People Experience Partner - Cluster Lead (India)
Takeda · Bengaluru
Job Description
About the role
The People Experience Partner - Cluster Lead leads a co-located team of People Experience Partners within a Global Capability Centre, delivering people partnership across an assigned geographical cluster. The role is accountable for how support is allocated, delivered and experienced by leaders across the countries, business units and functions in scope.
This is a working leadership role. Alongside leading the team, you remain hands-on in the most complex, sensitive and high-impact people matters in the cluster, acting as the escalation and decision point for People Experience Partners and as the named account contact for the HR Business Leaders your cluster serves.
You also hold a specialised regional practice area — for example leave management, employee relations, compensation and benefits, or organisation design and talent — acting as the region’s deep expert, setting standards, building capability and resolving matters that need specialist judgement. The role sits above the People Experience Partner in seniority and reports to the Regional HR Lead.
How you will contribute
Leading the cluster team
- Lead, coach and develop a co-located team of People Experience Partners, setting priorities, balancing workload and supporting capability and career development.
- Assign People Experience Partners to business units and functions within the cluster, ensuring clear coverage and resilience as demand, people and business priorities shift.
- Act as the escalation and decision point for complex, high-impact or sensitive people matters raised by the team, providing timely guidance and resolution.
· Build a strong team culture at the Global Capability Centre site, fostering learning, inclusion, peer coaching and continuous improvement across the cluster.
Delivering HR partnering work
· Carry a personal portfolio of HR partnering work, taking the most complex and senior-facing people matters in the cluster — restructurings and reductions in force, sensitive employee relations cases, senior leader coaching and significant change activity.
- Coach and advise leaders across core people priorities — employee relations, performance, talent, succession, rewards, mobility, talent acquisition, change and organisation design — applying sound judgement and escalating where legal or Centre of Excellence and Innovation input is required.
- Model the expected standard of partnering and raise the quality of advice given to leaders across the cluster.
Regional practice area specialisation
- Hold a named regional practice area — such as leave management, employee relations, compensation and benefits, or organisation design, learning and talent management — acting as the subject matter expert the region consults.
· Resolve the cases in that practice area that need genuine specialist judgement, wherever in the region they arise, working with the relevant Centre of Excellence and Innovation on policy interpretation, precedent and risk.
- Set and maintain the regional standard in your practice area through current playbooks, decision criteria, templates and guidance.
- Build capability in that practice area across People Experience Partners and People Solutions Advisors (PSA) through coaching, case review and training, so that routine matters are handled at the right tier and only true exceptions reach you.
Stakeholder and account management
- Act as the account manager and point of contact for the HR Business Leaders your cluster serves, keeping ownership clear and the number of contacts to a minimum.
· Own escalations from HR Business Leaders relating to your cluster, resolving them or routing them to the right accountable party with clear ownership and timelines.
- Partner with HR Business Leaders, People Solutions Advisors and Centres of Excellence and Innovation to adapt programmes, policies and tools to country and client-group needs.
· Represent the cluster to the Regional HR Lead and senior stakeholders, giving transparent reporting on service performance, risks and resourcing.
Service quality, standards and compliance
- Ensure clean handoffs and clear escalation paths between Direct Access, People Solutions Advisors, People Experience Partners and specialist teams, so that cases sit at the right tier and are not passed unnecessarily.
· Monitor key performance indicators and service levels across the cluster, performing quality checks, analysing trends and implementing corrective action to maintain high standards.
· Drive standardisation of people processes and tools across the cluster, and enable people leaders to own routine people processes with timely support from HR.
· Ensure adherence to data privacy, employment and labour law and internal policy across the countries in your cluster, supporting audits and risk mitigation.
Data, AI and digital enablement
· Embed the use of people data, workforce analytics and AI-enabled tools in how the cluster works, using insight to identify trends, inform decisions and automate repeatable work.
- Drive adoption of digital HR platforms and self-service, so that People Experience Partner time is focused on higher-value and more complex people matters.
· Identify and deliver opportunities for automation, standardisation and process improvement in the cluster and in your practice area, sharing what works with the other clusters in the region.
Skills and qualifications
- Eight or more years of progressive Human Resources experience, including strong HR partnering experience in regional or global contexts.
· Deep expertise in at least one HR practice area — leave management, employee relations, compensation and benefits, or organisation design, learning and talent management — sufficient to act as the reference point for a region.
· Experience leading, coaching and developing others, whether as a people manager or as a team or workstream lead, with the ability to set priorities and enable on-the-job development.
· Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Organisational Psychology or a related field; a master's degree or professional HR certification is preferred.
· Proven experience in complex global matrix organisations, aligning priorities across regions, functions and geographies, and operating within a clustered, shared-service or tiered HR model.
· Knowledge of employment law and regulatory requirements across multiple countries, with the judgement to manage complex matters and the discipline to escalate appropriately.
- Credibility to influence and coach senior leaders and HR Business Leaders, with strong stakeholder management, facilitation and conflict management skills.
· Practical experience using people analytics, data visualisation, HR information systems and AI-enabled tools to inform decisions and improve service, with a track record of driving adoption.
· Change management experience delivering process and operating model change, with clear written and verbal communication, comfort with ambiguity, and willingness to travel regionally as required.