payroll failure, family emergency and assignment overrun.
• Establish specialist instruction, case consent, data access, decision ownership, escalation and employee communication controls.
• Transfer annual cycles, six sites, the controlled register and unseen closure-and-visa case to the permanent leader.

Candidate qualifications

• Held senior global-mobility authority across project-based engineering, construction or energy workforces.
• Governed assignments, rotations, commuters, localisations and repatriations across immigration, payroll, tax and social security.
• Recovered mobile-worker populations where employer obligations and project charge-outs were incomplete or contradictory.
• Worked with employees, families, project leaders, payroll and qualified advisers through urgent cross-border disruption.
• Protected lawful work and employee welfare without providing unauthorised tax, immigration or legal advice.
• Completed succession through a full mobility cycle and an unfamiliar site-closure and visa-expiry event.

Non-negotiables

• Can start within two weeks and complete six project-site residencies subject to safety and immigration clearance.
• Will disclose relationships with mobility, immigration, tax, payroll, relocation and engineering-service providers.
• Brings project-workforce mobility recovery across several regions; expatriate policy design alone is insufficient.
• Will not deploy people without permission, provide personal advice, override safety or hide employer obligations.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe a mobility case you recovered after immigration, payroll and project records diverged.
2. 49 words maximum. When would you stop a deployment despite an urgent client requirement?
3. 49 words maximum. What site-closure and visa scenario must the permanent leader resolve before handover?