Associate Director - Global HR Operations

About the Team

The People Team at Agoda is committed to attracting, developing, and retaining exceptional talent from across the globe. We work to create an inclusive, high-performing, and engaging environment where employees can grow, contribute meaningfully, and do their best work. Through a strong focus on people experience, service quality, and business partnership, we help Agoda scale while preserving what makes our culture distinctive. 

Within the People Team, the People Experience and Services function is responsible for designing and delivering critical people experiences, services, and operating foundations that support employees and managers across the employee lifecycle. This includes enabling smooth onboarding and mobility experiences, delivering effective workplace and office services, and ensuring employees have access to timely, trusted, and high-quality support when they need it. 

At the center of this model sits People Services & Help Desk — Agoda’s front door for People support — supported by specialist service teams such as People Relations Services. Together, these teams play a critical role in how employees and managers experience the People function day to day: through clear guidance, responsive support, effective issue resolution, and trusted handling of sensitive people matters. 

Opportunity 

We are looking for an Associate Director, Head of People Services & Help Desk to lead Agoda’s employee-facing People service delivery model across People Help Desk / Tier 1 support, Tier 0 / self-service foundations, and Global People Relations Services. 

This is a key leadership role within People Experience and Services, responsible for shaping how employees and managers access support across a wide range of People topics — from day-to-day HR questions and lifecycle support to more complex and sensitive employee matters requiring specialist intervention. 

In this role, you will lead the teams responsible for: 

• People Help Desk / Tier 1 services 

• Tier 0 / self-service and knowledge foundations 

• Global People Relations Services, including case governance and specialist support for complex employee relations matters 

You will own the effectiveness of Agoda’s People support model from the employee and manager perspective, ensuring it is clear, trusted, scalable, and increasingly insight-driven. This includes strengthening service standards, improving routing and handoffs across teams, enabling greater self-service, and ensuring sensitive employee matters are handled with appropriate quality, consistency, and governance. 

This role is ideal for a leader who combines strong service delivery and operational leadership with sound judgment, systems thinking, and the ability to build a modern, scalable People support model in a global, fast-moving organization. 

This position is based in Bangkok. Agoda provides relocation support for successful candidates who are not currently located in Bangkok. Please note that we are not open to remote work or the possibility of being based in other locations. 

What you’ll do 

Lead Agoda’s People Services front door and employee support model

• Lead Agoda’s employee-facing People Services model across Tier 1 Help Desk support, Tier 0 self-service, and the interface into specialist support teams. 
• Define and evolve how employees and managers access support across People topics, ensuring a clear, seamless, and trusted experience. 
• Establish strong service principles, operating rhythms, and leadership across the teams responsible for day-to-day People support and complex employee issue resolution. 
• Ensure Agoda’s People support model scales effectively with organizational growth, complexity, and global reach. 

Lead the People Services & Help Desk team

• Lead, manage, and develop the People Services & Help Desk team to deliver high-quality, consistent, and empathetic Tier 1 support across core HR topics such as policies, processes, employee data, benefits, onboarding, leaves, mobility, and general employee lifecycle support. 
• Set service standards, KPIs, quality expectations, and operating controls to ensure timely, accurate, and compliant case handling. 
• Build a strong service culture with clear accountability for employee experience, right-first-time resolution, responsiveness, and professionalism. 
• Oversee workforce planning, capacity management, and prioritization across service demand, seasonal peaks, and new People initiatives. 

Lead Global People Relations Services

• Lead the Global People Relations Services team, ensuring high-quality and well-governed support across complex employee matters such as performance concerns, misconduct, grievances, investigations, disciplinary actions, involuntary exits, and employee matters arising from organizational change. 
• Ensure clear service ownership, escalation pathways, and governance across People Relations case handling. 
• Partner closely with HR Business Partners, Legal, Compliance, and other relevant stakeholders to ensure people relations matters are handled fairly, consistently, pragmatically, and in line with internal policies and local legal requirements. 
• Drive high standards in case management, documentation, risk identification, and decision quality across the People Relations team. 
• Use case trends and themes to inform improvements in manager guidance, policy design, service processes, and broader practices. 

Own the operating interfaces across Tier 1, People Relations, and specialist teams

• Serve as the senior operational owner for how work flows between Help Desk / Tier 1, People Relations Services, and other Tier 2 / specialist teams across the People organization. 
• Define and continuously improve routing logic, escalation models, intake criteria, handoffs, service ownership, and resolution pathways. 
• Ensure employees and managers experience a joined-up service model even when multiple People teams are involved. 
• Clarify roles and interfaces across Help Desk, People Relations, Payroll, Rewards, Mobility, People Partners, CoEs, and other specialist teams. 

Build Tier 0 / self-service and knowledge management foundations

• Develop and execute Agoda’s roadmap for Tier 0 / self-service, moving the organization toward more proactive, intuitive, and self-directed resolution of common People queries. 
• Own and strengthen the People knowledge ecosystem, including FAQs, help content, decision trees, agent guidance, and employee-facing support materials. 
• Partner with policy owners and People SMEs to simplify complex topics into clear, scalable, and user-friendly content. 
• Drive case deflection, knowledge reuse, content governance, and self-service adoption through disciplined measurement and continuous improvement. 

Enable digital, conversational, and AI-supported service delivery

• Partner with Product, Tech, Systems, and Data teams to improve People support platforms, workflows, and user journeys across self-service and case management. 
• Identify and help shape practical use cases for conversational and agentic AI within People Services, ensuring they enhance employee experience and complement human support. 
• Provide leadership input into the design, testing, rollout, and continuous refinement of AI-enabled and digital service solutions. 
• Ensure appropriate controls, privacy, escalation paths, and trust mechanisms are in place for all digital and AI-supported support channels. 

Drive operational excellence and continuous improvement

• Monitor and improve key service performance metrics across Help Desk and People Relations Services, such as case volume, first contact resolution, time to resolution, service quality, customer satisfaction, escalation rates, re-open rates, and self-service deflection. 
• Lead ongoing improvements in workflows, playbooks, standard responses, training, quality assurance, and reporting. 
• Partner with People Service Excellence and other stakeholders to simplify processes, remove friction, and improve end-to-end employee and manager experiences. 
• Ensure effective controls, compliance, documentation standards, and data privacy practices are embedded across service operations. 

Lead through insight, stakeholder partnership, and change

• Act as the senior People Services contact for service performance, priorities, risks, and transformation opportunities. 
• Provide regular insight and reporting to People leaders on service trends, root causes, organizational pain points, and improvement opportunities. 
• Partner with Communications and relevant People teams to coordinate messaging around policy changes, process updates, and new tools or services. 
• Support broader People transformation by bringing an employee-service lens to operating model design, simplification, and capability building across the function. 

 What you’ll need to succeed 

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Human Resources, Operations, Law, Psychology, or a related field; advanced degree is a plus. 
• Typically, 10+ years of relevant experience across HR shared services, employee services, People operations, employee relations, HRBP, service delivery, or related functions, including significant leadership experience. 
• Demonstrated experience leading managers and/or multiple service teams in a complex, matrixed, and fast-paced environment. 
• Strong experience running a service or support function with clear accountability for quality, responsiveness, service design, and stakeholder experience. 
• Strong understanding of multi-tier service delivery models, including Tier 0 / self-service, Tier 1 support, and specialist / Tier 2 case management. 
• Meaningful exposure to employee relations or complex people issue resolution, with sound judgment on sensitive matters and a strong appreciation for governance, risk, and consistency. 
• Strong skills in service design, operating model improvement, process improvement, and cross-functional workflow design. 
• Experience with HR technology platforms and service tools such as HRIS, case management systems, knowledge bases, and digital support tools. 
• Demonstrated ability to use data and analytics to monitor performance, identify themes and root causes, and drive prioritization and decision-making. 
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to build trust and influence across leaders, specialist teams, and cross-functional partners. 
• Strong people leadership capability, including coaching leaders and managers, building team capability, and creating a high-performance, service-oriented culture. 
• Comfort operating in a global, evolving, and ambiguous environment, with a strong bias for execution, improvement, and scale. 

 It’s great if you also have 

• Experience in a global or regional HR shared services / People services environment. 
• Experience leading both broad employee support teams and specialist employee relations or case management teams. 
• Experience in knowledge management, service content strategy, and self-service adoption. 
• Hands-on exposure to conversational AI, chatbots, virtual assistants, or workflow automation in HR or customer support environments. 
• Experience improving employee experience through service redesign, process simplification, or digital product thinking. 
• Experience in a high-growth tech, internet, or digital business. 
• Familiarity with global organizations operating across multiple countries, cultures, and regulatory environments. 

 Why this role matters 

This role is a unique opportunity to shape how Agoda employees and managers experience People support at scale. From everyday HR queries to more complex and sensitive employee matters, the teams in this scope play an important role in making sure our people feel supported, informed, and able to navigate key moments in their Agoda journey with confidence. 

As Associate Director, Head of People Services & Help Desk, you will help build a more connected, scalable, and future-ready support model, improving service quality, strengthening self-service, and ensuring complex cases are handled with care and consistency. Your work will directly influence employee experience, manager effectiveness, and how the People function continues to evolve as Agoda grows globally. 

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