Plant Human Resources Manager

Role: Head of HR

Industry: A leading Indian manufacturer of engineered capital equipment

ABOUT THE COMPANY:

Our client is a well-established Indian manufacturer of high-precision, engineered capital equipment, with several decades of engineering heritage as part of a larger industrial group. The Company designs and supplies complex systems to customers across aerospace, defence, automotive, and advanced materials.

With a full-fledged in-house design centre and internationally recognised quality and compliance certifications, the Company sits at the intersection of deep technical expertise and growing global demand. It is entering a phase of accelerated growth and is building its leadership team, including its people function, to match that ambition. The Company's identity will be shared with shortlisted candidates.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Head of HR is a senior leadership role reporting to the Managing Director, responsible for building the people function that the Company's next phase of growth requires. The role owns the full employee lifecycle, from workforce planning and hiring through development, performance, rewards, employee relations, and statutory compliance, for a workforce that spans engineers, skilled shop-floor technicians, and commercial and support teams.

The position will be offered at a level between Senior Manager and General Manager, depending on the experience and calibre of the selected candidate. The right candidate will run HR operations reliably day to day while acting as a true business partner to the Managing Director and the functional GMs: shaping organisation design, building leadership depth, and making the Company a place where strong engineering and operations talent chooses to build a career.

The Company is looking for a builder, not just a manager. The right candidate will be entrepreneurial by disposition — willing to roll up their sleeves, set up what does not yet exist, and take ownership of whatever is needed to strengthen the organisation and put the Company in a competitive position.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

HR strategy & business partnership:

• Develop and own the HR strategy and annual people plan, aligned to the Company's growth plans and agreed with the Managing Director
• Partner with the Managing Director and functional GMs on organisation design, role clarity, reporting lines, and succession for critical positions
• Serve as a trusted advisor to the leadership team on people decisions, and as a member of the leadership team in business reviews and budgeting discussions
• Track and report people KPIs — headcount vs. plan, attrition, time-to-hire, training coverage, and engagement — with clear actions to the Managing Director

Talent acquisition & workforce planning:

• Translate business plans into rolling workforce plans across engineering, fabrication, assembly, quality, supply chain, sales, and support functions
• Own end-to-end recruitment for senior, specialist, and shop-floor roles, with clear hiring processes, structured interviews, and strong employer branding in the local talent market
• Build talent pipelines through campus hiring, internships, and graduate programmes, and strengthen the quality of leadership and critical-skill hiring
• Run onboarding and early-tenure retention that helps new hires, particularly experienced leaders joining a growing company, become productive quickly

Performance, rewards & compensation:

• Design and run a fair, simple performance management system with clear goals, regular reviews, and visible links to development and rewards
• Build a role-grading and compensation framework benchmarked to market, balancing internal equity with the need to attract scarce technical talent
• Oversee payroll, benefits, and variable-pay schemes, ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and cost control against the people budget
• Develop recognition and retention approaches for critical engineering, design, and skilled-trade talent

Learning, development & capability building:

• Own the learning and development agenda, building structured programmes across classroom training, on-the-job training, and internships
• Build leadership development pathways, including an engineering leadership programme for new graduates and a pipeline of first-line managers and supervisors on the floor
• Maintain skills matrices, competency records, and training evidence that support quality and industry audit requirements, working closely with the Quality GM
• Partner with functional heads to identify capability gaps and link training to measurable business improvements

Employee relations, culture & engagement:

• Build a culture of ownership, accountability, and open communication as the Company scales across functions and shifts
• Handle employee relations, grievances, disciplinary matters, and exits with fairness, consistency, and discretion
• Run regular engagement and feedback mechanisms — surveys, skip-levels, town halls — and drive action on what they surface
• Work with Operations and EHS leaders to support a safe, respectful workplace across the shop floor and offices

HR operations, compliance & systems:

• Ensure full compliance with labour and employment laws, including statutory registrations and returns, contract labour requirements, and workplace policies such as POSH
• Maintain current HR policies, employee handbook, and standard processes, and keep the Company audit-ready
• Implement and manage an HRIS and digital HR processes — attendance, leave, payroll, appraisals, and employee records — so that data is accurate and decisions are data-informed
• Manage the HR team and external partners such as recruiters, payroll and compliance consultants, and training vendors; develop the team's capability as the function grows

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Experience:

• 12+ years of progressive HR experience, with at least 5 years leading an HR function or the HR generalist and operations portfolio for a business unit or company; candidates with 18+ years and experience as the HR head of a growing organisation will be considered at General Manager level
• Experience in manufacturing or engineered-to-order capital equipment, with exposure to both technical and shop-floor workforces
• Demonstrated track record of building or scaling HR systems — recruitment, performance management, compensation, and L&D — in a growing company
• Working knowledge of Indian labour laws and statutory compliance applicable to factories, contract labour, and employee benefits
• Prior exposure to aerospace, defence, or advanced manufacturing, and to audit-driven quality environments (AS9100, ISO 9001), is an advantage
• MBA/PGDM in HR or a related field from a reputed institution preferred

Skills & competencies

• Business partnership: understands how engineering and operations businesses work and ties people decisions to business outcomes
• Organisation building: designs structures, roles, and processes that scale, and puts them in place practically
• People leadership: builds a capable HR team, coaches functional leaders on managing people, and creates accountability
• Talent judgement: assesses leadership and technical talent well, and hires and promotes with rigour
• Employee relations & compliance: handles sensitive situations fairly and stays on top of statutory and audit requirements
• Data-driven: uses HR metrics and dashboards to diagnose issues and track the impact of people initiatives
• Integrity & discretion: earns trust at every level through confidentiality, consistency, and sound judgement