We are looking for a People & Business Projects Partner for a Global Digital Reality Solutions Company based in KSA.
Location – Tokyo, Japan
Salary – 12,000,000 – 15,000,000 Yen/annum + Incentives + Benefits
Key Responsibilities:
People & Culture Business Partnering
- Act as a trusted advisor to the Country Manager and local leadership team on people-related priorities, organizational effectiveness, leadership capability and employee engagement.
- Build strong relationships with managers and employees across the Japan business, maintaining a visible and credible presence in the organization.
- Support leaders in translating business priorities into practical people plans, with a focus on capability, succession, talent development and organizational readiness.
- Provide coaching and guidance to managers on leadership effectiveness, team dynamics, performance conversations and employee engagement.
- Work closely with regional or global People & Culture teams to ensure alignment with broader company frameworks, processes and standards.
- Provide feedback and insight from the Japan organization to help shape regional people initiatives, ensuring local business needs are understood and reflected.
- Increasing workforce capability, providing change leadership, talent management / succession planning, retention activities, and supporting day-to-day operations as well as on-going process improvement.
Talent Management & Succession Planning
- Support the development and execution of a structured talent management approach for Japan, aligned with regional and global expectations.
- Partner with the Country Manager and leadership team to identify critical roles, key talent, succession risks and capability gaps.
- Coordinate and facilitate talent reviews, succession planning discussions and leadership calibration sessions.
- Maintain clear, practical talent documentation, including succession maps, development actions, readiness assessments and risk areas.
- Support the creation and tracking of individual development plans for high-potential employees, successors and critical role holders.
- Help managers differentiate between performance, potential and readiness, ensuring talent discussions are objective, evidence-based and commercially grounded.
- Drive follow-through on talent actions so succession planning becomes an active management discipline rather than a static annual process.
Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning
- Partner with the Country Manager, hiring managers and regional talent acquisition teams to understand current and future hiring needs.
- Support workforce planning by identifying capability gaps, upcoming vacancies, succession risks and strategic hiring requirements.
- Contribute to role scoping, profile definition and candidate evaluation, ensuring hiring decisions are aligned with business needs and future capability requirements.
- Support hiring managers in preparing for interviews, assessing candidates effectively and ensuring a strong candidate experience.
- Help strengthen the Japan talent pipeline through market insight, proactive talent mapping and closer alignment between recruitment, succession and development planning.
- Monitor recruitment progress, highlight risks and support timely decision-making to improve quality of hire and time to fill.
Performance, Development & Engagement
- Support managers in driving an effective performance culture through clear goal setting, regular feedback, performance reviews and development conversations.
- Partner with leaders to identify performance gaps and support appropriate interventions, including coaching, development actions or formal performance improvement plans where needed.
- Support learning and development initiatives that strengthen leadership capability, technical capability and business-critical skills.
- Identify engagement themes and employee concerns through regular interaction with employees and managers.
- Work with leadership to define practical actions that improve engagement, retention and organizational effectiveness.
- Help build a culture of accountability, continuous improvement and open communication across the Japan organization.
Business Project Management
- Support the Country Manager in managing and driving key business projects across the Japan organization.
- Translate business priorities into structured project plans with clear objectives, milestones, owners, timelines and deliverables.
- Coordinate cross-functional stakeholders to ensure actions are progressed, risks are identified and decisions are made in a timely manner.
- Prepare project updates, leadership briefings, action trackers, meeting materials and follow-up documentation.
- Support projects related to business transformation, organizational change, operational improvement, sales effectiveness, process optimization or other country-level priorities.
- Ensure business projects are managed with discipline, transparency and strong stakeholder engagement.
- Act as a connector between the Country Manager, local teams and regional/global stakeholders to ensure alignment and execution.
Change Management & Organizational Effectiveness
- Support local implementation of organizational changes, business initiatives and people-related transformation activities.
- Help leaders communicate change clearly and effectively to employees.
- Identify people impacts, stakeholder risks and adoption challenges linked to business projects or organizational changes.
- Support the creation of practical change plans, communication materials and engagement actions.
- Encourage a continuous improvement mindset by identifying process gaps, inefficiencies and opportunities to improve ways of working.
Governance, Data & Reporting
- Maintain accurate tracking of talent actions, succession plans, recruitment progress, development plans and business project milestones.
- Use data and insight to identify trends, risks and opportunities across the Japan organization.
- Prepare concise reports, dashboards and presentations for the Country Manager and relevant regional stakeholders.
- Ensure appropriate documentation and follow-up for key people and business project decisions.
- Work with relevant People & Culture, Finance and business stakeholders to ensure headcount, organizational and project-related information is accurate and up to date.
Qualifications & Experience:
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Psychology, Organizational Development, Management or a related discipline.
- Additional qualification in HR, talent management, organizational development, project management or business consulting would be advantageous.
Experience
- 6–8 years of relevant professional experience in People & Culture, HR business partnering, talent management, organizational development, business consulting, project management or a related field.
- Experience partnering directly with business leaders and management teams.
- Experience supporting talent reviews, succession planning, leadership development, recruitment or workforce planning.
- Experience working in an international, matrixed or multinational organization would be highly preferred.
- Experience in Japan or working closely with Japanese business stakeholders is essential.
- Exposure to business transformation, operational improvement or cross-functional project management would be a strong advantage.
Technical & Commercial Skills:
- Strong understanding of talent management, succession planning, performance management and leadership development practices.
- Ability to understand business priorities and translate them into practical people and project actions.
- Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills.
- Good project management capability, including planning, coordination, tracking, reporting and follow-up.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret information, identify trends and present clear recommendations.
- Strong communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage senior leaders, managers and employees.
- Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office, especially PowerPoint and Excel.
- Familiarity with HR systems, employee data, SAP or other ERP/HRIS platforms would be advantageous.
- Ability to operate effectively in a hands-on environment with limited infrastructure, where practical execution and follow-through are essential.
About the Role
This role sits at the intersection of People & Culture and Business Operations. It is designed to strengthen the Japan organization by ensuring that the right talent, leadership capability, succession plans and business projects are actively managed and delivered.
The role will be expected to work closely with the Country Manager while maintaining strong alignment with regional and global People & Culture teams. It will play a key part in building organizational capability, improving management discipline and supporting the successful execution of Japan’s business priorities.