People Management

• Models Microsoft's leadership principles; Model, Coach, Care -- in leading and developing a high-performing Japan HR team.
• Defines clear team objectives and outcomes; enables success across organizational boundaries; invests in the career growth and capability development of each HR team member.
• Fosters a culture of inclusion, learning agility, and accountability within the Japan HR function.

HR Community Leadership

• Leads partnerships with and builds relationships with senior leadership teams to enable a One Microsoft approach and coach the leader and leadership team as needed.
• Drives clarity and intentionality around People Priorities for Japan, creating synergies across teams while avoiding duplication of effort.
• Partners across the HR model (COEs) to ensure seamless, high-quality HR service delivery across the full employee lifecycle.
• Provides HR leadership input into Japan business planning, headcount strategy, and area-level strategic initiatives.
• Champions AI transformation across HR operations, embedding intelligent tools and practices into the HR delivery model to drive efficiency and scale.
• Drives personal and team AI upskilling across the HR team -- creating a community of HR professionals who are confident, informed AI practitioners, not just consumers of AI-enabled tools.
• Leads with creativity and an open mind in an agile, fluid environment, fostering a team culture that welcomes experimentation and embraces new ways of working. Models intellectual curiosity and adaptability, encouraging the team to test, learn, and iterates quickly; treating ambiguity as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.

Organizational Effectiveness & Talent

• Partners with Japan leadership and global COEs to design organizational structures that enable speed, clarity, and commercial impact.
• Leads workforce planning, succession planning, and talent calibration exercises, with a focus on building a diverse, future-ready leadership pipeline.
• Drives change management needs and develops targeted HR interventions to enhance leadership and team effectiveness during transformation.
• Uses people analytics and employee listening data to identify talent risks, attrition trends, and engagement drivers -- converting insights into actionable people strategies.

Employee Experience & Engagement

• Champions an inclusive, high-performance culture tailored to Japan's unique talent market context.
• Oversees and ensures optimal investments in employee experiences while driving to the end-to-end employee experience for business impact (e.g., new campus, related return on investment [ROI]).
• Provides a vision for and plan for developing programs and activities aimed at creating a positive workplace environment (e.g., employee resource groups [ERGs]).

HR Governance

• Establishes and leads HR governance for Japan, ensuring alignment between Microsoft's global policies and local statutory requirements.
• Maintains the accuracy and integrity of HR information across immigration, mobility, and offer governance.
• Leads contracting relationships with senior leaders across Finance, Payroll, Procurement, and CELA to ensure effective HR execution.
• Orchestrates, plans, and drives awareness of and need for corporate opportunities for improving HR processes.
• Champions a culture of compliance with Microsoft practices across all Japan HR activities.

Statutory Accountability

• Ensures expertise in the organization regarding contemporary knowledge of laws, regulations, standards, and emerging trends that may affect Human Resources (HR) policies and execution of these (e.g., legal signatories, court representation, health and safety, benefits, local documentation requirements, General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR], legal localization).
• Translates what requirements mean for the employer and offers correct solutions to adapt and localize policies. Ensures compliance with applicable labor laws and regulatory environment (e.g., HR suppliers).
• Collaborates with worker council heads to ensure continued relationship.
• Leads partnerships with and negotiates with union representatives, workers councils, etc., where applicable.
• Oversees HR issues involving legal and financial risk to the organization. Represents HR in Compliance Governance Committee, in service to the Microsoft brand, values, and image.

Crisis Management & Business Continuity

• Partners with Japan senior leadership to design, orchestrate, and provide a strategy for crisis management, including emergency responses, disaster recovery, risk management, communications, and business continuity.
• Oversees support for Japan employees by creating and ensuring the activation of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and employee well-being programs during and after a crisis.

External Impact

• Influences Microsoft's employer brand in Japan while championing culture with external stakeholders such as professional networks, universities, and community-based organizations (e.g. Japan HR professional events).
• Networks and influences external human resources senior leaders for engagement with external customer business decision-makers to share and inspire current or future customers to drive business, as well as communities to shape policies and programs supporting future work.
• Serves as an influencer and thought leader in the Japan HR community by leveraging professional platforms (e.g., LinkedIn, SHRM Japan, Japan HR Society) and employer brand rankings.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources, Legal, Business, or related field AND 9+ years of progressive HR experience, with at least 5 years in a senior country-level HR leadership role within a large multinational organization.
  • OR equivalent experience.
• People Management experience.
• Professional fluency in Japanese (spoken and written) is required. Business-level English proficiency is required for effective collaboration with Asia and global teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong business acumen; ability to connect HR strategies directly to commercial performance and organizational health.
• Demonstrated track record of strategic HR partnership with executive and senior leadership teams (VP/GM level) to deliver measurable business outcomes.
• Deep expertise in Japan labor law and employment regulations, including the Labor Standards Act, fixed-term employment rules, and union engagement practices. Proven experience managing complex Japan labor relations matters, including restructuring, union engagement, and workforce transformation.
• Skilled in organizational design, change management, and talent strategy in a global matrixed environment.
• Proficiency in using people data and analytics to drive evidence-based HR decisions.
• AI fluency and continuous learning mindset: Demonstrated working knowledge of AI tools and their application to HR practice, with a genuine commitment to staying current as the technology evolves.
• Agile and adaptive ways of working: Comfortable experimenting with new organizational models and ways of working; able to lead a team through ambiguity and rapid change with confidence and creativity.