Title
Senior HR Business Partner / Head of HR, Manufacturing Business Unit
Salary
Up to approximately JPY 30 million.
Location
Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan
Reports To
President, Manufacturing Business Unit
About the Company
Our client is a global manufacturing business operating in a highly regulated engineering environment. The organization is undergoing a significant phase of growth, transformation, and international workforce expansion, with operations across Japan and overseas manufacturing locations.
The business is investing in its people, organizational capabilities, and leadership infrastructure to support future growth and long-term strategic objectives.
About the Role
This is a high-impact HR leadership opportunity for an experienced HR professional to build and lead the dedicated HR function for a growing manufacturing business unit.
Working as a strategic partner to the President and senior leadership team, the successful candidate will shape and execute people strategies across organizational development, labor relations, talent acquisition, workforce planning, and employee engagement. The role offers significant visibility and influence within a business experiencing rapid growth and transformation.
Key Responsibilities
- Develop and execute HR strategies aligned with business objectives and growth plans.
- Build and strengthen the HR function to support organizational expansion and operational excellence.
- Partner closely with executive leadership to provide strategic HR guidance and workforce insights.
- Lead workforce planning and large-scale recruitment initiatives across manufacturing operations.
- Manage labor relations and employee relations matters, ensuring compliance and effective risk management.
- Drive organizational design, succession planning, leadership development, and talent management initiatives.
- Establish and enhance HR processes, policies, governance frameworks, and people practices.
- Support ongoing expansion of manufacturing operations in Japan and international locations.
- Collaborate with global stakeholders to align people strategies across regions and functions.
- Act as the primary HR advisor to senior business leaders on organizational and workforce matters.
Qualifications
Required
- Broad, hands-on HR leadership experience covering HR business partnering, labor relations, recruitment, and organizational development.
- Experience supporting manufacturing or industrial organizations.
- Strong labor and employee relations expertise.
- Demonstrated success leading recruitment and workforce expansion initiatives during periods of business growth or production scale-up.
- Native-level Japanese language capability.
- High-level business English proficiency, with the ability to engage effectively with international leadership teams.
- Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and operate independently in a complex business environment.
- Strong strategic thinking combined with practical execution capability.
Preferred
- Experience supporting multi-country manufacturing operations.
- Understanding of factory environments, including operational workforce, quality, and safety considerations.
- Experience within headquarters-based HR functions.
- Experience working closely with global leadership teams.
- Exposure to aerospace, engineering, industrial, or other highly regulated manufacturing sectors.
- Experience building HR infrastructure during organizational transformation or growth phases.
Why Join?
- Opportunity to establish and lead a dedicated HR function from the ground up.
- Direct partnership with the President and senior leadership team on business-critical decisions.
- Significant influence over organizational growth, talent strategy, and workforce expansion.
- Broad scope spanning HR strategy, labor relations, talent acquisition, organizational development, and people operations.
- Exposure to international leadership and cross-border collaboration.
- Chance to play a central role in a business undergoing substantial transformation and expansion.
- Highly visible leadership position with meaningful impact on the future direction of the organization.
