Chief Human Resources Officer

Mission About Recursive As the world's population grows, we are facing a number of global challenges in the realms of environmental conservation, societal equity and ensuring that nobody is left behind in the transition to a digital economy. Artificial intelligence is a key technology to not only address some symptoms of these issues, but also helping create completely new innovative approaches that can create a more sustainable economy and lifestyle. Recursive is an Applied AI consulting company based in Japan working on developing solutions to some of these challenging problems. We collaborate with large Japanese enterprises to create innovative solutions to sustainability challenges, merging in our expertise in AI research and our client's domain knowledge. Our development projects focus around the main themes of improving efficiency, accelerating innovation, risk mitigation and better work and education. Recursive is founded by Tiago Ramalho and Katsutoshi Yamada in 2020. Tiago was a Senior Research Engineer at Google Deepmind and Lead Research scientist at Cogent labs and brings years of machine learning expertise to the company. Katsutoshi is a serial entrepreneur and AI expert with experience in developing and establishing innovative business models in Japan and abroad. Building on its previous successes, Recursive is now looking to grow and expand its impact further. Visit our homepage to learn more about Recursive. Recursive’s Mission At Recursive, our mission is to attract individuals who share our passion for our core purpose: to create a fairer, more sustainable society through the power of Artificial Intelligence. Our Mission: Why: To build a fairer, more sustainable society. How: By transforming our clients into AI-first businesses. What: Through AI technology development and consulting. In pursuit of this mission, Recursive has distinguished itself in several key areas: Cutting-Edge AI Application: We excel in translating state-of-the‑art AI research into practical applications. This is achieved through strong connections with academic machine learning research, a commitment to understanding client data and requirements, and seamless integration with client businesses. Generative AI Innovation: We launched a Generative AI solution to the market just as the field was gaining momentum, having initiated development in early 2022. Enterprise AI Solutions: We introduced FindFlow only six months after ChatGPT's release, enabling access to private enterprise data with Generative AI. Pioneering Environmental AI: Recursive is the first Japanese company to employ Physics-Inspired Neural Networks for simulating environmental systems . We aim to use these methods to transform environmental management and promote renewable energy adoption. Recursive’s Culture Ultimately, the value of a company is the result of the collective actions of its passionate members. At Recursive we want to focus on creating an incredible working environment where talented individuals can come together to work hard on solving real-world problems. When it comes to culture, we know that there is no way to suit everyone’s tastes. Almost everyone has a passion, but not all passions align. And the same is true for Recursive. We aim to build a work environment that is ideal for a particular kind of person: Challenger Mentality : Those who like to solve hard problems and try to go beyond their current abilities Leadership : those who take the initiative and fix problems on their own Trust & Cooperation : those who seek to work with a team of talented individuals they can trust Impact : those who want to feel like their work is having impact on others/the world Recursive can only work when we take collaboration to be our top priority. Our workplace has zero tolerance for harassment or toxic behavior, deliberate bad performance, as well as any behaviours that undermine the culture we wish to create. We will only be able to achieve the goals of closing more impactful projects, and achieving “kandou” for the ones we are executing, if all teams come together and collaborate. We want to use our diversity of cultures and experiences as a strength instead of a weakness. Given that we are still a small company, everyone’s actions matter, and we place top priority in ensuring that our culture (i.e. the actions of our members) reflects our values. That means that it is not enough to simply write down a document with what we believe our culture is, but in a nutshell, actively rewarding behaviors that are consistent with the culture and disincentivizing behaviors that go against the culture that we want to build. Recursive’s Employment Framework Contract Structure: Recursive provides one year fixed term contracts for all new employees. The contracts are converted into permanent contracts upon new members meeting Recursive standards and contributing effectively to Recursive’s success. Flexible Work Hours: Recursive operates on a flex system with the core hours of 10:00 - 16:00. The flexible work hours fosters a supportive environment that accommodates diverse employee needs while ensuring effective team collaboration during core hours. Hybrid Work: Benefit from a hybrid work model that offers remote flexibility and up to four days working from our Shibuya office. Comprehensive Leave Policy: Enjoy public holidays, winter break, 20 days of paid annual leave, 5 days of sick leave along with special leave for bereavement and paid parental care. Enriching Welfare Programs: Take advantage of our diverse welfare programs such as health insurance, annual health checkups, employee’s welfare pension, accident and unemployment insurance, paid parental leave, caregiving leave, babysitter voucher program, team-building allowances, skill development and language learning support, relocation assistance, and visa application support. Supportive Benefits: Access a range of benefits including commuting allowance, referral bonus, employee invention profit share program, and stock option plan for eligible roles. Open to Side Projects: While side jobs are generally not allowed, we are open to discussions based on individual circumstances, fostering a supportive and flexible work culture. Some of our members teach at universities, contribute to non‑profit organizations, or engage in pet projects that improve their knowledge and skillsets. About the team We're looking for a Chief Human Resources Officer to own the people function through the most important growth phase in Recursive's history. Working directly with the CEO, you'll be a true partner on how the company scales its people, not just its headcount. This is where the people function gets built for real, not maintained: roughly 80% of the job is tightening and formalising systems that exist today in early form, and 20% is building net‑new. You work directly with the CEO with a real mandate, not a layer of administration under someone else's strategy You own unusually broad scope for a single seat: hiring, compensation, performance, retention, culture, and org design The decisions you make in the next 6 to 12 months will define how Recursive scales from here There's a credible path to shaping, and potentially leading, a future people-centric line of business, as Recursive turns its own scaling experience into client offerings At the heart of this role is a specific challenge: Recursive brings together Western and Japanese working styles, and the person in this seat has to be trusted by both. That cross-cultural fluency isn't a nice-to-have here, it's the core of the job. Responsibilities Building the people systems Partner with and strengthen the talent acquisition function so hiring scales smoothly through 2–3x growth without burning out the team behind it Build a coherent, defensible compensation and incentive philosophy as the org grows more complex Create clear career ladders, train managers to grow their teams, and establish performance systems the company hasn't had at this scale Design the retention systems and policies that keep strong people through a high-growth period Culture, structure, and hard calls Handle sensitive performance and labor matters, PIPs, manager coaching, terminations, with fairness, judgment, and legal grounding for Japan Create and communicate the policies that keep Recursive's mission and values legible as headcount grows fast Help clarify reporting lines and company structure as new teams and roles are added Own office space planning and company events as a real, if secondary, part of the scope Requirements A track record leading a people or HR function through fast headcount growth (2x or more), ideally at a startup or scale-up rather than solely in a large, mature-company environment Real experience building, not just administering, compensation frameworks, performance systems, and career ladders from an early stage High emotional intelligence and a proven ability to navigate both Western and Japanese working styles without generating conflict or distrust on either side, this is the single most important trait for the role Experience handling sensitive labor and performance matters in a way that is both fair and legally sound in Japan Comfort operating with real autonomy and direct executive access, this is a builder-partner seat, not a process-execution one Bilingual Japanese and English strongly preferred, given the cross-cultural mandate at the core of the role Bonus: a background or interest in reskilling, L&D, or workforce transformation, relevant to Recursive's potential future people-centric business #J-18808-Ljbffr