Global HR Compliance Specialist

At Vanderlande, our people are the foundation of everything we achieve. As we continue to grow across North America, EMEA and APAC, the complexity of managing the end-to-end HR policies, the employee data and the workforce processes across different legal and regulatory environments continues to increase. Ensuring compliance is therefore not only a matter of meeting legal obligations. It is about safeguarding our employees, anchoring the integrity of our HR operations, and creating the confidence that our people practices are fair, consistent and trustworthy wherever we operate. 

As Global HR Compliance Specialist, you play a pivotal role in making this happen. You are the custodian of the HR compliance framework that underpins our global End-to-End HR service delivery. Working at the intersection of HR, Legal, Privacy, HR Technology and Process Management, you translate complex regulatory requirements into clear, practical standards that can be embedded into daily operations. You help ensure that compliance is not an afterthought or a periodic audit exercise, but a natural part of how HR serves employees and managers every day. 

This role requires a unique combination of analytical rigor, business pragmatism and stakeholder influence. You will identify risks before they become issues, drive accountability across the organization, and help shape a culture where compliance enables better decisions rather than constraining them. In doing so, you will contribute directly to a global HR function that is trusted, resilient and fit for the future.  

A successful Global HR Compliance Specialist understands that effective compliance is not measured by the absence of findings, but by the presence of strong governance, transparent processes and the confidence that employees, managers and leaders can place in the way HR operates. This is your opportunity to build that foundation on a global scale. 

As a Global HR Compliance Specialist, you will ensure our HR policies, HR processes and employee data meet the legal, regulatory and internal requirements that apply in the countries across North America, EMEA and APAC. You will build and maintain the global HR compliance framework, monitor how it is applied in daily service delivery, and advise HR stakeholders on what needs to change when regulations or internal standards move. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Compliance Framework: Build and maintain the global HR compliance framework, covering employment law obligations, end-to-end process adherence, data protection and record keeping. You define the requirement. The Functions own the policies that answer it and the Global Process Owner Hire to Retire owns the process design. The Service Delivery is accountable for the day to day adherence and execution. 

• Monitoring and Assurance: Design and run a recurring control and testing cycle across global HR end-to-end processes and data. Identify gaps, quantify the risk, agree remediation with the respective accountable owners and track it to closure and anchoring. 

• Regulatory Watch: Track changes in employment legislation, data protection rules and HR reporting obligations in the countries where we operate, where applicable together with global functions such as Comp & Benefits leaders. Translate the impact into a clear requirement and route it to the right owner. 

• Data Privacy and Records: Safeguard the lawful handling of employee data across the HR technology landscape, including retention, access and cross border transfer. Act as the HR counterpart to Privacy and Legal. 

• Internal and External Audit: Act as the single HR point of contact for audits, both internal and external. Coordinate the scope with Internal Audit, prepare the evidence and manage findings through to sign off. Support external audit on HR controls and on payroll data originating from HR. 

• Advisory and Reporting: Act as the escalation point for complex HR compliance questions, and report compliance status, open risks and remediation progress to HR leadership. 

Day-to-Day Activities 

• Set-up and maintain & continuous improve the global HR compliance framework.  

• Run compliance checks and controls on global HR processes and data. 

• Analyse legislative changes and translate them into requirements for the right owner. 

• Advise HR colleagues and people leaders on complex compliance and employee data questions. 

• Build and maintain compliance documentation, control descriptions and work instructions. 

• Coordinate audit requests, gather evidence and follow up on findings. 

• Contribute to global HR transformation and integration projects from a compliance perspective. 

Your Profile 

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Human Resources, Law, Business Administration, or a related field. 

• At least 5 years of experience in HR compliance, employment law, HR governance, or HR operations in an international organisation. 

• Proven track record of building a compliance or control framework from scratch, not only running an existing one. 

• Working knowledge of employment law principles and data protection legislation, including GDPR, and the ability to work with local counsel on country specifics. 

• Demonstrable experience with internal and external audit cycles, from evidence gathering to remediation follow up. 

• Experience with Workday or comparable HR systems, and with working in a matrix organisation where you set the requirement but do not own the policy or the process. 

Skills and Competencies 

• Strong analytical and risk assessment skills, with high attention to detail. 

• Ability to translate legal and regulatory language into practical, usable process guidance. 

• Excellent stakeholder management, able to build credibility with senior HR leaders.