Position: President - Japan

Company: STEM

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Vacancy Type: Permanent, full-time

Reporting to: Group President, Insights

About Inizio

Inizio is a global partner with over 10,500 experts operating in more than 50 countries. We support health and life science companies by turning science into strategy and executing across the product and patient journey. Our services include market research, strategy consulting, transformation consulting, and commercial benchmarking, all designed to be data-backed and patient-inspired.

About Inizio Ignite

We are Inizio Ignite, the global advisory partner for health and life sciences encompassing connected expertise across Research Partnership, Putnam, Vynamic, and STEM. Guided by purpose, passion, and precision, we collaborate with clients to ignite impact, accelerate performance, and deliver lasting change for patients. By uniting strategy, insights, and innovation with a unique depth and breadth of expertise, we drive transformation and shape the future of health. Our STEM team uses benchmarking and evidence-based approaches to drive alignment, resulting in accelerated performance. Serving clients across brand & commercial, Medical Affairs & Sales, our expertise includes data, research and insights (proprietary benchmarking data), strategic brand alignment, and sales teams & MSL performance benchmarking. From early-stage development to loss of exclusivity, we simplify complexity, unlock value, and make collaboration seamless at every pivotal moment – supporting confident, insight-driven decisions that move innovation forward.

Job Purpose

The President - Japan has overall responsibility for the leadership, performance and growth of STEM Healthcare in Japan. This role will set the strategic direction for the Japan business and hold accountability for commercial performance, client relationships, operational excellence, people leadership and the Japan P&L. The President will lead the Japan organisation through its next stage of growth, ensuring that STEM continues to deliver high-quality, differentiated services to clients while expanding its presence and impact in the market.

As the senior leader for STEM in Japan, the President will build and maintain trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across pharmaceutical and life sciences clients, develop the Japan leadership team, and work closely with global STEM leaders to ensure that local strategy, delivery and ways of working are aligned with the wider organisation.

What you’ll be doing

• Own and lead the strategy for STEM Japan, translating global priorities into a clear local business plan and ensuring delivery against agreed growth, client and organisational objectives.
• Hold overall accountability for the Japan P&L, including revenue growth, profitability, forecasting, budgeting and ongoing business performance.
• Lead the annual forecasting and business planning processes for Japan, establishing clear priorities, targets and measures of success.
• Drive sustainable business growth through the development of existing client relationships and the identification and conversion of new business opportunities.
• Build trusted, senior-level relationships with key pharmaceutical and life sciences clients, acting as an executive sponsor and ensuring STEM is viewed as an essential strategic partner.
• Provide senior leadership for business development activity in Japan, including client engagement, opportunity development, proposal strategy and senior-level pitches and presentations.
• Ensure consistently high standards of client delivery, operational quality and client satisfaction across the Japan business, working closely with the Vice President of Client Delivery and other senior leaders.
• Lead, develop and coach the Japan leadership team, creating clear accountability and building the capability required to support continued growth.
• Create a high-performance culture aligned with STEM's core values, ensuring effective communication, collaboration, talent development and succession planning across the Japan organisation.
• Work closely with global leadership and functional teams to share best practice, align processes, standards and systems, and ensure Japan is fully connected to the wider STEM organisation.
• Represent the Japan business in global leadership discussions and business reviews, providing clear insight into performance, opportunities, risks and market dynamics.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen and expand STEM's proposition in Japan, responding to evolving client needs while maintaining the quality and differentiation of STEM's offering.
• Act as the senior representative and ambassador for STEM Healthcare in Japan, strengthening the organisation’s reputation and presence within the pharmaceutical and life sciences market.

What you’ll need

• Significant senior leadership experience within the pharmaceutical, life sciences or management consulting sectors, with a strong understanding of the Japanese market.
• Demonstrable experience of leading and growing a business, business unit or significant market, with accountability for commercial and financial performance.
• Strong experience in P&L management, forecasting and business planning, with the ability to translate strategy into clear priorities and measurable results.
• Proven business development capability and a strong track record of building senior client relationships and developing commercial opportunities.
• Executive-level credibility and the ability to network, influence and build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders within client organisations.
• Strong understanding of pharmaceutical commercial functions, with experience across areas such as sales, marketing, medical, market access and/or commercial strategy highly valuable.
• Senior people leadership experience, including building high-performing teams, developing leaders and coaching colleagues to improve performance and capability.
• An excellent communicator who can adapt communication style according to the situation and audience, tell a compelling story and confidently lead senior client discussions.
• Results-focused, commercially minded and comfortable operating in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Strong interpersonal awareness and gravitas to interact, challenge, advise and deliver solutions at the most senior levels.
• Ability to balance strategic leadership with a willingness to remain close to clients, teams and delivery when required.
• Detailed knowledge of STEM, its clients, operations and approach to business development would be advantageous but is not essential.

About Ignite STEM

Ignite STEM Healthcare is a dynamic, fast-paced global pharmaceutical and life sciences strategic benchmarking firm headquartered in the UK and present across six continents. STEM has developed an audit process and built a benchmarking database based on more than 500,000 face-to-face observations conducted across 52 countries. The benchmark is unique within the pharmaceutical industry, comprising more than 100 KPIs while focusing on 2–3 key priorities when formulating action plans to help clients further accelerate performance.

Ignite STEM accelerates performance, improves strategic alignment and facilitates excellence in strategy execution across marketing, medical, market access and account planning. Due to its unique, specialised and highly targeted offering, STEM is experiencing a period of rapid growth and is recruiting extensively across the world. New employees will be joining at a time when significant career development and growth opportunities are expected as the organisation works towards its medium- and long-term goals.

Find us here

Website: www.inizioignite.com

Equal Opportunity Employer

Ignite STEM is an equal opportunity employer. Ignite STEM will consider all qualified applicants for employment without discrimination on grounds of disability, sex or sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity leave status, race or national or ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, gender identity or re-assignment, marital or civil partnership status, protected veteran status (if applicable) or any other characteristic protected by law. Ignite STEM only employs individuals with the right to work in the country/countries where the role is advertised.