Senior Director – Implementation & Solution Design - APAC

Role Summary

The Sr. Director Implementation & Solution Design, APAC leads the end-to-end translation of growth opportunities into outcomes-based talent acquisition solutions and their successful implementation across the region. The role provides strategic leadership from discovery, solution architecture, commercial modelling and executive presentation through mobilisation, process design, change management, stabilisation and transition to steady-state delivery. As a senior partner to Business Development, Client Services and functional leaders, the SD ensures that solutions are differentiated, commercially viable, operationally scalable and delivered with a consistently strong client and user experience.

Key Accountabilities

APAC Solution Strategy & Design

• Lead discovery with prospective and existing clients to clarify opportunity statements, business objectives, RPO outcomes, scope, constraints and measures of success.
• Design and document integrated recruitment solutions that blend people, process, technology, experience, governance and commercial structure.
• Assess each client context across strategy and vision, external and talent competition, market conditions, and candidate and hiring-manager expectations.
• Conduct research, benchmarking and competitive analysis with regional and global stakeholders and functional experts to identify improvement and innovation opportunities.
• Act as the lead solution architect for strategic accounts and complex opportunities, shaping clear value propositions for executive audiences.
• Continuously evolve Cielo's operating model and product offering across attraction and sourcing, assessment and selection, pre-boarding, hiring conversion, diversity, technology enablement and change management.
• Serve as a principal subject matter expert on Cielo's operating model, experience and technology offerings, and contribute thought leadership across the recruiting lifecycle.

Commercial & Sales Enablement

• Partner with Business Development, Client Delivery, Implementation and Finance to align solution scope, deployability, profitability, pricing targets and the overall client value proposition.
• Build resource and cost models covering roles, capacity, technology, marketing and other delivery requirements; clearly document assumptions, dependencies and trade-offs.
• Develop ROI and business-case analysis, including potential impact on attrition, time-to-fill, agency utilisation, productivity, scalability and experience.
• Create and facilitate dynamic proposals, solution workshops and executive presentations that communicate complex recommendations with clarity and credibility.
• Guide internal and client decision-making by balancing financial, business, market, operational and cultural considerations.
• Participate in client meetings and travel with sales teams as required, leading solution, implementation and value-proposition discussions.

Implementation Leadership and Governance

• Own executive oversight of large-scale and complex APAC implementations from sales-to-implementation handover through stabilisation and transition to operations.
• Using the statement of work, lead scope evaluation, finalisation and sign-off, ensuring the contracted solution is practical, understood and ready for mobilisation.
• Ensure robust project disciplines are established, including work breakdown structures, schedules, milestones, risk and issue registers, change control, stakeholder matrices, decisions, actions and questions logs.
• Coordinate functional leaders and workstream owners, monitor delivery against plan and intervene early where risks, dependencies or resourcing threaten outcomes.
• Provide concise, consistent updates to client and internal stakeholders on strategy, project health, progress, decisions, adjustments, risks and mitigation.
• Manage client expectations and relationships throughout implementation and stabilisation through responsiveness, follow-through and transparent communication.
• Ensure implementation deliverables, controls and communications meet quality standards and are updated as new processes or solutions are introduced.

Process Design, Experience and Change

• Lead the process and change-management approach for complex implementations, ensuring consistency between the sold solution and the future-state operating model.
• Facilitate current-state and future-state workshops covering leadership, recruiter, hiring-manager and candidate experiences.
• Design scalable future-state processes that incorporate best practice, technology, automation and self-service while protecting Cielo's differentiation and service quality.
• Translate business needs into clear functional requirements and partner with technology specialists on workflows, configuration, integrations and reporting.
• Create transformation roadmaps covering priorities, sequencing, dependencies, change impacts, governance, risks and adoption requirements.
• Develop and execute change plans, including voice-of-customer activity, stakeholder engagement, communications, training and readiness interventions.
• Produce process maps, standard operating procedures, templates, FAQs and other materials required to embed the new experience and ways of working.
• Ensure impacted teams and hiring managers are equipped and trained to adopt the new processes and operating model.

Leadership, Capability and Continuous Improvement

• Lead, coach and develop APAC solution design and implementation resources, setting clear priorities, performance expectations and professional development plans.
• Build high-performing cross-functional teams and create accountability across direct, matrixed and project-based contributors.
• Represent APAC in global solution design and implementation governance, sharing regional insight and helping to embed consistent standards and best practices.
• Lead strategic initiatives and continuous-improvement programmes that advance business goals, delivery quality, scalability and client outcomes.
• Support existing client operations with solution reviews, redesigns and new initiatives requiring specialist solution, implementation, process or change expertise.
• Manage multiple concurrent priorities in a fast-paced, ambiguous environment while maintaining quality, pace and stakeholder confidence.

Supervisory Responsibilities

Leads the APAC Solution Design and Implementation capability, which may include Solution Design Directors, Implementation Directors, Process & Change leaders, Solution Design Managers, Architects, Analysts and project-based or matrixed workstream resources. Responsibilities include workforce planning, role allocation, coaching, performance reviews, succession planning and professional growth.

Education

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience required; master's degree preferred.
• Formal project management qualification preferred.
• Lean, Six Sigma or similar process-improvement certification preferred; change-management certification is advantageous.

Experience

• 10+ years of progressive experience across RPO, talent acquisition, HR consulting, solution architecture, implementation, client delivery, transformation or related fields, including significant leadership experience in complex regional or global environments.
• Demonstrated success designing and commercially shaping complex recruitment or professional-services solutions, preferably within an established RPO provider.
• Strong track record leading large-scale or complex implementations and managing senior internal and external stakeholders through mobilisation and change.
• Experience in recruitment operations leadership, process design, operating-model development, continuous improvement and technology-enabled transformation.
• Experience with pricing, financial modelling, resource modelling and ROI analysis for complex services solutions.
• Proven ability to create and lead compelling workshops, proposals and presentations for C-suite and senior executive audiences.
• People leadership experience, including coaching, performance management and development of specialist teams.

Capabilities and Exposure

• Executive presence with strong consulting, relationship-building, influencing and negotiation skills across cultures and organisational levels.
• Visionary and creative thinker with the operational pragmatism to convert strategy into an executable roadmap and measurable outcomes.
• Commercially astute, analytically strong and comfortable evaluating data, assumptions, risk, profitability and client value.
• Able to translate business needs into process, technology and functional requirements, and to communicate complex concepts simply.
• Highly organised and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage multiple strategic opportunities and implementations simultaneously.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and complex transformation environments while remaining agile, collaborative and outcome-focused.
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office; familiarity with project-management tools such as Smartsheet and process-mapping tools such as Visio, Lucid or equivalent.
• Fluent written and spoken English; additional APAC language capability is advantageous.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Are you ready to accelerate your career? Join Cielo as a Senior Director – Implementation & Solution Design! A career at Cielo will give you the opportunity to work with the industry’s smartest people and to take ownership of your success! Cielo is a brand that reflects our big idea – that talent is rising – and with it our opportunity to rise above. We create careers for ambitious people by moving beyond traditional assumptions of what it means to work in talent acquisition.

Cielo is the world's leading Talent Acquisition Partner. We deliver a better talent experience for everyone through Talent Acquisition, Search, Consulting, and Digital Accelerators™. With our fresh approach – we design and build comprehensive, proven solutions inspired by technology to find and keep the unique talent that elevates our clients above the competition.

Cielo is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate against any applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, genetic information, or any other status protected by state or local law for an individual who falls within the jurisdiction of such law. Applicants who require an accommodation throughout the application and interview process should request this in advance by contacting Cielo Talent Acquisition at

Originally posted on Himalayas