HR Director

Job description

• Develop the Vietnam HR strategy, organization structure, and team development roadmap based on the company’s one-to-three-year business plan.
• Translate business objectives into concrete workforce plans covering headcount demand, hiring priorities, HR budget, and completion timelines for each phase.
• Advise China-based leadership on Vietnam’s labor market, salary levels, talent supply, management culture, and people-related risks.
• Participate in major decisions concerning organization design, senior management hiring, team building, and company operations in Vietnam.
• Build a flexible organizational model suited to a fast-changing e-commerce business environment.
• Take ownership of recruiting and completing the company’s initial team in Vietnam.
• Directly lead recruitment for critical roles across TikTok Shop and Shopee operations; livestream and live-room operations; content, social media, influencer/KOL/KOC; performance marketing, digital marketing, brand marketing, and product marketing; e-commerce sales and commercial; customer service and business operations; supply chain, logistics, and warehouse; finance, legal, compliance, and back office; HR, administration, and key management positions.
• Establish a fast recruitment process capable of handling large volumes of new headcount by growth phase, while building role-specific candidate assessment standards.
• Proactively develop recruiting networks, headhunting partners, industry communities, universities, and specialist candidate channels.
• Track quality of hire, time to fill, offer acceptance, probation pass rate, and cultural fit of new hires.
• Conduct talent mapping across cosmetics, FMCG, e-commerce, and fast-growing TikTok-driven companies in Vietnam.
• Build candidate databases and talent pools by critical capability group to support both current hiring and future expansion.
• Identify key positions, establish succession solutions, and maintain relationships with high-potential candidates, managers, and industry experts.
• Prepare the talent pipeline for possible expansion into manufacturing operations or a future factory in Vietnam.
• Build an onboarding system that helps new employees quickly understand the products, brands, business model, and company culture.
• Establish competency frameworks for critical job families, especially e-commerce, livestream, content, marketing, and management.
• Develop training, career development, and management capability programs; build a local management bench to reduce long-term dependence on headquarters transferees.
• Build systems for potential assessment, talent review, succession planning, and individual development plans; coordinate cross-market training, rotations, and experience sharing with China headquarters.
• Build a performance management mechanism suitable for e-commerce and work with department heads to define KPIs, work objectives, and evaluation standards.
• Conduct periodic organization reviews to identify redundant, missing, or misaligned roles; advise on compensation, rewards, and incentives to attract, retain, and motivate employees.
• Analyze HR data, provide management reports, and support the handling of low performance, organizational change, transfers, and team restructuring.
• Act as the bridge between China headquarters and the Vietnam team, translating the group’s values, management principles, and expectations into approaches suitable for Vietnam’s work culture.
• Help China-based leaders understand local communication styles, motivation drivers, and career expectations; proactively resolve cultural conflicts and differences in decision-making and internal communication.
• Build a high-speed yet transparent, respectful, and engaging work environment, and ensure new managers meet professional, cultural-fit, and business-stage requirements.
• Establish core Vietnam HR policies and procedures covering employment contracts, working time, leave, compensation, benefits, performance evaluation, and labor discipline.
• Ensure recruitment and employment practices comply with Vietnamese law; manage employee relations, complaints, disputes, and other workforce issues.
• Manage HR service providers, including EOR, payroll, insurance, recruitment, training, and legal advisory partners.
• Build accurate, confidential, and scalable HR data, reporting, and employee record systems; regularly report headcount, recruitment, people costs, turnover, organizational performance, and risks to China headquarters.
• Within the first 30–90 days, complete an organization and talent-market assessment; build the organization chart and phased headcount plan; identify critical roles and initial talent maps; establish recruitment processes, assessment standards, and headquarters coordination mechanisms; start priority hiring; and identify cultural, compliance, and retention risks.
• Within 3–12 months, form the core TikTok Shop, Shopee, and brand-development teams; establish talent pools, onboarding, training, and development frameworks; build performance management and talent review mechanisms; form an independently operating Vietnam HR team; and improve coordination with headquarters.
• Within 1–3 years, build a complete team capable of supporting the goal of placing multiple categories among TikTok market leaders; establish local management development and succession systems; build a long-term talent pipeline; prepare the workforce foundation for possible manufacturing or factory investment; and shape a culture aligned with both Vietnam and the group.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or above; preference for Human Resource Management, Business Administration, Law, Organizational Psychology, or a related field.
• Typically at least 10 years of HR experience, including experience as an HR Director, Head of HR, HRBP Director, or an equivalent HR leadership role.
• Experience in a fast-growing company with strong business operations on TikTok, Shopee, or other e-commerce platforms.
• Experience in cosmetics, personal care, FMCG, consumer goods, D2C, or e-commerce is preferred.
• A proven record of rapid hiring and team building for a new or fast-growing business unit.
• Hands-on experience building at least one critical system from zero to one: talent mapping and talent pools; recruitment systems; training and development systems; competency frameworks and career paths; talent review and succession planning; or organization structure and workforce planning.
• Experience working with senior leadership and translating business strategy into organization and people plans.
• Strong knowledge of Vietnamese labor law and the local talent market.
• Outstanding recruitment capability, with the ability to personally source, assess, and close critical management candidates.
• Able to build systems while remaining willing to execute hands-on work during the early stage.
• Strong business mindset and an understanding that HR supports growth rather than only administering procedures.
• Able to work in a high-speed environment with rapidly changing goals and continuous headcount growth.
• Capable of managing change, handling complex situations, and making decisions with incomplete information.
• Strong communication and persuasion skills, with the ability to influence both China-based leaders and the Vietnam team.
• Entrepreneurial mindset, ownership, resilience under pressure, and a clear results orientation.
• High cultural adaptability and no tendency to mechanically copy systems from a previous employer into a new-stage business.
• Fluent Chinese for work, with the ability to participate directly in meetings, reporting, communication, and discussions with China headquarters.
• Good English is an advantage.

Benefits

• Expected income of VND 100–150 million per month, negotiable based on capability, experience, and current income.
• The indicative annual budget may reach approximately RMB 500,000.
• Serve as the highest-ranking HR leader in a new strategic market.
• Directly build the organization from zero to one rather than merely inherit and maintain an existing system.
• Work with and report directly to senior HR leadership at China headquarters.
• Participate in critical decisions on organization structure, management hiring, and team development in Vietnam.
• Grow with the company’s business expansion, brand development, and potential future factory investment in Vietnam.
• International, fast-growing environment with significant influence on business results.

Hiring project