Head of People, Country & Function Lead (CTPO )

PropertyGuru is Southeast Asia’s leading PropTech company, and the preferred destination for over 32 million property seekers monthly to connect with over 50,000 agents monthly to find their dream home. PropertyGuru empowers property seekers with more than 2.1 million real estate listings, in-depth insights, and solutions that enable them to make confident property decisions across Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

PropertyGuru.com.sg was launched in Singapore in 2007 and since then, PropertyGuru Group has made the property journey a transparent one for property seekers in Southeast Asia. In the last 18 years, PropertyGuru has grown into a high-growth PropTech company with a robust portfolio including leading property marketplaces and award-winning mobile apps across its markets in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand as well as the region’s biggest and most respected industry recognition platform – PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards, events and publications across Asia.

For more information, please visit: PropertyGuruGroup.com; PropertyGuru Group on LinkedIn.
Recognised as a Top Employers Certified* organisation, we’re proud to be among the best workplaces in the region—celebrating an inclusive culture of excellence, growth, and well-being. 

About the role:

This is a senior leadership role on the People & Culture Leadership Team (PLT). The Head of People – Country and function Lead (CTPO) is the single point of accountability for the full end to end people agenda across their country and/or functional remit.

The role operates with a dual mandate: delivering an excellent HR service in-country, and a member of the regional P&C team, and contributing as a full member of the P&C People Leadership Team.

Direct reporting line is to the Head of HR People & Culture, with a dotted line to the Country Managing Director or relevant XLT business leader.

Why This Role Exists Now

PropertyGuru is in an era of deliberate reinvention under PG Next: country-led operating model, matrix ways of working, and AI-accelerating change in both what we ask of our workforce and how P&C itself delivers.

This role is the country-level engine for that shift. It is expected to model the change, not just manage it.

People Leadership Team (PLT) Membership

As a member of the PLT, this role carries collective ownership of the P&C function's performance, culture, and transformation alongside the Head of P&C and peer PLT members.

PLT members are expected to:

• Contribute to and own elements of the P&C operating model

• Operate with full accountability

• Shared ways of working, and cross-functional collaboration are a collective responsibility

• Model the leadership behaviours the business expects from its own people leaders: psychological safety, honest feedback, recognition, and deliberate development of their teams

• Engage constructively in functional talent reviews and hold a view on talent across the P&C function, not only their own team

• Bring an enterprise lens to decisions, balancing country or functional needs against what is right for P&C and PropertyGuru as a whole

P&C Operating Model

This role has explicit ownership, alongside the CPO and PLT, for shaping and executing the P&C function's operating model focused on AI-infused, human-prioritised P&C function (where transactional work is automated, process value is redesigned, and P&C professionals spend strategic partnering including but not limited to org design, talent strategy, management and development, leadership coaching, and workforce capability).

Org Design, Workforce Planning & the Future of Work

This role is the primary HR partner on org design and workforce transformation for their business unit(s).

Org Design

• Design and implement effective country or functional org structures that reflect business strategy, the matrix ways of working model, and the realities of AI-driven role evolution

• Identify where current structures create friction, slow execution, or concentrate risk and propose clear, data-supported redesigns

• Embed change management rigorously: org changes without effective change management produce attrition, not efficiency

Workforce Planning

• Lead structured workforce planning conversations with business leaders (headcount management, capability forecasting: what skills do we need, in what timeframe, and via what strategy (build/buy/borrow/bot)), data focused

• Drive FTE forecast accuracy and manage within budget, working in close partnership with Finance HRBPs

Proactive Talent Management

• Codesign, and lead talent management and talent review cadence, driving clear outcomes aligned to impact for the business, partnering with business leaders to actively manage talent (developing Talent and managing low performance proactively)

• Protect high performers and top talent with visible, differentiated focus (development, recognition, and stretch opportunities)

Leadership of Local P&C Teams

This role manages the local P&C team directly (HRBPs, People Services, and Talent Acquisition) and is fully accountable for the engagement, capability, and performance of that team and all local P&C members including matrix reportees.

Active people leadership role:

• Build a high-performing, engaged team, active strategic business partnering to drive business impact;

• Building one team within the local team and driving ways of working between country/function teams and regional cross functional P&C teams;

• Recognise contribution consistently and create psychological safety: team members should feel able to raise concerns, challenge ideas, and disagree constructively

The P&C function's own engagement results are visible and tracked. This role is accountable for the engagement of their direct team and indirectly contributing to the function's results.

Key Accountabilities

Strategic Business Partnership

• Serve as the trusted senior HR partner to XLT member(s) and both country and functional leadership teams

• Translate business strategy into a coherent people plan with measurable outcomes, driving business impact

• Use people data and commercial insight to drive recommendations;

• Manage complex and senior-level employee relations with maturity, sound judgement, and legal compliance (including local employment law requirements)

Talent Acquisition

• Lead TA end-to-end for the country: demand forecasting, pipeline quality, brand and attraction, offer conversion, and onboarding outcomes

• Ensure TA is integrated with workforce planning

• Hold hiring managers to standard on speed, quality, and process discipline

People Services (HR Operations)

• Ensure People Services delivers accurate, timely, and compliant HR operations: payroll, employee lifecycle, policies, and local compliance

• Identify and drive automation of manual People Services processes

• Maintain legislative compliance and proactively track and implement regulatory changes in-country

Employee Experience & Engagement

• Drive engagement action planning with rigour: not just listening sessions, but visible change

• Ensure the EVP is felt in the day-to-day experience

What Great Looks Like in This Role

• The team this person leads is visibly engaged, growing, and clear on their priorities

• Org design changes in their remit are implemented cleanly, with stakeholders taken on the journey

• Active talent management

• Building the future operating model

What We're Looking For

Experience

• Substantial experience as a senior country HR leader or Head of HR in a multi-market or regional context, matrix operating experience

• Demonstrated track record in org design, workforce planning, and driving transformation

• Experience leading and developing a local HR team with named accountability for their engagement and performance

• Familiarity with the evolving HR technology landscape, including Workday or equivalent HRIS, and emerging AI tools in HR

• Exposure to the impact of AI on workforce design and skills strategy

Capabilities

• Strategic advisor, not just executor: challenges constructively, and builds credibility through business impact

• Data drive and strong analytical grounding

• Effective people leader: develops others, creates psychological safety, and holds performance standards

• Comfortable with ambiguity and able to operate across multiple markets or functions simultaneously

• Excellent judgement on employee relations and legal compliance in Southeast Asian markets

• Communicates with clarity and without unnecessary complexity, at C-suite and team level

Our commitment to you:

• Hybrid flexible working that focuses on outcomes over hours.

• Holistic rewards package covering your financial, physical & mental health.

• Multi-directional career development across all levels.

• Inclusive benefits like equal paternity leave, supporting all employees in work-life balance.
  

At PropertyGuru, you’ll be part of a Top Employers Certified* company that puts people at the heart of everything we do.