People Operations Associate

The role 

As part of our People team, you will help build and run the operational backbone that lets our people do their best work. Across the full employee lifecycle — from onboarding through to offboarding — you’ll keep day-to-day People operations running smoothly and accurately, covering areas such as onboarding, working hours, social and labour insurance, employee documentation and compliance, working closely with the wider team and our external partners.

The most exciting part of this role is that you’ll help shape our People foundations in Japan from an early stage. Rather than simply operating a finished machine, you’ll be working in an environment with plenty of white space — where the way you work directly improves how our processes and systems evolve. There’s real room here to make things better, and it’s largely yours to shape.

In a fast-growing scale-up, we’re looking for someone who enjoys more than just completing set tasks — someone who spots “this could work better” and turns it into reality. Partnering with employees, managers and external providers across a broad range of areas, you’ll naturally develop a wide, cross-functional view of People operations in Japan.

Key responsibilities:

• Onboarding: preparing offers and employment contracts, collecting required documents, Day 1 setup, and probation management.

• Offboarding: supporting leaver processing and final pay, issuing separation and withholding certificates, equipment return and access removal.

• HRIS administration: maintaining employee data, managing leave balances, producing reports, and monitoring PTO uptake.

• Working hours: reconciling and operating attendance records, supporting monitoring of the 36-Agreement, and checking submissions and approvals.

• Social & labour insurance: enrolments and withdrawals on hire and leave, employment insurance, standard and revised remuneration filings, and the annual labour insurance update (all handled and submitted in partnership with our external providers), plus maternity, childcare and injury/sickness benefits.

• Payroll & tax: monthly coordination with our external provider and payroll team, commuting and other allowances, resident tax updates, and supporting the year-end adjustment.

• Benefits & health: liaising with benefits vendors, coordinating health checks and stress checks, arranging occupational physician meetings, and setting up and following through on worksite visits.

• Letters & certificates: employment contracts and terms notices, employment and salary certificates, and similar documentation.

• Compliance: maintaining the employee roster and wage ledger, tracking residence status, managing fixed-term renewals, and supporting audit preparation.

About you  

In order to set you up for success as a People Operations Associate at Wayve, we’re looking for the following skills and experience.  

Essential 

• At least one year of experience in a People Operations or HR administrative role, with a solid understanding of the full employee lifecycle.

• Knowledge and hands-on experience of Japanese HR administration, including payroll, social and labour insurance, and working-hours management.

• Someone who enjoys not just completing set tasks but spotting where things can be improved and making it happen.

• Able to manage several tasks in parallel, prioritising effectively to keep work moving.

• Strong, considerate communication skills, with the ability to build trust with employees, managers and external partners.

• Able to work in both Japanese (fluency is essential, N1 or above) and English (able to work with stakeholders over written and verbal communication).

Desirable 

• Experience in a start-up or fast-growth environment.

• Experience supporting teams across multiple locations or geographies.

• Experience using AI tooling to make workflows more efficient.

This is a full-time role based in our office in Tokyo, Japan.  At Wayve we want the best of all worlds so we operate a hybrid working policy that combines time together in our offices and workshops to fuel innovation, culture, relationships and learning, and time spent working from home.  

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