Vice President, Colleague & Labor Relations APAC

You Lead the Way. We’ve Got Your Back.

With the right backing, people and businesses have the power to progress in incredible ways. When you join Team Amex, you become part of a global and diverse community of colleagues with an unwavering commitment to back our customers, communities and each other. Here, you’ll learn and grow as we help you create a career journey that’s unique and meaningful to you with benefits, programs, and flexibility that support you personally and professionally.

At American Express, you’ll be recognized for your contributions, leadership, and impact—every colleague has the opportunity to share in the company’s success. Together, we’ll win as a team, striving to uphold our company values and powerful backing promise to provide the world’s best customer experience every day. And we’ll do it with the utmost integrity, and in an environment where everyone is seen, heard and feels like they belong.

Join Team Amex and let's lead the way together.

As part of the Colleague Experience Group (CEG), Colleague & Labor Relations (CLR) focuses on providing exceptional advice and support to colleagues and people leaders to resolve workplace issues, develop and interpret policies, and advise on the management of employee conduct, performance and capability. Our mission is to facilitate the best possible colleague experience, support the business to do what is right and deliver the highest quality employment relations solutions.

 Based in the Philippines, a strategic market for American Express, this role forms a critical part of the APAC Colleague and Labor Relations Team and provides a fantastic opportunity to build your HR career in one of the top Companies in the world, whilst giving you an opportunity to broaden your knowledge, expertise and specialist employment law understanding in a highly varied, dynamic and collaborative environment. 

Reporting to the VP Global Colleague and Labour Relations (CLR), this role will be responsible for defining and executing the Colleague and Labour Relations Strategy across APAC (12 markets), aligned with business needs and regulatory requirements.

The APAC Colleague and Labour Relations (CLR) VP will lead a team of dedicated CLR Managers and Specialists who provide global and market-specific employment and labor relation solutions and support to leaders and CEG colleagues in the markets, to drive a fair and consistent colleague experience, support the business and minimize brand exposure.

This role is a hybrid role with three days a week in the office.

Responsibilities:

• Proactively developing and delivering comprehensive and effective CLR strategies and solutions within APAC


• Leading a team of CLR Managers and Specialists, responsible for investigating, managing and resolving workplace complaints and grievances, people treatment, and other colleague-affecting issues 


• Personally manage and/or provide support for high profile or very sensitive cases


• Support business transformation, reengineering and build productive relationship with social partners as appropriate


• Embed risk culture within the team and uplift risk practices


• Partner with the centralized Strategy, Enablement & Risk (SER) team within CLR, to drive global and regional strategic initiatives


• Lead with insights and identify opportunities to elevate the function, as well as drive efficiencies, streamline processes and evolve the CLR servicing on the ground


• Serve as a trusted advisor to the business and CEG partners with a focus on leading with empathy, supporting the business, and mitigating risk


• Provide strategic CLR advice and support to the local CLR resources


• Lead, coach and develop the CLR resources from a functional perspective


• Create an inclusive regional CLR Team, ensuring collaboration, best practice sharing and enhancing technical developments across all markets

This role may be subject to additional background verification checks.

 Qualifications

• Understanding of employment laws and regulations across key APAC markets


• Proven experience navigating complex regional ER cases, regional business transformation and relationship with social partners


• Proven people leadership experience, including large teams, and skip level leadership, with demonstrated cultural competence and proven change leadership


• Experience operating effectively within a large, global, matrixed organization


• Exceptional collaboration skills with demonstrated success building cross-functional partnerships and influencing senior stakeholders


• Strong track record of communicating complex employee relations matters clearly to diverse audiences across organizational levels


• Demonstrated expertise in risk management specifically within a global banking environment


• Proven ability to seamlessly transition between strategic planning and hands-on execution across multiple priorities


• Proven ability to identify and implement proactive employee relations interventions driven by data analytics and external market insights


• Experience developing preventative ER strategies that mitigate risks while supporting business objectives – move that so both together


• Excellent conflict resolution and workplace investigation skills with focus on risk mitigation

We back our colleagues and their loved ones with benefits and programs that support their holistic well-being. That means we prioritize their physical, financial, and mental health through each stage of life. Benefits include:

• Competitive base salaries 


• Bonus incentives 


• Support for financial-well-being and retirement 


• Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life insurance, and disability benefits (depending on location) 


• Flexible working model with hybrid, onsite or virtual arrangements depending on role and business need 


• Generous paid parental leave policies (depending on your location) 


• Free access to global on-site wellness centers staffed with nurses and doctors (depending on location) 


• Free and confidential counseling support through our Healthy Minds program 


• Career development and training opportunities

Offer of employment with American Express is conditioned upon the successful completion of a background verification check, subject to applicable laws and regulations.