Cognite operates at the forefront of industrial digitalization, building AI, and data solutions that solve the world’s hardest, highest-impact problems. With unmatched industrial heritage and a comprehensive suite of AI capabilities, including low-code AI agents, Cognite accelerates the digital transformation to drive operational improvements.
We thrive in challenges. We challenge assumptions. We execute with speed and ownership. If you view obstacles as signals to step forward - not backwards - you’ll feel right at home here.
Our Moonshot is bold: Unlock $100B in customer value by 2035, and redefine how global industry works. Join us in this venture where AI and data meet ingenuity, and together, we will forge the path to a smarter, more connected industrial future.
Cognite is seeking a Human Resources Director for India and UAE. Based in Bengaluru, this hybrid-role four days per week in office and reporting into the global People Operations team. You will act as both trusted advisor and hands-on operator across employee relations, compliance, workforce planning, organizational effectiveness, and policy infrastructure. In parallel, you will partner closely with global People Business Partners and HR counterparts in Norway and the US to support entity growth, compliance readiness, and people strategy in India and the UAE. This is a role for someone who thrives at the intersection of strategic thinking and tactical execution—someone who can design pragmatic, locally compliant policies and frameworks. You balance deep expertise in complex Indian employment law with the ability to translate regulatory complexity into clear, actionable guidance.
Strategic Advisory and Partnership
- Serve as the HR Leader for India and the UAE, acting as a strategic partner to regional and global leadership. You will integrate local market perspectives into the global People strategy to drive organizational effectiveness, leadership development, and compliant, scalable practices across a global footprint, driven in partnership with People Business Partners and People Operations
- Regional People Infrastructure: Lead the continuous improvement of employee handbooks and policies across India. You will translate complex regulatory requirements (including Labor Codes, Gratuity, PF, ESI) into pragmatic, user-friendly guidance that balances legal rigor with Cognite’s high-performance culture.
- Proactive Compliance Governance: Partner with Legal to monitor the evolving employment law landscape, proactively updating policies and manager guidance to mitigate risk while ensuring consistency and scalability across jurisdictions.
- Champion Regional Employee Relations: Own the end-to-end ER lifecycle—from complex investigations and performance management to sensitive exits. You will execute these interventions with composure and discretion, ensuring every action is fair, consistent, and strictly aligned with local legislation in each country.
- Build Protective Frameworks: Partner strategically with Legal to design and refine risk-mitigation protocols and litigation prevention initiatives. You will proactively address compliance risks across diverse jurisdictions and entity structures to safeguard the organization while supporting business goals.
The ideal candidate brings the credibility, judgment, and perspective of a senior HR leader, paired with the agility and curiosity of a practitioner who values being close to the work. This individual will play a pivotal role in shaping and scaling the HR foundation for India, strengthening alignment with Cognite’s global People strategy, and supporting the continued growth of our UAE presence.
- Trusted Strategic Counsel: You become a high-credibility partner to the Country Manager and global leaders, providing the sound judgment required to solve complex people challenges with practical, business-first solutions.
- Operational & Compliance Excellence: You establish a "gold standard" HR foundation, characterized by reduced risk, seamless process execution, and a modernized policy suite that managers find easy to navigate.
- Global-Local Synergy: You are recognized by peers in Norway and the US as a key collaborator who successfully bridges global standards with regional realities, ensuring India and the UAE are drivers of—not exceptions to—global strategy.
- Cultural & Leadership Elevation: You translate Cognite’s values of Impact, Ownership, and Relentlessness into the local context, directly improving the employee experience and building stronger leadership capabilities through targeted coaching and partnership.
Required Qualifications
- Senior Leadership Pedigree: 15+ years of progressive HR experience, including 5+ years as a Director or Senior PBP overseeing multi-country environments within the SaaS or high-tech sector.
- Regional Legal Mastery: Deep, hands-on expertise in India’s multi-state regulatory landscape (including Gratuity, PF, ESI, and Labor Code reforms) and the ability to navigate UAE labor laws and sponsorship rules.
- Scale & Complexity Expert: Proven track record of building HR infrastructure in hyper-growth environments, with the ability to manage complex investigations and organizational design independently across a matrixed global structure.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's degree certification strongly preferred; advanced India employment law knowledge a plus.
- The "Simplifier" Mindset: Demonstrated success in transforming dense regulatory requirements into user-friendly, high-performance policy frameworks.
- Impact 2025
- Cognite's Industrial AI: Moonshot
- We’re globally recognized domain experts with an international presence that spans Phoenix, Houston, Oslo Tokyo, Bengaluru, and Abu Dhabi.
Skills Required
- 15+ years of progressive human resources experience
- 5+ years as a Director or Senior People Business Partner overseeing multi-country environments
- Experience in the SaaS or high-tech sector
- Deep hands-on expertise in India's multi-state employment regulations, including Gratuity, PF, ESI, and Labor Code reforms
- Ability to navigate UAE labor laws and sponsorship rules
- Proven experience building HR infrastructure in hyper-growth environments
- Ability to independently manage complex investigations and organizational design in a matrixed global structure
- Master's degree or certification
- Advanced knowledge of Indian employment law
- Experience translating regulatory requirements into user-friendly policy frameworks
Cognite Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Cognite and has not been reviewed or approved by Cognite.
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Affordable Benefits — Healthcare premiums for employees and dependents are often fully covered, reducing out‑of‑pocket costs. Feedback suggests this makes the total rewards feel competitive in key markets.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave for primary and secondary caregivers is described as generous. This signals a family‑friendly approach that many consider a standout perk.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Unlimited PTO with a company‑wide year‑end shutdown offers ample time away from work. Flexible time‑off options are consistently highlighted across U.S. roles.
Cognite Insights
What We Do
Cognite is an AI company that delivers industrial software to improve the production efficiency of Energy, Process Manufacturing, and other industrial companies. We deliver an Industrial DataOps platform that liberates siloed data and empowers our customers to solve some of their most complex business problems with AI-powered solutions. The typical solutions we enable drive innovative new ways to approach Data Exploration, Digital Operator Rounds, Production Optimization, Turnaround Planning, and Root Cause Analysis. We do this by automating and scaling industrial data contextualization of various sources (such as time series, engineering diagrams, equipment logs, maintenance records, 3D facility models, images, large point clouds, and more). We use AI and other tools to find and map the meaningful relationships between the data across these various sources. In addition, we provide intuitive tools that enable efficient use of analytics and automated workflows, as well as prebuilt AI capabilities and a low-code industrial agent builder, Cognite Atlas AI, that enables AI to carry out more complex operations with greater accuracy.
Why Work With Us
Employees at Cognite are pushing the envelope with the latest cloud technology, scaling industrial applications across hundreds of assets, revolutionizing industrial data models, and working with robotics. Cogniters are fast, creative, and resilient. We keep the energy high and fun, learning from our mistakes and celebrating our victories together.
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