Shah Salman

Providing strategic HR consultancy to organizations across the UAE, MENA, and international markets — specializing in HR
infrastructure setup, distributed workforce management, and international talent acquisition.
• Partner with leadership teams to design and implement complete HR operational frameworks — covering policy
development, employment contracts, compliance infrastructure, and people operations systems.
• Lead international recruitment mandates requiring specialized sourcing across multiple geographies, navigating
multi-jurisdiction employment expectations, compensation benchmarking, and cultural alignment requirements.
• Advise on workforce planning, HR risk mitigation, organizational structure, and regulatory compliance across UAE,
GCC, and multi-country operating environments.
• Develop audit-ready HR documentation ecosystems including SOPs, staff handbooks, role-specific contract
templates, and recruitment policies aligned to institutional mission and values.
Key Assignment: HR Specialist — Sahlah Academy Sdn Bhd | Mar 2026 - Jun 2026
Sahlah Academy is an online Islamic educational institution headquartered in Malaysia, operating with a fully distributed
international staff across the UAE, Egypt, KSA, Pakistan, Algeria, Tunisia, and Malaysia.
• Architected and delivered the complete HR documentation infrastructure from the ground up — including an allstaff HR Handbook, teaching and general staff employment contracts with role-specific addendums, revisedRecruitment Policy and HR Policy, and full Onboarding, Offboarding, and Recruitment SOPs — establishing the
institutional HR backbone for a rapidly growing remote-first organization.
• Successfully sourced and hired 16+ specialized roles across 7 countries within a constrained budget, demonstrating
advanced global talent acquisition capability — including English-language educators from the US market with
specific cultural and linguistic requirements, alongside hires from Egypt, Turkey, South Africa, Tunisia, and Jordan.
• Navigated complex multi-geography recruitment challenges including currency and compensation sensitivity, time
zone management, visa and work authorization considerations, and values-alignment screening for an Islamic
educational institution.
• Designed a full competency-based interview framework incorporating STAR-method scoring across Academic,
Marketing, Operations, and Community functions — ensuring consistent, evidence-based hiring decisions aligned to
organizational values.
• Built a Google Apps Script-powered CV automation pipeline to manage 200+ applications across 6+ concurrent open
roles, significantly reducing manual processing time and enabling real-time candidate pipeline visibility for senior
leadership.
• Produced detailed CEO-level candidate evaluation reports and developed 18 standardized academic and operational
job descriptions, raising the quality and professionalism of Sahlah's talent acquisition process

Built a complete HR department for a UAE manpower supply company supporting 1, 500+ employees across multiple
mega infrastructure projects — covering WPS payroll, visa management, accommodation logistics, and workforce
deployment frameworks.
Other Notable Assignments
• RCC Pakistan — Recruitment and HR operational framework for hydropower project staffing across international
and local hires.
• GRC UAE — Full HR department setup and workforce management for infrastructure project operations, including
policy development, staffing frameworks, and compliance alignment.
• Asia Power Pakistan — HR advisory and operational support for Pakistan-based energy sector projects covering
workforce planning and HR governance.

Designed and established full HR departments from the ground up across five countries: Saudi Arabia, Lebanon,
Egypt, Kuwait, and Pakistan — each with bespoke frameworks aligned to local labour laws and project
requirements.
• Developed comprehensive HR policies, SOPs, grading structures, and compliance frameworks for large-scale
infrastructure and hydropower environments, with reporting lines to Italy headquarters.
• Led mass international recruitment across white-collar professionals and blue-collar skilled labour sourced from
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and Egypt; managed full mobilization including visa processing,
accommodation, and onboarding for hundreds of employees simultaneously.
• Oversaw Pakistan hydropower operations — managing all HR processes for 200+ international staff and 300+ local
hires through to near-project completion in 2021.

Managed complete HR operations for 900+ staff across major RTA infrastructure projects in Dubai (AED 450M+ project value;
AED 3.5-4M monthly payroll). Reported directly to Branch Manager and CFO.
• Led strategic crisis workforce ramp-down during the UAE financial crisis — executed a phased redundancy and
repatriation programme covering 80%+ of the workforce with full Labour Law compliance and zero regulatory
penalties.
• Led full mass remobilization on project restart — rebuilt workforce to 900+ employees through multi-country
recruitment drives from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other markets.• Implemented job grading, salary benchmarking, performance management, and onboarding systems; maintained
continuous government liaison with MOHRE, Ministry of Economy, and Ministry of Interior throughout all project
phases