Senior Workforce Strategy & Planning Manager

We are supporting a leading commercial business based in Muscat in their search for a Senior Workforce Strategy & Planning Manager to join their People Strategy function. This is a full-time leadership role requiring a strong strategic mindset and cross-functional planning experience across workforce design, rewards architecture, and talent development frameworks.

The successful candidate will be responsible for aligning workforce strategies with long-term business goals, ensuring robust planning and future-ready talent pipelines. The role involves high-level collaboration with senior leadership and cross-departmental teams to build data-driven, agile people strategies in a fast-evolving corporate environment. This is an on-site opportunity, located at the company's headquarters in Muscat.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the development and implementation of long-term strategic workforce plans, ensuring alignment with the business's future goals and operational model.
• Translate corporate vision into actionable talent and organisational planning strategies, supporting areas such as succession planning, workforce transformation, and reward structuring.
• Analyse internal workforce trends and external labour market dynamics to forecast future capability and capacity needs.
• Partner with external institutions and advisory firms to stay ahead of industry trends and integrate best practices into workforce strategy initiatives.
• Act as a key advocate for people strategy across the organisation, securing buy-in from executive stakeholders through effective influence and strategic storytelling.
• Assess potential risks related to workforce capability, demographic shifts, and regulatory factors, and proactively recommend mitigation and contingency plans.
• Establish and monitor KPIs related to workforce and talent management, tracking performance and driving continuous improvement initiatives.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organisational Development, or a related field; advanced qualifications are a plus.
• Minimum 8 years of experience in HR, workforce strategy, or organisation development, including at least 3 years in a leadership capacity.
• Demonstrated ability to build strategic frameworks and operationalise workforce and talent strategies in large, matrixed organisations.
• Proven experience in leading strategic people initiatives, workforce modeling, and change management programs.
• Strong analytical, interpersonal, and leadership skills; comfortable engaging at C-suite level.
• Technical proficiency in areas such as manpower planning, organisational design, and total reward strategy is highly advantageous.