Associate Consultant

About the job

Company Description

Adept Group was founded in October 2004 by a select team of veteran executive search professionals. Driven by a passion to support high-growth and enterprise technology companies in building their core teams in Japan, we developed a uniquely customized, proactive approach to placement — one built on trust, efficiency, and results.

Twenty years on, we remain a specialist firm: exclusively technology, exclusively Japan. We work across AI, SaaS, Cybersecurity, Data Platforms and Analytics, Cloud, Hardware, and Data Center, with clients ranging from first-in-country startups to global enterprises.

Role Description

The Associate Consultant role is the second step on our consulting career path. The majority of your time is spent on sourcing and candidate work — this is the foundation everything else is built on, and it is where you will develop fastest. What distinguishes the role from Talent Sourcer is the exposure that comes with it.

Where a Talent Sourcer works a role handed down by a consultant, an Associate Consultant is attached to live client projects. You will sit in on client meetings, hear briefs taken firsthand, understand why a search is shaped the way it is, and coordinate candidates through the interview process. A senior consultant owns the account, the brief, and the negotiation — you work alongside them and take on more of the 360 processes as you demonstrate readiness.

In practice, expect sourcing and candidate management, with the balance in client-facing and project work. That ratio shifts as you progress as a Consultant and onwards.

It is a deliberately structured role, supported by a training program designed to take you to full Consultant.

What You'll Bring:

Required

• 1+ years of recruitment experience in any industry.

• Business-level Japanese and English.

• A self-starter who takes ownership of their work and follows through without being chased.

• Genuine motivation to build a long-term career in recruitment or technology.

Preferred

• Experience recruiting in the technology or IT sector.

• Familiarity with LinkedIn Recruiter, BizReach, or comparable platforms.

• Experience working with foreign-capital companies in Japan.

We are more interested in judgment, curiosity, and follow-through than in years of experience. If you are close to this profile and motivated, we would like to hear from you.

What We Offer:

• A clear, transparent career path with published promotion criteria from Associate Consultant to Consultant and beyond.

• Structured training in our search methodology, plus continuous professional development.

• Flexible working hours and a hybrid remote environment.

• Central Tokyo office in Akasaka.

• A small, collaborative, people-first team with a flat structure.

• Team events, both in Japan and overseas.

• Casual dress code.