Project Manager

Japan Senior Project Manager

Automotive Retail & Customer Experience Transformation

We are seeking an experienced Project Manager to lead a confidential, but exciting, automotive retail & customer experience transformation initiative.

The successful candidate will work closely with client stakeholders, auto-industry specialists and project team members across multiple locations, markets, and regions. The role will involve coordinating several workstreams, managing the development of project deliverables and supporting the improvement of customer-facing and dealership-related processes.

This is not a purely administrative project management role. The successful candidate should have sufficient automotive retail knowledge to engage credibly with senior OEM stakeholders and subject-matter experts to oversee the development and delivery of critical and cutting-edge auto-retail processes.

*We are accepting applications during the period Aug 10-31 2026, with a start date expected in September.

Position

Senior Project Manager – Automotive Retail & Customer Experience Transformation

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the overall project plan, schedule, quality, risks, issues and resources
• Coordinate multiple business functions and project workstreams
• Manage communication with client stakeholders and internal project members
• Oversee the concurrent development of multiple project deliverables
• Establish clear priorities, responsibilities, milestones and governance processes
• Plan and facilitate project meetings, workshops and review sessions
• Gather, assess and consolidate feedback from different stakeholder groups
• Support the development of common processes while considering different business and market requirements
• Analyze customer touchpoints, dealership processes and cross-functional working practices
• Manage the development of process documentation, guidelines, operational content and supporting materials
• Coordinate subject-matter experts, content developers, designers and project-support resources
• Provide clear progress reporting and recommendations to senior stakeholders
• Identify and escalate risks, dependencies and critical decisions
• Review deliverables and manage quality-assurance and client-approval processes
• Identify additional opportunities for operational or customer-experience improvement

Required Experience and Skills

• Proven project management experience in the automotive industry
• Experience working for an automotive manufacturer, national sales company, dealer organization, consulting firm or related business
• Practical understanding of automotive retail, dealership operations or customer experience
• Experience coordinating multiple stakeholders and workstreams
• Experience in process improvement, operating-model development, standardization or business transformation
• Strong meeting and workshop facilitation skills
• Experience engaging with senior management and client stakeholders
• Ability to structure complex information and convert it into clear plans, actions and deliverables
• High-level Japanese communication skills
• Business-level English communication skills
• Based in Japan and able to attend face-to-face client meetings when required

Preferred Experience

• Experience in automotive retail, dealership operations or dealer-network development
• Experience in customer journey, customer experience or customer loyalty initiatives
• Knowledge of both Sales and Aftersales operations
• Experience developing process guides, operating manuals, dealer standards or similar materials
• Experience working on international or multi-market projects
• Experience managing cross-functional teams and subject-matter experts
• Consulting, change-management or learning-content development experience
• Experience working with PMO or project-support functions

Candidate Profile

The successful candidate will be:

• A hands-on project leader who takes ownership and drives execution
• Able to engage in meaningful discussions about automotive retail and customer-facing processes
• Skilled at aligning stakeholders with different priorities and perspectives
• Comfortable working in a complex and evolving environment
• Able to convert ambiguity into clear decisions, plans and actions
• Capable of managing multiple deliverables simultaneously
• Confident when communicating with senior stakeholders
• Proactive, flexible, organized and delivery-focused
• Effective in working with both Japanese and international team members

MSX is an equal opportunities employer and encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, neurodiversity or other personal characteristics and backgrounds, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, or marital and parental status. As users of the Disability Confident scheme, we interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy.