Employee Relations Leader

At Optasia we use the latest technologies and tools to build impactful customer experiences, grow our network and provide comprehensive financial access for millions of customers in countries across continental Africa, Asia and beyond.

We are seeking a dynamic Employee Relations Leader who brings deep experience handling complex employee relations matters in fast-growing, international organizations, together with a practical understanding of how to balance pace, fairness, consistency, and risk in a growing post-IPO business.

• The ideal person will combine strong international employee relations and employment law expertise with sound commercial judgement, excellent stakeholder management capability, and the ability to guide leaders through sensitive people issues with clarity and confidence
• Experience advising across multiple jurisdictions including in Africa and Asia, leading large-scale workforce optimization programs and enabling business and organizational change
• Coaching and upskilling leaders and managers on workforce change, adding to a culture of engaged and enabled people managers

This is a Senior team role in a growing business where delivering with confidence, pace, and sound judgement is essential, and where a go-getter spirit and customer orientation are valued as highly as technical excellence.

Candidate Profile

• A credible, commercially minded Employee Relations leader who can operate as a trusted adviser to senior leaders and stakeholders while maintaining excellent operational grip on high-risk and sensitive casework.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, matrixed, multicultural business where priorities shift quickly, local market requirements vary, and balanced judgement is required on high-impact people matters.
• Passionate about building fair, scalable and well-governed employee relations and people practices that protect the business, support growth, strengthen leadership capability, and create consistency across markets

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the lead adviser on complex employee relations matters across relevant markets, including disciplinaries, grievances, investigations, performance concerns, misconduct issues, appeals, sensitive exits, and broader people risk matters.
• Partner with HR, Legal, Compliance, and business leaders to assess people risk, determine appropriate approaches, and deliver timely, fair, and well-documented outcomes.
• Support organizational change activity, including workforce change and optimization programs, operating model changes, consultation processes and communication planning and execution across relevant markets.
• Advise and coach managers and senior stakeholders on case handling, documentation quality, investigation standards, policy application, and risk-aware decision-making.
• Lead training and enablement initiatives that help leaders handle employee relations issues earlier, more confidently, and in line with company values and legal requirements.
• Conduct or guide complex investigations, ensuring processes are followed appropriately, and recommendations are clear, practical, and defensible.
• Partner with the Operations team to identify, design and deploy AI and automation to improve process efficiency.
• Use people data, case trends, and business insight to identify risk themes, diagnose organizational issues, and recommend practical actions that improve consistency, reduce risk, and strengthen leadership decision-making.
• Lead training and enablement initiatives that help leaders handle employee relations issues earlier, more confidently, and in line with company values and legal requirements.
• Develop and continuously improve ER and people-focused frameworks, policies, templates, toolkits, and other manager resources to support consistency and scalability across markets
• Deliver global people projects that improve employee relations capability, governance, manager effectiveness, policy consistency, and the overall employee experience.
• Ensure local practices remain aligned with employment legislation, internal policy, and Optasia's values across the markets within scope.

Requirements

• Significant direct experience (8+ yrs) leading delivery of ER including at a regional level with experience of business partnering preferred
• Extensive employee relations experience in international, high-growth, regulated, or complex business environments in Asia and Africa
• Experience dealing with complex M&A, assessment & integration projects
• Demonstrated capability in handling complex investigations, conduct matters, performance cases, grievances, redundancies, and other sensitive employee relations issues from initial assessment through to resolution.
• Strong experience operating across multiple countries, with practical understanding of employee relations risk, employment practices, and the need to balance consistency with local compliance
• Strong knowledge of employee relations risk, process discipline, and the importance of clear documentation, consistency, and defensible decision-making.
• Data-informed, pragmatic, and business-oriented approach to solving people risk and workplace issues
• Proven ability to build effective working relationships with senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders including Legal, Compliance
• Strong coaching and influencing skills, with the ability to challenge constructively and raise the quality of people decisions.
• High levels of integrity, professionalism, discretion, and resilience when dealing with complex or high-pressure situations.
• Ability to plan and prioritize work under tight deadlines, work on own initiative, and as a member of a team.

 Why Optasia?

Optasia is a high-growth, AI-powered financial infrastructure platform serving over 432 million users in emerging markets across Africa and Asia. By harnessing the power of AI and real-time data we unlock financial opportunities for customers. We have been recognized as a top fintech by Forbes Middle East, culminating in a successful JSE listing in 2025.

At Optasia, our global team builds the tech, products and services which will change the game for the world's unbanked population. We empower our people by offering unique employee experiences and support individual careers by prioritizing well-being and embracing flexibility.

Benefits include:

• Flexible remote working
• Competitive remuneration package
• Extra day off on your birthday
• Performance-based bonus scheme
• Comprehensive private healthcare insurance
• All the tech gear you need to work smart

Join us in shaping the future of Optasia as we grow together. Explore more at optasia.com