Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

Act as ‘Strategic Business Partner’ and ‘Coach’ to Japan corporate functions in all people relevant management, ensuring the best HR strategies and value-adding service are provided to attract, develop, motivate and retain the talents in the market.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Partner with functional leaders as a trusted consultant to shape organizational strategy, focusing on headcount planning, optimal team structures, and fostering a high-performance culture.
• Translate business priorities into a comprehensive People Strategy and actionable initiatives, ensuring its effective implementation in Japan alongside global HR programs.
• Maintain a high level of communication and partnership with the Senior Leadership Team and contribute to key organizational and people decisions. 
• Drive complex organizational design, change and transformation programs, redesigning structures around strategic objectives.
• Leverage HR data and analytics (dashboards, trends) to provide deep insights, monitor organizational health, and inform critical business decisions on structure and talent.
• Lead end-to-end performance and talent management processes, building a robust talent pipeline and succession plan for all critical positions.
• Drive the annual compensation review and promotion cycles, providing expert guidance on reward strategies to ensure market competitiveness and support retention goals.
• Support the implementation of Personnel & Management Development tools and concepts.
• Proactively manage Employee Relations and champion Engagement through targeted programs (onboarding, townhalls, listening sessions) to enhance the overall employee experience.
• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing HRBP team for Corporate, building strategic partnering capabilities and ensuring the delivery of exceptional HR support.

Key Relationships:

• Leadership Team & Employees of the support organization
• Japan HR Leadership Team
• HR Talent and Talent Acquisition
• HR Rewards
• HR Service
• Finance
• Legal Counsel and Attorneys
• Local Authorities
• Workplaces, Corporate Communications, Employee Groups, etc.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• HR Capabilities: Individual and collective labor law. HR Subject Matter Expert, use of HR metrics, change delivery support, organizational design, maintains external perspective, anticipating people trends, employee relations. Basic knowledge around workforce planning and organizational design
• Business Capabilities: Digital Landscape, customer focus, understanding HR strategy, understanding business, its value chain and key processes.
• Consulting Capabilities: Brokering solutions to meet business needs, ability to sell HR solutions to the business, trusted advisor, small group facilitation, coaching skills, project input and delivery.
• A collaborative team player with proven experience in building and leading high-performing teams.
• Customer-oriented, approachable and strong interpersonal skills, basic coaching skills.
• Excellent organization and problem-solving skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, presentation and facilitation skills.
• Be open to new approaches and supports change actively.
• Ability to adapt to fast pace and agile working environment.

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, preferably with a major in Human Resource Management or related field
• At least 15 years HR management with preferably commercial business support experience
• Good understanding of Retail/ consumer goods industry and market landscape
• Fluent in English and Japanese (written and spoken)