Michael De Graaf in

Michael De Graaf

Enthusiast · DISC type i
Global TA Lead for Workday's Customer Experience Organisation and APAC Region Lead at Workday
📍 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Michael de Graaf is a global talent executive with over 15 years of experience leading recruitment and workforce strategy for high-growth tech companies like Workday and Salesforce. He specializes in building scalable hiring engines for engineering, AI, and SaaS teams, aligning talent systems with business outcomes across the APAC region and globally.

He scaled Workday’s Asia Pacific workforce from 300 to 2, 500 employees, establishing four new global delivery hubs in the process.

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Experience
15 Years
Current Role
Global TA Lead for Workday's Customer Experience Organisation and APAC Region Lead
Job Level
Mid-senior
Location
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Personality Overview

How Michael shows up

Story Driven
Non-Confrontational
Optimistic

Unlike D or C types, they are convinced more by stories and testimonials. They are more about building relationships than just cutting deals. They agree with others often, so exercise caution when relying on their word.

Priorities

Topics Michael cares about

AI in Talent Acquisition
He is a speaker on using AI to evolve talent acquisition from a transactional function to a strategic business partner, as seen in his recent conference sessions.
Skills-Based Hiring
He designed and implemented global skills-based hiring frameworks at Workday, shifting the focus from credentials to capabilities.
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Career

Work history

4-2025
Global TA Lead for Workday's Customer Experience Organisation and APAC Region Lead
Workday
11-2021 - 5-2025
Senior Director and Head of Talent Acquisition - Asia Pacific, Japan and India
Workday
1-2020 - 10-2021
Director, APJ Talent Acquisition Leader
Workday
1-2019 - 1-2020
Director, APAC Head of Recruitment
Salesforce
7-2018 - 1-2019
Director, APAC Head of Sales Recruitment
Salesforce
In the press

Media appearances

Workday Podcast: The Tech Talent War and the Secret Weapon. Featured in Workday Blog
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Education
1998 - 1999
AdvDip
Southern Cross University
Social presence
in
Behavioral profile

DISC profile (public)

i

Influence (I)

Influence (I) reflects the degree to which a person prefers to work by influencing or persuading others. Those scoring high tend to be people oriented, motivated by social recognition and building relationships.

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