Director HR Business Partner Corporate

This role acts as a strategic business partner and coach to Japan corporate functions across all people-related management, ensuring that HR strategies and value-adding services attract, develop, motivate and retain talent in the market. It sits within the People & Culture team and works closely with the Senior Leadership Team, the Japan HR Leadership Team and functional leaders. The position also leads a high-performing HR Business Partner team for Corporate, building strategic partnering capabilities and ensuring the delivery of exceptional HR support.

• Partner with functional leaders as a trusted consultant to shape organisational strategy, focusing on headcount planning, optimal team structures and a high-performance culture.
• Translate business priorities into a comprehensive People Strategy and actionable initiatives, ensuring effective implementation in Japan alongside global HR programmes.
• Maintain a high level of communication and partnership with the Senior Leadership Team and contribute to key organisational and people decisions.
• Drive complex organisational design, change and transformation programmes, redesigning structures around strategic objectives.
• Leverage HR data and analytics, including dashboards and trends, to provide deep insights, monitor organisational 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, and support the implementation of Personnel & Management Development tools and concepts.
• Drive the annual compensation review and promotion cycles, providing expert guidance on reward strategies to ensure market competitiveness and support retention goals.
• Proactively manage employee relations and champion engagement through targeted programmes such as onboarding, townhalls and 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.
• Build and maintain key relationships with the Leadership Team and employees of the support organisation, the Japan HR Leadership Team, HR Talent and Talent Acquisition, HR Rewards, HR Service, Finance, Legal Counsel and Attorneys, local authorities, workplaces
• Corporate communications and employee groups.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent.
• At least 15 years of HR management experience.
• Good understanding of the retail/consumer goods industry and market landscape.
• Fluent in English and Japanese, written and spoken.
• HR capabilities covering individual and collective labour law, HR subject matter expertise, use of HR metrics, change delivery support, organisational design, maintaining an external perspective, anticipating people trends and employee relations
• With basic knowledge of workforce planning and organisational design.
• Business capabilities covering the digital landscape, customer focus, understanding of HR strategy, and understanding of the business, its value chain and key processes.
• Consulting capabilities covering brokering solutions to meet business needs, the ability to sell HR solutions to the business, acting as a trusted advisor, small group facilitation, coaching skills, and 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, with basic coaching skills.
• Excellent organisation and problem-solving skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, presentation and facilitation skills.
• Openness to new approaches and active support of change.
• Ability to adapt to a fast-paced and agile working environment.

• A degree major in Human Resource Management or a related field.
• Commercial business support experience.

The company believes that embedding diversity, equity and inclusion into its culture and talent processes gives employees a sense of belonging and the brand a real competitive advantage.