Project Management Director - EF Tokyo Language Campus

Location: Tokyo
Reports to: Operation Management

Who We Are
At EF, we’re on a mission to open the world through education. Every day, we empower students from around the globe to explore new cultures, perspectives, and opportunities through language and learning.

Our Tokyo campus welcomes international students year-round to study Japanese language and culture in one of the world’s most dynamic cities. We live by seven core values:

Entrepreneurial Spirit. Passion. Quality. Innovation. Cost Consciousness. Attention to Detail. Nothing is Impossible.

The Opportunity: Project Management Director – EF Tokyo Language Campus
EF Tokyo is a fast-paced international language campus welcoming students from around the world year-round.

The Project Management Director leads cross-functional improvement projects that help EF Tokyo strengthen the quality, performance and student experience of its campus. The role turns shared priorities into clear project plans and brings the right teams together to deliver sustainable, measurable improvements.

The role provides project leadership across functions while day-to-day management and functional decisions remain with the leaders accountable for those areas.

We are looking for a structured, analytical, and resilient leader who can take ownership of complex projects, lead through influence as well as authority, and deliver results in a fast-moving, service-driven environment.

Key responsibilities

Lead improvement projects

• Shape project briefs with relevant leaders, clarifying the opportunity, intended outcomes, scope, timing and measures of success.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams from discovery and planning through implementation, review and follow-through.
• Make progress, dependencies and risks visible, and help teams resolve barriers through timely communication and sound judgment.

Improve campus performance

• Lead agreed projects that strengthen accommodation options and capacity, activities, academic quality, and the use of campus resources and space.
• Use operational and financial information, alongside feedback from students and colleagues, to identify opportunities to improve efficiency, capacity and profitability.
• Work with the accountable department leaders to develop practical changes that support consistent delivery and can be sustained by the teams involved.

Strengthen the student experience

• Keep student needs and the overall learning experience in view when setting project priorities and evaluating options.
• Bring together insights from students and campus teams to address recurring friction points and improve the experience across touchpoints.
• Consider quality, service, capacity and commercial outcomes together when assessing the impact of an initiative.

Build alignment and learning

• Communicate project goals, decisions and progress clearly to campus leadership and relevant department leaders.
• Capture lessons and benefits after implementation, and share approaches that may inform future campus improvements.

Who You Are

You may come from project management, consulting, operations improvement, real estate or facilities, hospitality, international education, or other service-driven environments. You are someone who:

• Enjoys turning complex operational challenges into clear plans with defined outcomes.
• Uses data and structured thinking to make decisions, even with imperfect information.
• Communicates clearly with both local and international stakeholders at all levels.
• Balances empathy for students and staff with accountability for results.
• Builds strong working relationships and keeps teams focused on shared goals.
• Keeps projects on track through clear planning, regular check-ins, and proactive escalation.

Relevant experience (preferred):

• Experience leading multi-stakeholder projects, ideally in accommodation, education, hospitality, or service operations.
• Proven ability to improve efficiency, capacity utilisation, or profitability.

You are internationally minded and culturally adaptable, and comfortable operating within both local Japanese and international environments. Fluency in both English and Japanese is essential, as the role requires working with local teams while operating within a highly international environment.