AI-First Executive Search
for Japan
Your partners to enter, scale, and lead in Japan. We help global technology companies place high-impact leaders, powered by an AI platform that surfaces better candidates, faster.
What Clients Say
Testimonials from APAC VPs, CROs, and talent leaders across enterprise technology.
Great job Murray. Thanks so much for this. We are really happy with this key hire!
Impressive research and a job well done! Thanks for the great work. Happy to be a reference.
We almost exclusively found Murray to be our go-to recruiter. I highly recommend him.
One of the top recruiters VMware has worked with, not only in Japan, but across the whole of Asia Pacific. He is exceptional.
Thanks for your work. Nice job! I appreciate you running at a very intense pace.
Murray has been a tremendous help in hiring dozens of individual contributors as well as key leaders.
If you need someone to assist as you try to enter the Japanese market don't look any further.
Murray can build a strong relationship and he drives things very passionately.
His business sense and creativity helped fill a high level executive position in a relatively short period of time.
Murray has done outstanding work for PARC in a difficult talent space. Thank you!
Murray was invaluable. His advice, cultural guidance, and results were outstanding.
Instrumental in hiring key people, including Country Manager, and delivering RPO.
Murray helped build our Japan team, securing very high quality sales and engineering hires.
Murray helped us lock in a key leader for our Japan business. He did an excellent job.
Excellent work to hire a key sales lead for our new all-flash product in Japan.
I see Murray as the only recruiter that really understands the markets that he recruits into.
Very pleased with the outcome. Murray provided extremely helpful cultural guidance throughout.
Great job Murray. Thanks so much for this. We are really happy with this key hire!
Impressive research and a job well done! Thanks for the great work. Happy to be a reference.
We almost exclusively found Murray to be our go-to recruiter. I highly recommend him.
One of the top recruiters VMware has worked with, not only in Japan, but across the whole of Asia Pacific. He is exceptional.
Thanks for your work. Nice job! I appreciate you running at a very intense pace.
Murray has been a tremendous help in hiring dozens of individual contributors as well as key leaders.
If you need someone to assist as you try to enter the Japanese market don't look any further.
Murray can build a strong relationship and he drives things very passionately.
His business sense and creativity helped fill a high level executive position in a relatively short period of time.
Murray has done outstanding work for PARC in a difficult talent space. Thank you!
Murray was invaluable. His advice, cultural guidance, and results were outstanding.
Instrumental in hiring key people, including Country Manager, and delivering RPO.
Murray helped build our Japan team, securing very high quality sales and engineering hires.
Murray helped us lock in a key leader for our Japan business. He did an excellent job.
Excellent work to hire a key sales lead for our new all-flash product in Japan.
I see Murray as the only recruiter that really understands the markets that he recruits into.
Very pleased with the outcome. Murray provided extremely helpful cultural guidance throughout.
An Extension of Your TA Organization.
We don't just fill seats; we partner as a strategic extension of your global talent function to build and scale your leadership engine in Japan.
Leadership & Embedded Scale
We place the senior leaders who drive market growth, then we stay embedded. By supporting our leaders to hire the teams they need, we ensure your Japan entry has the talent density required for long-term execution and success.
Brand & Agent Governance
Maintain absolute control over your market narrative. Our trackable Pitch Pages give your TA team full visibility into agent performance, ensuring every external recruiter is delivering a consistent, high-impact story to the market.
Referable: Strategic Mapping
We turn referrals into a systematic talent channel. By proactively mapping the networks of your existing team, we identify high-performers with proven cultural fit, allowing you to hire through trusted connections before utilizing other channels.
Japan Leadership Search Playbook
If the Japan market is important to your business, you need to take search seriously.
Compare operational friction against the strategic standard for market entry. Direct engagement with leadership is the primary driver of search speed and candidate reach.
Selection Required: Identify your current "Worst Case" variables to calculate risk.
| Worst Case Approach | Best Strategic Standard |
|---|---|
|
Remote Execution
Fragmented Management
Directing Japan searches from HQ or regional hubs (SG/UK/US). Signals a lack of market commitment to top candidates. |
Market Immersion
Localized Connectivity
Leveraging Japan-based experts who influence high-performing passive talent through established local reputations. |
|
Capacity Constraints
Generalist TA Load
A single recruiter managing 20+ mixed roles globally. Japan executive search becomes a side project with fatal latency. |
Surgical Accuracy
Dedicated Executive Mapping
Unrestricted focus on a single mission. Exhaustive mapping ensures 100% coverage of the relevant candidate market. |
|
Signal Loss
Truncated Communications
Hiring managers defer communications to their TA rather than direct to the agent. Leads to delays, double-handling and transparency issues. |
Strategic Partnership
Hiring Manager x Murray Clarke
Direct, unfiltered communication between the Hiring Manager and Murray Clarke. Zero go-betweens. Absolute alignment. |
|
Value Perception
DIY / Fee Scrimping
Cost-first prioritization signals to the market that future resource approval and growth support will be a constant nightmare. |
Investment Signal
Professional Representation
Signals to leaders that Japan is a critical pillar and the company is fully invested in their professional success. |
Enterprise Pedigree.
Boutique Accountability.
Our RPO methodology is built on 15 years of delivering for the world’s most demanding technology brands as they launched and scaled their Japan businesses. We provide the enterprise-grade infrastructure of a global firm with the personal accountability of a boutique partner.
*Historical client engagements were overseen or delivered by TalentHub founder Murray Clarke during leadership of his previous venture (original name Tech Futures, now Experis Executive), which was subsequently acquired by ManpowerGroup Japan.
"Your program is led personally by our founder, Murray Clarke. Every implementation is overseen to ensure performance benchmarks are world-class from day one."
Rapid Setup
Hands-on 30-45 day project setup to establish benchmarks and ensure SLAs are on track.
Centralized Control
Unified program management for all internal recruiters and agency partners.
Tracked Pitch Decks
Consistent messaging through trackable digital assets that tell your story as you want it told.
Referral Mapping
A simple, mobile-friendly app that turns your team's existing network into a strategic referral pipeline.
Scale on Demand
Fractional or full-scale delivery models tailored to your specific GTM headcount requirements.
How We Use AI
Our AI infrastructure supports your entire Japan journey—from initial market entry consideration and strategy through to identifying and scaling your long-term local organization. The following cards show examples of our external facing AI-powered solutions.
Market Intelligence
Value-added entry support. We provide deep-dive research on Japan-specific competitors, partners, and costs to inform your strategy before the first hire.
View live example →
Digital Pitch Pages
Ensure your message hits the market. Our enriched landing pages and integrated AI chatbots provide a high-impact experience for the candidate pool.
View live example →
Executive Briefs
Our AI scrapes open-source web data to enrich candidate CVs, providing a 360-degree view into suitability, career highlights, and interview focus areas.
View live example →
Referral Mapping
Scale through your new hires. We enable your team to systematically identify high-potential talent and drive referrals across the Japanese market.
Book a Demo →The New Standard for Japan Search
Traditional models often fail in the Japan market due to high costs and lack of specialized infrastructure. We bridge the gap between search expertise and RPO scale.
Traditional Search
Standard RPO
TalentHub Partners ✦
A Continuum of Growth
From founding your office to dominating the sector, we provide the specific talent infrastructure required for each phase of Japan maturity.
Founding the Office — Top-down search for anchor leaders and initial RPO support to establish a beachhead in Japan.
Workday†, Fivetran*, DoiT*, mabl AI*, Pure Storage*, GitHub*, Recorded Future*,
and many more.
Market Capture — High-intensity direct sourcing and program management to scale commercial teams once the foundation is set.
Splunk*†, ZenDesk*, Celonis*, ServiceNow*, Stripe*, Nutanix*, SUSE*, VMware*†, Fastly*.
Sector Leadership — Targeted, transformational hires for established organizations looking to reset, innovate, or accelerate growth.
Dell Technologies*, Nutanix*, VMware*, Lenovo*†, Recorded Future*.
* Denotes GTM lead or Country Manager appointment via Executive Search. | † Denotes RPO delivery or project-based team scale-out.
The placements and results highlighted above represent the personal career track record of our founder — Murray Clarke — across TalentHub Partners and his previous Japan-based search firm. As founder and lead of his previous firm, Murray oversaw the strategic execution of all engagements, including his experience leading the VMware RPO during a critical 1–10 growth phase in Japan.
Year 1 As TalentHub Partners
Our agency was founded in 2025 as a proof of concept for further expansion. Recent mandates completed — from first hire to scaled teams during our Proof-of-Concept phase.
Fivetran
1st Japan Enterprise Sales Lead to build the Japan business
SUSE
Country Manager to transform the Japan operation
mabl AI
Rebuilt the Japan GTM team
Databricks
Senior Manager, Solution Architects + Solution Architect
DoiT
Country Manager for Japan launch
Recorded Future
Country Manager scaling the Japan business
Fastly
Country Manager to scale the Japan operation
High Profile Work AI Vendor
Japan Country Manager for Japan launch
Multiple mandates underway
Country Manager and senior leadership searches in progress
Built by People Who've Done This Before
One built search firms. The other builds platforms. Together, they built something neither could alone.
I Built This Because Search Alone Isn't Enough
I've spent my entire career in Japan executive search — over 20 years, led three search firms, all acquired, including my own.
The traditional model — senior partner sells the work, junior associate does the searching — works for one hire at a time. It doesn't scale and it doesn't give clients the visibility they deserve.
TalentHub Partners is an AI-powered platform that transforms how we recruit in Japan. Every engagement gets dedicated intelligence pages, AI-matched candidates, and real-time reporting.
I lead every engagement personally. When you work with TalentHub, I'm your first call and the person presenting your shortlist.
The Platform Behind the Search
Konstantin is the reason the AI actually works. His background spans IBM Global Services, Deloitte Consulting, and BearingPoint with 15+ years building enterprise software platforms.
The result: candidate matching, market intelligence, competitive analysis, and branded engagement pages — all running on a platform we built from scratch. No off-the-shelf ATS. No third-party AI. Everything purpose-built for executive search in Japan.
Contact Us
If you are expanding or rebuilding in Japan and require executive search or structured outbound RPO support, we are happy to discuss your mandate.
We work with US enterprise technology vendors across market entry, scale and leadership transition.
If you are an experienced independent recruiter exploring partnership within a structured platform, we are open to confidential conversations.
Murray Clarke
Founder, TalentHub Partners