AVP - People Operations

Role Overview

Emirates Flight Catering is seeking an AVP – People Operations to join the Human Resources team in Dubai. Reporting to the SVP – Human Resources, this is a senior leadership role with enterprise-wide responsibility for workforce planning, talent acquisition, mobilization and contingent workforce management across an organization of more than 10,000 employees.

Role Purpose

Lead, optimize, and integrate enterprise-wide workforce planning, talent acquisition, and mobilization strategies to ensure the organization has a ready, high-quality, and cost-effective workforce that meets current and future business needs. The role will be instrumental in ensuring the organization has the right workforce, with the right capabilities, in the right place and at the right time to support operational requirements and future growth.

Key Responsibilities

Workforce Planning & Strategy

• Lead enterprise-wide workforce and manpower planning cycles.
• Translate business requirements into effective people and talent strategies.
• Forecast workforce requirements and identify capability and resource gaps.
• Develop and translate workforce forecasts into practical recruitment and mobilization strategies.
• Demonstrate strong workforce analytics and data-driven decision-making capability.

Talent Acquisition & Recruitment

• Lead large-scale and high-volume talent acquisition across multiple employee categories.
• Oversee talent acquisition and recruitment delivery.
• Ensure approved manpower plans are translated into timely, high-quality and cost-effective recruitment solutions.
• Lead onboarding and mobilization within complex, high-volume environments.

Contingent Workforce Management

• Develop and implement contingent workforce strategy and management.
• Establish strong understanding of contingent workforce models and vendor management.
• Partner with outsourced recruitment solutions and vendor partnerships.

Operations & Governance

• Establish recruitment governance, compliance and risk oversight.
• Optimize people technology and process solutions.
• Monitor workforce analytics, forecasting and reporting.

Stakeholder & Budget Management

• Work closely with HR Business Partners, Finance and senior business leaders.
• Demonstrate excellent senior stakeholder management and influencing capability.
• Lead budget and cost optimization across people operations.

Team Leadership

• Build and develop high-performing teams.
• Provide strategic and operational leadership across all functional areas.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration or a related discipline.
• Minimum 10 years' HR experience, including significant experience across Workforce Planning and Talent Acquisition.
• At least 6 years' experience in a senior leadership or strategic management role.
• Proven UAE experience is essential.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise-wide workforce and manpower planning cycles.
• Significant experience leading large-scale and high-volume talent acquisition across multiple employee categories.
• Experience translating workforce forecasts into practical recruitment and mobilization strategies.
• Experience leading onboarding and mobilization within complex, high-volume environments.
• Experience within aviation, hospitality, logistics, manufacturing, large-scale services or another operationally complex environment would be highly advantageous.

Skills & Competencies

• Strong understanding of contingent workforce models, vendor management and outsourced recruitment solutions.
• Workforce analytics and data-driven decision-making capability.
• Experience with HR and TA technologies, digital recruitment and onboarding solutions.
• Strong commercial awareness, including budget and cost management.
• Excellent senior stakeholder management and influencing capability.
• Proven track record of building and developing high-performing teams.