Employment Type: Full-time
Team: Human Resources

About SmartNews 

SmartNews is a leading global information and news discovery company dedicated to delivering quality information to the people who need it. Thanks to our unique machine-learning technology and relationships with more than 3,000 global publisher partners, we provide news that matters to millions of users.

Founded in 2012 in Tokyo, SmartNews also has offices in Palo Alto, New York, Beijing, and Singapore.

If you share our vision and are passionate about our mission, we encourage you to apply!

About the team

Our Talent Acquisition team at SmartNews is small, high-performing, and deeply embedded in the business. We’re structured to deliver fast, high-quality hiring results across tech, corporate, and business functions, supported by dedicated coordination and sourcing operations.

We take pride in solving real business problems through talent—not just filling seats. That means pairing rigorous recruiting standards with a practical sense of urgency. We treat each hire as a strategic decision, not a transaction.

Working on this team means being trusted to own outcomes, speak up when something doesn’t make sense, and drive change when the current process isn't enough. Expectations are high, but so is the opportunity to shape how hiring happens across the company.

What you will do:

• Partner with Manager through Director level stakeholders to shape proactive hiring strategies that align with organizational goals.
• Own full-cycle recruitment for senior, high-impact roles across Corporate, Business, and CEO organizations.
• Design and lead channel strategies with a focus on ROI, market mapping, and data-informed decision making.
• Collaborate with TA Operations and cross-functional partners to drive efficiency and improve hiring systems.
• Solve top of funnel challenges in competitive markets

Requirements

Minimum requirements

• Proven ability to direct source candidates using platforms such as LinkedIn, BizReach, OpenWork, and similar tools
• Experience recruiting for mid-to-senior roles with cross-functional teams
• Ability to collaborate with hiring managers to align on requirements and process
• Comfort interpreting recruiting metrics to guide daily work
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, particularly across functions
• Fluent Japanese and conversational English

Nice to have experiences/skills

• Experience mentoring peers or overseeing workload distribution for other recruiters.
• Bicultural background.
• Experience working in or hiring for startup-to-scale-up environments.
• Background in both in-house and agency recruiting environments.
• Exposure to employer branding, candidate marketing, or recruitment enablement initiatives.

Working condition

• Office Location: Tokyo

Click here or visit our careers site for more info.

Benefits

Benefits available at the SmartNews Tokyo Office

• All healthcare and social insurance required by the Japanese labor law, plus annual health check 
• Click here or visit our careers site for more info about our benefits.

Working conditions

• Office location: Tokyo (or Osaka, depending on role)
• Click here or visit our careers site for more info.