People Business Partner & Operations Lead

About the Role:

The People Business Partner & People Operations Lead, Australia serves as the primary People advisor to senior leaders across Dragos's Australia and APAC business, while also owning the operational work that keeps the region running: onboarding, compliance, HRIS data integrity, and local employment practices. You will operate with significant autonomy, advising multiple senior stakeholders on talent strategy while ensuring local execution never lags behind that strategy. This role exists because our APAC footprint has outgrown a model where business partnership and operations sit with different people; one person with full context on both sides serves the region better.

Responsibilities: 

• Serve as a strategic People advisor to senior leaders across Dragos's Australia and APAC business, with influence that extends beyond a single team or function. 
• Anticipate people needs based on regional business direction and proactively shape talent strategy for the region. 
• Own the full employee lifecycle for Australia: onboarding, HRIS data integrity, documentation, compliance, and offboarding, delivering a high-touch experience for every employee. 
• Ensure employment agreements, benefits programs, and people practices comply with Australian employment law, and extend that expertise to other APAC markets as needed. 
• Lead employee relations matters for the region, exercising sound judgment on complex and sensitive cases and escalating only where appropriate. 
• Partner with Legal, Finance, and global People Operations on entity setup, local policy design, and compliance audits specific to the region. 
• Coach senior leaders on team effectiveness, succession planning, and leadership development. 
• Interpret people data and local market trends to advise leadership on workforce health, risk, and opportunity across the region. 
• Translate company-wide People programs (performance, compensation, engagement) into locally relevant approaches, keeping them consistent with global standards while respecting APAC-specific needs. 
• Architect and lead at least one major regional or company-wide talent initiative end-to-end, in partnership with the broader People team. 
• Manage relationships with regional vendors, including payroll, benefits, and immigration providers, to ensure effective service delivery. 
• Act as the regional liaison and primary point of contact for recruiting agencies across Australia and APAC, managing vendor relationships while engaging directly with candidates as needed to assess quality, ensure alignment with hiring expectations, and support the selection and offer process, including interview scheduling and extending offers when appropriate. 
• Travel periodically within the region to support leaders, employees, and vendor relationships in person. 

Qualifications: 

• 10+ years of progressive HR experience, with a blend of generalist or business partnership work and operational or people operations experience. 
• Deep knowledge of Australian employment law and practices; working knowledge of other APAC markets (such as Singapore or New Zealand) is a strong plus. 
• Experience operating in a lean or matrixed people function, comfortable moving between strategic advisory work and hands-on execution in the same week. 
• Track record advising senior leaders on org design, workforce planning, and change management. 
• Proficiency with HRIS platforms (UKG/UltiPro experience preferred) and comfort owning data integrity and compliance documentation directly. 
• Strong judgment handling confidential and sensitive employee matters. 
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to flex between executive-level strategic conversations and detailed operational execution. 
• Experience supporting a global, distributed, or remote-first company strongly preferred. 

Compensation: 

• Salary: A$ 200,000

• Competitive Equity Package  

• Comprehensive Benefits Plan 

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