Regional Head of People & Culture, Svitzer Americas                    

In Svitzer we believe that “When we are passionate about our people, our people will be passionate about our customers”. Svitzer is a true people company. Leading sustainable marine solutions requires not only the best equipment but an environment where people can truly thrive with passion for our customers, innovating together.

The core of our business is towage, which means we help our customers manoeuvre their larger ships safely and timely in and out of ports. We operate globally in 35+ countries, across 110 ports. Most of our business is to support container vessels, cargo ships, cruise ships and navy vessels but we also attend to emergencies like vessels being adrift or offshore fires. And we have started exploring new digital and green products and partnerships in an exciting journey, leading the way for towage to generate a cleaner, greener future for our industry.

In Svitzer Americas we operate throughout 12 different countries, ranging from Argentina in the far South towards Canada as the most Northern country in our region. Our Regional Headquarter is located in Panama City. We believe in a truly diverse workforce and the many different nationalities and backgrounds of our highly engaged colleagues throughout Americas is a testament to that.

About the position

We are looking for a Head of People & Culture for our Svitzer Americas region.

As Regional Head of People & Culture, you will be leading a team of dedicated professionals whose task is to deliver an outstanding People Experience to all in Svitzer Americas. You and your team work in an integrated way with the rest of our business, our leaders and our employees, sea and shore and are key in ensuring that we bring to life the golden link of Thriving People – Thriving Customers which is at the center of our new strategy.

Your role is to:

• Be an active part of the Regional Leadership Team in Americas leading the region to performance and growth together with the Managing Director and the rest of the Regional Leadership Team. 

• Set the right People & Culture agenda and lead the execution of this in the region – in line with our global strategy.

• Be a strategic Business Partner and trusted advisor to the Managing Director of Svitzer Americas and the rest of the Regional Leadership Team on anything that impacts our people and our teams.

• Lead a strong and unified People & Culture team for the region ensuring we deliver our people priorities across all our countries/operations. Special focus in our region is on continuing to build a deeply customer centric culture that differentiates us in the market and on leadership development that enables engaged high performance, and the right growth of our people for growing our business.

• Play an active role in the Global People Leadership Team co-leading our global P&C agenda and contributing to us together building a strong P&C function with the right organizational set up, operating model, capabilities, talent, and priorities to enable us to serve the rest of our business globally.

You will be reporting to the Managing Director for Americas with a dotted line to the Global Chief People Officer and working out of our Regional HQ in Panama City. 

We look for a colleague who:

• Is a purposeful and high integrity People & Culture Leader

• Shares our passion for customers and for creating a deeply customer centric organisation

• Is a strong Business Partner to our Managing Director and the rest of the Regional Leadership Team and understands the balance of supporting and challenging leaders to grow

• Shows up with curiosity, care, a calm composure, and courageous authenticity

• Quickly builds up trust and strong partnerships, fosters collaboration across reporting lines and organisational boundaries  

• Probably has 10+ years’ experience as HR Business Partner and Head of HR in a regional or global setting, ideally in areas of transportation, maritime or logistics sectors and ideally at least with some years of experience already from the region

• Has at least some years of deeper functional expertise from working with Leadership Development and shaping Culture as these are key priorities in Americas

• Is fluent in English as well as Spanish and/or Portuguese

Building a Diverse Workplace

In Svitzer we value the diversity of our talent and will always strive to recruit the best person for the job – we value diversity in all its forms, including but not limited to gender, age, nationality, race, sexual orientation, disability, or religious beliefs. We are proud of our diversity and see it as a genuine source of strength for building high performing teams.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that members from some under-represented groups are less likely to apply for jobs if they don’t meet every single qualification. At Svitzer we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles, and we are excited about hearing from you!

Building a Diverse Workplace

In Svitzer we value the diversity of our talent and will always strive to recruit the best person for the job – we value diversity in all its forms, including but not limited to gender, age, nationality, race, sexual orientation, disability, or religious beliefs. We are proud of our diversity and see it as a genuine source of strength for building high performing teams.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that members from some under-represented groups are less likely to apply for jobs if they don’t meet every single qualification. At Svitzer we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles, and we are excited about hearing from you!

How to Apply

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