Regional Senior HR Business Partner, Africa at Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation

Your Role

• The Regional Senior HR Business Partner (SHRBP) is a seasoned HR professional who functions as a trusted strategic advisor to business leaders, translating organizational priorities into impactful people strategies. 
• Operating across 5 Africa offices (Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa), the SHRBP plays a pivotal role balancing strategic counsel with operational excellence to deliver a world-class employee experience. 
• This role demands both the credibility to influence senior stakeholders and hands-on capability to drive outcomes across the full spectrum of HR practice. 
• The Regional, SHRBP mentors the Associate HRBP and works in close partnership with the Deputy Director, RHRBP (DD-RHRBP) and senior leadership to ensure that human capital strategies are not only aligned with business objectives but are actively accelerating them. 
• This position is based in Abuja, Nigeria and reports to the DD, Regional HR Business Partner, Africa based in Nairobi, Kenya.  

What You'll Do

Performance Management & Organizational Capability:

• Driving a high-performance culture is central to the SHRBP’s mandate. The SHRBP steers mid-year and annual performance review cycles with rigor and intentionality, ensuring that goal-setting, feedback, and evaluation processes are meaningful rather than merely procedural. 
• By designing and delivering performance management training, the SHRBP builds the organizational capability to hold honest, growth-oriented conversations that elevate both individual and team performance.  

Talent Management, Mobility & Succession:

• The SHRBP plays an active support role in building and maintaining the Africa workforce or talent plan. 
• This encompasses oversight of the full spectrum of employee mobility — including interim assignments, internal transfers, and job rotations — which are approached not merely as administrative transactions but as deliberate talent development opportunities that build individual capability and organizational agility. 
• In close partnership with the DDHRBP, the SHRBP contributes to succession planning, helping to accelerate leadership readiness and mitigate the organizational risk of critical role vacancies. 

Supporting Transitions & Change Management:

• Serves as a trusted strategic advisor to senior leaders navigating organizational restructuring, workforce transitions, and large-scale change initiatives. 
• Partners with business leaders to assess org. Leads end-to-end reorg processes — including stakeholder alignment, impact analysis, role mapping, and communication planning — while ensuring consistency with enterprise guidelines and mitigating risk to employee experience. 
• Coaches leaders and managers through change, building their capability to lead their teams with clarity and confidence. Collaborates across HR functions (Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, DEI, HR Operations) to ensure integrated, equitable outcomes throughout transitions. 
• Serves as a key voice in identifying and escalating workforce risks, and partners with PHRBPs and HR leadership to drive continuous improvement in how the organization manages and learns from change. 

Regional HR Support: Employee Relations:

• As one of the people team members on the ground, the SHRBP provides responsive, empathetic, and solutions-focused support to employees and people managers. 
• This role goes far beyond reactive issue resolution — the SHRBP proactively builds relationships that allow HR to anticipate challenges, foster psychological safety, and create an environment where every individual feels heard and valued. Working with people managers, the SHRBP steers the employee relations agenda, navigating complex grievances, workplace conflicts, and sensitive matters with sound judgment, impartiality, and a deep commitment to fairness. 
• People team leadership engagement visits and sessions are also coordinated by the SHRBP to strengthen organizational connectivity and reinforce a culture of trust and open dialogue. 

Compensation, Rewards & Offer Management:

• The SHRBP ensures that every reward decision is grounded in the foundation’s total rewards philosophy. 
• This accountability extends to the end-to-end execution of salary adjustments, and promotion-related pay adjustments, as well as the facilitation of structured Annual Compensation Review calibration sessions. 
• The SHRBP ensures that compensation outcomes across the region reflect both the nuances of local markets and the integrity of the organization’s total rewards framework. 
• The SHRBP ensures that all associated compensation adjustments, including medical and pension amendments, are processed accurately and equitably. 

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion:

• The SHRBP is a committed and visible champion of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the region. 
• By actively representing HR in DEI working group forums and driving inclusive workplace initiatives, the SHRBP ensures that equity and belonging are embedded into every people process — from hiring and compensation to development and recognition. 
• This is not a peripheral responsibility, but a thread woven through every aspect of the SHRBP’s work, reflecting a genuine conviction that diverse, inclusive teams are the foundation of high-performing, resilient organizations. 

Employee Advocacy & Experience:

• Acts as a credible and trusted voice for employees, ensuring their perspectives, concerns, and experiences meaningfully inform leadership decisions and organizational direction.
• Proactively identifies patterns and themes across employee feedback, engagement data, and informal signals to surface systemic issues — not just individual cases — and bring them forward with candor and care. 

Vendor Management & HR Operations:

• The SHRBP manages strategic relationships with outsourced HR service providers, overseeing contract governance and holding vendors accountable to agreed service delivery standards.
• By cultivating strong, trust-based partnerships, the SHRBP ensures the continuity, quality, and value of outsourced services that are integral to the region’s HR operating model.  

Your Experience

• The ideal candidate holds a Bachelor’s Degree as a minimum, with a Master’s Degree in HR, Business, or a related field strongly preferred. 
• The role requires a minimum of 10 years of demonstrated HR experience, including 4 years of HR Business Partner responsibilities. 
• Candidate demonstrates strategic HR leadership and the ability to operate as a credible business partner at a senior level. 
• They possess advanced knowledge of talent management and succession planning, paired with strong expertise in compensation and benefits administration.  
• They bring excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, a deep understanding of employment law across multiple jurisdictions, and proven change management and organizational development capabilities.  
• Strong analytical thinking, coaching and mentoring skills, and the ability to communicate and collaborate effectively across diverse cultural contexts are essential to success in this role. 
• Strong working knowledge of HRIS systems — with Workday preferred — and prior experience in matrixed, global organizations will be a significant advantage.