In-Country Japan H2R Services Manager

About the role

The In-Country Japan H2R Services Manager leads Japan's hire-to-retire services, acting as the country service owner. The role translates global People & Organization strategies, service catalogs, operating models and governance expectations into local execution, ensuring services are compliant, accurate, timely and employee-centric while meeting Japanese regulatory requirements and Novartis standards. It reports directly to the Japan H2R Services team and partners with regional shared services, Country P&O, Payroll Operations, external providers and line managers.

Key responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end delivery of In-Country Hire-to-Retire services, set objectives and represent Japan in regional and global H2R governance forums.
• Manage workforce administration, employee master data governance, employee files and statutory documentation in line with Japanese law and Novartis policy, and run data quality assurance and root cause analysis.
• Govern vendor and third-party services, monitor SLAs, resolve service failures and oversee payroll-related vendor dependencies.
• Ensure H2R processes complete accurately and on time so that payroll is stable, and lead remediation of payroll-affecting process gaps.
• Lead, coach and develop a small team of H2R professionals, including performance reviews, succession planning and workload management.
• Promote digital adoption and analytics, including Workday, ServiceNow, Microsoft technologies and automation, and build dashboards and governance reporting.

Required profile

• 10 to 15 years of progressive HR Operations / Hire-to-Retire experience, including hire, employee lifecycle and separation processes.
• Proven people leadership, including performance management, coaching, capability development and succession planning.
• Strong knowledge of Japanese HR operations, employment practices and compliance requirements.
• Experience managing employee data governance, payroll-impacting HR processes and vendor governance.
• Business-fluent Japanese and English.

Required skills

• Hands-on experience with HR technology platforms, preferably Workday, ServiceNow and reporting/analytics tools.
• Desirable: ServiceNow, Power BI, audit/risk/compliance exposure, Lean/Six Sigma, project and change management.