Jamie Bugden
Generative AI & Applied AI Practitioner | Productizing People Operations
Bangkok
Work Preference
Summary
Self-directed talent systems architect with 13 years of experience in recruiting and talent management. I have 3+ years of experience building new systems for companies in Asia, Europe, and the UK. These systems help businesses grow, not just the companies. I don't wait for permission to fix problems. When Monroe Consulting Group didn't have a contractor database and needed 50% more, I built the entire sourcing engine myself using LinkedIn Recruiter, Agentic-powered market intelligence, and community relationships that generated 500 qualified prospects each month. Here's what I've learned: hiring people isn't about filling jobs. It's about building systems that predict market trends before your competitors know they'll happen. I've managed fully remote talent operations from Bangkok for two years, covering APAC to European timezones without dropping a single stakeholder meeting. My systems have delivered quantifiable returns: $2.5M in revenue enablement, 800 hours annually reallocated from admin to strategic advisory work, and $100K in avoided external recruiting costs. The reality nobody talks about: most AI-powered talent tech is compliance theater. I've architected solutions that actually work under the 2025 EU AI Act's "high-risk" HR classification—not by avoiding AI, but by building human-in-the-loop governance that delivers 20% efficiency gains while maintaining full audit trails. I am a British citizen who lives in Bangkok. I help companies in various industries with AI strategy, skills, and talent management.
Overview
11
11
years of professional experience
2
2
Certifications
1
1
Language
1
1
year of post-secondary education
Work History
AI Consultant & People Operations Architect
KogNative Labs
04.2025 - Current
- The Problem I'm Solving: Most organizations treat AI in talent as either a magic solution or a regulatory nightmare. Both perspectives miss the point entirely.
- Talent Systems Architecture: Architected the Recruiter Enablement Operating System (RE-OS) specifically to address the "high-risk" classification of HR AI under the 2025 EU AI Act. The core insight: compliance-driven talent management isn't a liability—it's a strategic differentiator when you build the governance model correctly. I helped clients understand that being first-to-comply creates a competitive moat, not just regulatory cover.
- Skills & Capability Framework: Developed the MOLT methodology (Marketing, Operations, Learning Tools) after watching too many enterprises treat talent acquisition like a cost center instead of an intelligence operation. Here's the hard truth I discovered: you can't scale a talent strategy if your team thinks their job is posting requisitions. MOLT transforms TA into a capability center by aligning skills development, technology adoption, and measurable outcomes with organizational strategy—making talent professionals strategic advisors instead of order-takers.
- AI Fluency & Capability Building: Designed a workplace-agnostic AI competency framework (Levels 1-3: Literacy, Integration, Leadership) after realizing the skills gap between AI deployment and adoption capability was killing most implementations. The framework enables measurable evaluation of organizational AI readiness across non-technical functions—because deploying GPT-4 doesn't matter if your team uses it like a fancy search engine.
- Market Validation & Strategic Consulting: Validated a $4.0B Serviceable Available Market through synthesis of proxy data (RevOps enablement models) and bottom-up workforce analysis of 3.5M global talent professionals. Built a go-to-market strategy centered on "Decision Velocity" as the competitive differentiator—proving that holistic talent systems beat fragmented point solutions through ROI-driven business case development. The key insight: executives don't buy features; they buy speed-to-decision in talent markets that move faster than their hiring processes.
- Produce detailed and relevant reports for use in making business decisions.
- Gathered, documented, and modeled data to assess business trends.
- Reviewed internal systems and organized training plans to address areas in need of improvement.
- Conducted thorough reviews of operations to devise and deploy improvement strategies.
- Evaluated current processes to develop improvement plans.
- Evaluated diverse organizational systems to identify workflow, communication, and resource utilization issues.
- Restructured procedures through coordination with compliance director to create and execute projects.
Team Manager, Recruitment Operations – Staff Augmentation & Outsourcing
Monroe Consulting Group
04.2024 - 04.2025
- The Situation: Joined to manage contractor recruitment across APAC with literally zero database, zero network, and zero existing infrastructure. Most managers would have requested budget for external agencies. I built the entire system myself.
- Self-Directed Contractor Sourcing Architecture: Architected contractor recruitment workflows from scratch, establishing direct outreach systems that generated 500 qualified prospect contacts monthly through LinkedIn Recruiter, custom GPT-powered market research, and strategic community relationship building. The CRM infrastructure I built—a Google Sheets → Workday integration via Zapier—sounds simple until you realize it enabled 50% capacity increase in contractor requisitions with minimal management oversight. The lesson: elegant systems beat expensive software.
- Proactive Sourcing Systems & Community Outreach: Designed AI-powered candidate research workflows that reduced time-to-source by 20%, but the real breakthrough was shifting recruiters from reactive job-posting to proactive entrepreneurial talent identification across emerging APAC markets. Created content-driven outreach campaigns and event-based relationship-building strategies that built a sustainable talent pipeline without reliance on external agencies or paid advertising—because the best candidates aren't actively looking.
- Cross-Functional AI Governance: Established a governance model requiring human-in-the-loop (HITL) sign-off on all AI-generated candidate recommendations. The result: 20% efficiency gains while maintaining audit trails compliant with GDPR/PDPA. The contrarian insight I proved: AI adoption doesn't require sacrificing accountability or regulatory safety—it requires intentional design.
- Evaluated employee performance and coached and trained team members, increasing quality of work and employee motivation.
- Led employee relations through effective communication, coaching, training, and development.
Senior Technical Talent Manager
Iglu
02.2022 - 01.2024
- The Remote Work Reality: Managed distributed team operations from Bangkok across European and UK stakeholders with zero timezone barrier complaints. How
- I learned that "remote work" isn't about location—it's about systems design and communication discipline.
- Self-Initiated Talent Community Building: I created and launched automated systems that built proactive talent pipelines. We saved $100K in additional hiring costs by automating direct hiring and using relationships to attract candidates. The strategy: treat candidates like long-term relationships, not transactional requisition-fillers. This meant coffee chats with developers who wouldn't be ready to move for 6 months, attending meetups in markets I'd never hire from immediately, and building genuine relationships in entrepreneurial communities.
- AI ROI Quantification & Executive Reporting: Developed a three-stream value framework (Direct Efficiency, Capacity Monetization, Scaling Benefits) to translate AI automation into CFO-grade business cases. Enabled $100K cost avoidance and 800-hour annual reallocation by establishing repeatable methodology for AI project justification beyond vague "productivity" claims. The lesson I learned: executives don't care about AI features—they care about freed capacity that can be monetized or reallocated to higher-value work.
- Bullhorn-Based Pipeline Management & Data Infrastructure: Designed and built automated CRM workflows and automated dashboards tracking candidate funnel health, time-to-hire, and quality signals—reallocating 800 hours/year toward proactive candidate relationship building. Enabled leadership to make data-driven talent investment decisions through real-time pipeline visibility and forecasting accuracy. The insight: you can't manage what you don't measure, but most talent teams measure activity instead of outcomes.
- Compliance & Governance in Talent Tech: Created workflows that are easy to audit and follow GDPR and PDPA rules. This will help companies use AI responsibly in their workplaces. This became the blueprint for later work on EU AI Act compliance.
- Implemented candidate tracking systems that streamlined talent acquisition efforts and saved resources in the long run.
- Championed diversity and inclusion initiatives within the organization, resulting in a more inclusive and harmonious work environment that fosters collaboration and innovation.
Principal Consultant – FinTech & Payments
Eximius Group
06.2018 - 06.2021
- Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Sourcing & Founder Network Development: Created a direct source for the FinTech division by working with startup accelerators, community groups, and business centers in Europe. The strategy: talent doesn't live on job boards—it lives in communities. Created standardized hiring frameworks adopted by 15 hiring managers, enabling talent acquisition to scale alongside $2.5M in annual revenue growth through strategic talent planning and ecosystem relationship cultivation.
- Business-Aligned Talent Strategy: The contrarian approach: instead of treating hiring as reactive requisition-filling, I aligned talent capacity directly with sales growth projections. Enabled the division to scale hiring in lockstep with revenue generation—directly supporting $2.5M in annual revenue through structured talent planning and capability assessment that anticipated business needs rather than reacting to them.
- Stakeholder Consulting & Advisory: Achieved average personal billings of $300-350K per annum through consultative stakeholder partnership, client acquisition, and delivery excellence. The lesson: clients don't pay for recruiters—they pay for trusted advisors who understand their business better than most of their internal team.
- Built strong relationships with clients, fostering long-term partnerships and repeat business.
- Facilitated change management initiatives, helping organizations adapt smoothly to new systems and processes.
Recruitment Consultant → Senior Consultant → Principal Consultant (Cloud & DevOps)
Capita IT Resourcing
01.2016 - 06.2018
- Progressed from individual contributor to principal-level account leadership across Cloud & DevOps talent mandates in under three years. Managed key client relationships with consistent monthly billings of $25K-30K. This role built the foundational experience in stakeholder consulting, talent assessment frameworks, and delivery process design that informs every talent operations methodology I use today. The insight: technical recruiting is 20% technical knowledge and 80% business acumen.
IT Support & Infrastructure Recruitment Consultant
GCS Ltd
11.2014 - 12.2015
- Foundation-building phase: consulted on IT Support and Infrastructure talent acquisition across multiple client accounts, developing early experience in technical role assessment and candidate evaluation. Made every rookie mistake so I'd never repeat them.
Education
National Diploma - Music Technology & Sound Engineering
Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT)
United Kingdom 08.2007 - 06.2008
Skills
Analytical problem-solving
Accomplishments
As a systems architect in AI-driven talent and operations, I have a proven track record of making recruitment functions more effective and efficient. My strategic initiatives have consistently delivered quantifiable returns, including enabling $2.5M in new revenue growth for a FinTech division and driving a record-breaking ฿3.5 million placement fee. By pioneering AI-powered operational frameworks, I have engineered significant efficiency and capacity gains: achieving a 250% increase in contractor hiring capacity with minimal overhead, delivering $100K+ in external cost avoidance, and consistently reallocating over 800 hours annually of human capital from administrative busywork to strategic talent engagement. Furthermore, I have demonstrated a commitment to compliant innovation, architecting a Recruiter Enablement Operating System (RE-OS) and Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) governance that ensures compliance with frameworks like the EU AI Act and GDPR/PDPA, all while reducing time-to-source by 20% and boosting overall team efficiency by 25%.
Certification
n8n Automation Workflow (Level 1) | Issued 2025
Work Availability
monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Languages
English
Bilingual or Proficient (C2)
Timeline
AI Consultant & People Operations Architect
KogNative Labs
04.2025 - Current
Team Manager, Recruitment Operations – Staff Augmentation & Outsourcing
Monroe Consulting Group
04.2024 - 04.2025
Senior Technical Talent Manager
Iglu
02.2022 - 01.2024
Principal Consultant – FinTech & Payments
Eximius Group
06.2018 - 06.2021
Recruitment Consultant → Senior Consultant → Principal Consultant (Cloud & DevOps)
Capita IT Resourcing
01.2016 - 06.2018
IT Support & Infrastructure Recruitment Consultant
GCS Ltd
11.2014 - 12.2015
National Diploma - Music Technology & Sound Engineering
Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT)
08.2007 - 06.2008