Regional Chief Human Resources Officer — Retail Bank

The mandate

A listed bank is renewing the core platform behind a regional retail franchise. The programme will alter branch routines, servicing, operations, product ownership and control work, yet the existing workforce plan largely treats it as a technology installation. Leadership capacity is uneven, contractors hold critical knowledge and promised savings rely on vacancies rather than redesigned roles. The board wants the people model settled before technical milestones force rushed decisions.

The Regional Chief Human Resources Officer will influence a retail bank with approximately US$55,100 million in loans and deposits and lead around 450 employees and material partners. Scope includes executive succession, organisation design, workforce planning, employee relations, rewards, talent, learning, people analytics and culture through the platform renewal. The role reports to the Group Chief Executive or designated executive committee sponsor.

The appointee will translate the future operating model into work. Every material journey should show which decisions disappear, move or require new capability once the platform is live. Roles cannot be designed from current reporting lines alone: customer demand, control obligations, location, spans, skills and realistic adoption capacity must determine the answer. Savings count only when activity and cost leave together.

Leadership choices precede broad restructuring. Product, operations, technology and distribution executives need explicit accountabilities through design, migration and stabilisation. The CHRO will assess whether incumbents can lead beyond their present expertise, create development contracts where the gap is bridgeable and make timely succession calls where it is not. Temporary programme authority must not leave permanent leaders unable to own outcomes.

Workforce economics need a traceable baseline. Employees, contractors, overtime, attrition, recruitment, learning and third-party services should reconcile to finance by activity and location. The board must see where apparent productivity depends on deferral, unpaid workload or scarce specialists. Capacity released by automation will be matched to demand, redeployment and exit timing rather than claimed at go-live.

Employee relations will be treated as an operating dependency. Consultation obligations, job architecture, selection, accessibility and local practice must be designed into sequencing. Managers require facts early enough to explain what is known, undecided and contingent without promising outcomes they cannot control. Listening data should identify practical barriers and trust risks, not serve as a generic sentiment score.

Critical knowledge needs deliberate transfer. The CHRO will locate expertise concentrated in vendors, long-tenured operators and a few programme leaders, then connect retention, documentation, shadowing and successor readiness to migration waves. Retention awards should protect a dated dependency, not reward status. Exit dates must follow tested handover and operational acceptance.

The people function itself should model the change. Fragmented recruitment, learning and workforce reporting will be simplified around authoritative data and common service expectations. Analytics must link hiring, capacity, absence, proficiency and attrition to customer and programme outcomes. Individual information remains protected while leaders receive sufficient insight to act.

Reward and performance will reinforce shared delivery. Measures should distinguish design completion from adopted behaviour, and leaders should not receive credit for local cost improvement that moves work elsewhere. Risk, customer, migration and people outcomes need balanced weight, with clear consequences when an executive conceals readiness concerns to preserve a milestone.

Why this seat is open

This is a planned replacement with the incumbent continuing through an agreed succession period. The four-to-six-month process allows rigorous assessment and a structured handover before the platform programme reaches its most consequential workforce choices. Confidentiality protects employees and partners until the communication sequence is approved.

What you will own

• Convert the core-banking design into roles, skills, capacity and location choices.
• Influence a US$55,100 million retail-bank perimeter through accountable people decisions.
• Assess and reshape executive leadership for migration and the future operating model.
• Establish complete workforce economics across employees, contractors and partners.
• Govern consultation, selection, redeployment and exits with consistent employee relations.
• Lead approximately 450 employees and partners with strong People-function succession.
• Protect scarce operational knowledge through tested transfer and dated retention action.
• Link workforce evidence to programme, customer, control and financial decisions.

The first 12 months

In the first 90 days, the CHRO will reconcile the workforce baseline and review the future-state design against real activity. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to the renewal, including employee representatives, operations, technology, risk, finance, programme leaders and frontline managers. Assess executives, identify knowledge dependencies and agree decision gates with the sponsor.

Months four to nine should settle pivotal accountabilities, workforce scenarios and the employee-relations route for each migration wave. Fill essential leadership gaps, begin capability academies and remove contradictory workforce reports. The first measurable value should appear through avoided contractor extension, stronger internal deployment, reduced regretted attrition or proven capacity release.

By year end, leadership supply, workforce affordability and employee relations should operate as one plan. Delivery should remain within 10% of the approved case and forecasts must reconcile activity, cash, customer and people assumptions over three quarters. High-severity people or programme escalations cannot remain unresolved beyond 30 days, and priority fixes require independent sustainability evidence.

What the board will measure

• Role and capacity change tied to migrated activity rather than theoretical automation.
• Executive readiness and clarity of ownership across renewal decision points.
• Workforce cost including employees, contractors, overtime, attrition and learning.
• Proficiency, adoption and customer outcomes after each migration wave.
• Retention of at least 90% of critical talent and immediate successors for 70% of direct reports.
• Employee-relations milestones completed without concealed operational or conduct exposure.

The person

You are a Regional CHRO, People Director or Business HR Vice President with 18–22 years in banking or an adjacent regulated sector. You have changed an executive structure and workforce economics during a platform, operating-model or distribution transition while sustaining critical talent and credible employee relations.

Your accountable P&L, book, budget or portfolio has been at least US$31,950 million, and you have led 325 or more people. You can demonstrate where your workforce evidence altered programme sequence, investment or leadership decisions and show results that held for two subsequent reporting periods.

You understand that a core-platform renewal changes control, service and decision work, not merely job counts. You can challenge both technologists who overstate automation and operators who defend historical capacity, while explaining difficult choices with precision and humanity.

Financial services, payments, lending, insurance and regulated-fintech backgrounds are relevant where the operating model and governance intensity match. Experience limited to specialist People programmes without regional business consequence will not be sufficient.

Compensation and terms

Base compensation is US$320,000–420,000 plus annual incentive. The permanent New York appointment is onsite, supports international relocation and can accommodate notice of up to six months.

Confidentiality

The bank, incumbent, platform partners and workforce scenarios remain unnamed until a confidential discussion establishes mutual relevance. All operating facts are blended and rounded.