Director Basic Solution (R&D Site Head)

Location: Singapore

The Role

This Director Basic Solution will act as Site Leader for the Singapore R&D center, being accountable for the strategic, operational, and people leadership of a regional R&D organization focused on basic hearing devices and value engineering for the Asia Pacific market. 

This role ensures delivery of cost-effective, high-quality, and market-relevant hearing solutions, while acting as a key interface between global R&D, regional business units, operations, and external partners across Asia-Pacific. In addition, the role is responsible for building and developing a high-performing team, bringing together diverse capabilities to drive successful collaboration and winning in the Asia-Pacific market. The position will manage a team of 10-12 direct reports (20-40 indirect reports).

Key responsibilities

The individual in this role will be responsible for driving the overall performance and strategic direction of the Singapore R&D site, ensuring alignment with global priorities and regional business needs, in details:

• Lead the Singapore R&D site, fostering an inclusive, high-performance culture and strong talent development, while representing the site in global forums.


• Align regional plans with the global R&D strategy for Asia-Pacific and manage the R&D portfolio for basic hearing devices and value platforms, ensuring market fit, cost efficiency, and scalability.


• Drive value engineering initiatives and lifecycle cost reduction, working closely with Operations and cross-functional teams to ensure manufacturability and competitiveness.


• Define and monitor key performance metrics related to cost, complexity, speed, and quality.


• Partner with marketing and regional teams to understand customer, regulatory, and competitive needs in APAC, and adapt global platforms to local market requirements.


• Collaborate with global R&D centers to ensure alignment on architectures, platforms, and technology roadmaps, while supporting cross-site projects and compliance with global standards.


• Build and manage relationships with external partners, including universities, research institutes, suppliers, and technology partners, to drive innovation, capability development, and cost advantages.

What We Are Looking For

Education & Qualifications

• A solid technical educational background, with a degree in science or engineering or an equivalent technical qualification.


• Additional knowledge of the hearing industry and/or formal leadership training would be considered an advantage.

Professional Experience

• Proven leadership experience in an R&D environment, ideally within international and multi-site organizations.


• Strong experience in strategic planning aligned with business needs.


• Exposure to MedTech R&D or related technical domains is highly desirable.

Leadership Competencies

• Ability to inspire a shared vision and lead teams towards common goals.


• Drives improvement and efficiency through initiatives and structured approaches.


• Engages and influences stakeholders effectively.


• Demonstrates decisiveness and transparency in leadership.


• Fosters team ownership and promotes a collaborative leadership style.


• Acts as a role model and champions company culture.

Personal & Social Competencies

• Resilient and able to perform effectively under pressure and uncertainty.


• Proactive problem solver with a strong sense of ownership and accountability.


• Analytical and strategic mindset with a pragmatic, impact-oriented approach.


• Continuous learner with high self-awareness and ethical standards.


• Strong collaboration and networking skills.


• Clear communicator and empathetic listener, able to work across diverse teams and cultures.

Professional Competencies

• Strong capabilities in strategic planning and process improvement.


• Solid risk management skills and ability to navigate change effectively.


• Good understanding of relevant technical domains and medical device regulations.

Languages & IT Skills

• Proficiency in English.


• Additional languages such as Mandarin, Tamil, or German are considered a plus.


• Familiarity with standard IT and project management tools, such as MS Office, Jira, Confluence, and planning tools.