Project Management Support - Process Improvement

TEAM

Toyota is redefining what it means to move. We're challenging the current state of mobility by enhancing the movement of people, goods, information and energy. Centered around three core concepts - A Living Laboratory™, Human-Centered, and Ever Evolving City™ - Woven City serves as a test course for mobility to fulfill our purpose of well-being for all.

We do this by bringing together a diverse community of people with a shared passion for the future of mobility to co-create, develop and refine innovative products and services. This cross-section of social infrastructure, mobility, and people provides a unique opportunity for inventors, residents and visitors to interact seamlessly with new technologies throughout daily life in an environment that emulates a real city.

Our team facilitates the safe and smooth implementation of a wide variety of Proof of Concepts (PoCs) conducted in this city, contributing governance and risk management. We are tackling the improvement (Kaizen) of the PoC process to balance the speed of development/testing with safety by solving the issues faced by both product developers and risk experts, and by standardizing PoCs. To support the creation of innovative future services, we are looking for team members who will make history with us.

For more information about Woven City, please visit: https://www.woven-city.global/ 

WHO ARE WE LOOKING FOR?

We are looking for a project manage supporter who can support the safe and smooth execution of PoCs while deeply understanding the challenges and perspectives of both product developers and risk experts. Because we handle a wide variety of technical demonstrations and systems, we are looking for someone with basic knowledge of digital technologies and software who can contribute appropriate project management in initiatives such as PoC process improvement (Kaizen). This position may require you to change your work location from Tokyo to Susono depending on the phase of service development. You will be frequently visiting the site at least on a business trip basis. If you want to tackle the new challenge of evolving the PoC process to accelerate the creation of innovative services, let's make history together. 

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Contribute the operation of the application and approval process for various Proof of Concepts (PoCs) conducted at Woven City, and drive continuous process improvement (Kaizen)
• Act as a bridge between the Product Development team (e.g., Inventor Support) and Risk Experts (experts in Safety, Compliance, IP, Security, Privacy, etc.) to coordinate and support smooth risk assessments and safe PoC execution
• Promote the reduction of communication costs among stakeholders and shorten the contribute time to the start of demonstrations through the categorization and standardization of PoC projects (such as the introduction of Fast Lane)
• Improve the operation of the PoC application and centralized management system utilizing digital tools like Slack and Salesforce, and consolidate system requirements
• Communicate rules of the risk management process to PoC applicants and related departments, develop guidelines, and plan/conduct briefing sessions (e.g., Office Hours)

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Practical experience in developing new businesses, or comprehensively contributing the launch and operation of new technology demonstrations (PoCs) or services
• Experience in analyzing existing business workflows and systems, identifying issues based on qualitative on-site information and quantitative data, and contributing continuous process improvement (Kaizen)
• Ability to balance, plan, and coordinate smoothly between product development teams and risk experts, taking into account the situations and requests of both sides, and to advance projects according to a schedule
• Technical knowledge and communication skills, backed by basic digital and software knowledge, to clearly communicate requirements for process improvements to get engineers and stakeholders with diverse backgrounds to take action
• Conversational-level English proficiency and fluent Japanese proficiency

NICE TO HAVES

• Broad knowledge of diverse risk management in new businesses and technical demonstrations, including the 5 major risks defined by Woven City (Safety, Compliance, IP, Security, Privacy) and other risks (such as PR, Payment, and Contact center and Support desk)
• Experience in incident response
• Experience in creating standards (operational guidelines)
• Basic knowledge of information security (cybersecurity) and practical experience in security risk assessment and management when introducing IT services or systems
• Basic knowledge of personal information protection (privacy) and practical experience in privacy risk assessment and management in service development and data utilization involving personal data
• Practical experience in business improvement (Kaizen) through the automation of business processes utilizing AI tools (e.g., Generative AI) or the development of simple applications