Overview:
• Lead and manage multiple customer-facing projects and programs for Japanese clients.
• Act as a bilingual bridge between Japanese customers and global delivery teams.
• Drive both short-term execution goals and long-term strategic program objectives.
• Ensure successful delivery through strong customer collaboration, stakeholder management, and delivery governance.
• Build trusted relationships with customers while driving customer satisfaction, operational excellence, and business growth.
Roles and Responsibilities:
• Manage multiple concurrent projects and programs from initiation to closure.
• Serve as the primary point of contact for Japanese customers and internal stakeholders.
• Lead customer meetings, project reviews, governance calls, steering committee meetings, and executive reporting.
• Drive project planning, execution, monitoring, and successful delivery within scope, schedule, budget, and quality targets.
• Negotiate project priorities, timelines, scope changes, and resource requirements with customers and internal stakeholders.
• Ensure effective communication between Japanese-speaking and English-speaking stakeholders.
• Monitor project KPIs, milestones, utilization, and delivery effectiveness.
• Support account growth opportunities through proactive customer engagement and value-added proposals.
• Mentor project leads and team members to improve project delivery capabilities.
• Ensure compliance with organizational processes, quality standards, and governance requirements.
• Facilitate conflict resolution and decision-making among project stakeholders.
Note:
Travel domestically within Japan and internationally, as required, for customer meetings, workshops, project execution, governance reviews, and business needs.
Must-Have Skills and Requirements:
• 7-10 years of Project Management and/or Program Management experience.
• Proven experience managing multiple parallel projects simultaneously.
• Strong customer collaboration and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent communication, Negotiation, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Experience working directly with Japanese customers.
• Business-level Japanese and Native English communication skills.
• Experience managing onsite-offshore delivery models.
• Strong problem-solving, risk management, and decision-making skills.
• Ability to balance short-term execution requirements with long-term strategic objectives.
• JLPT N2 certification is mandatory.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally as business needs require.
Nice-to-Have Skills
• Experience in Manufacturing, Industrial Automation, Embedded Systems.
• Experience managing large-scale transformation or strategic programs.
• Understanding of engineering product lifecycle and product development processes.
Things to know before you apply
- Work authorization: Cognizant will only consider applicants for this position who are legally authorized to work in Canada without requiring employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.
- Accommodations: If you have a disability that requires reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening or submit an application, please email [email protected] with your request and contact information.
- AI in hiring: We use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help us screen and assess applications more efficiently. Our team performs additional human review and ultimately decides who moves forward in our hiring process.
- Open position: Unless otherwise stated, this job posting is for an open position on our team.
- Language proficiency: We ask that all candidates have basic English proficiency for company-wide communications purposes. For roles based in Quebec, professional English proficiency is required, as you’ll deliver services to and collaborate with stakeholders outside the province who may not speak French.
- Inclusion: Cognizant is an equal opportunity employer. Your application and candidacy will not be considered based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial or local laws.
About Cognizant
Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH) is an AI Builder and technology services provider, bridging the gap between AI investment and enterprise value by building full-stack AI solutions for our clients. Our deep industry, process and engineering expertise enables us to build an organization’s unique context into technology systems that amplify human potential, drive tangible outcomes and keep global enterprises ahead in a fast-changing world. See how at cognizant.ai or @cognizant.
