Principal

Job Title: Principal

Location:
Osaka Campus / Upcoming Hamamatsu Campus, Japan Job Summary The Principal serves as the overall leader of One World International School (OWIS) and is responsible for providing strategic, academic, operational, and people leadership across the school. The Principal will provide clear vision and direction for the campus, ensure high standards of teaching and learning, drive continuous school improvement, and oversee the effective management of people, resources, compliance, and day-to-day campus operations. Working closely with academic leaders, staff, students, parents, and key stakeholders, the Principal will foster a positive, inclusive, and high-performing school culture that promotes academic excellence, student well-being, and staff development. The Principal will also play a key role in strengthening parent and community engagement, supporting sustainable student enrollment and campus growth, and ensuring that school operations are aligned with OWIS’s mission, vision, organizational policies, and applicable regulatory requirements. For the upcoming Hamamatsu campus, the Principal will additionally play a key leadership role in establishing the new campus, building the academic and operational foundation, developing the school community, and supporting the successful launch and sustainable growth of the school.

Key Responsibilities
1. Strategic Planning, Governance & School Development
• Develop, execute and review the School Strategic Plan, establishing measurable academic, operational, financial and institutional priorities, KPIs and targets.
• Monitor overall school performance against agreed objectives, using data and MIS to identify gaps, drive corrective actions and report progress to the Group/Board.
• Review school structures, processes and resource deployment to improve effectiveness, productivity and long-term sustainability.
• Ensure compliance with Group policies, internal controls, regulatory and statutory requirements, accreditation standards, EHS, sustainability and disaster-management requirements, including timely closure of audit findings.
• Lead new academic/institutional initiatives, strategic partnerships and school development projects that strengthen educational outcomes, institutional capability and sustainable growth.
• Chair key leadership and governance forums and oversee key institutional reporting to the Board. 2. Academic Leadership & Student Outcomes
• Own whole-school academic performance, Board results and academic standards across Early Years, Primary and Secondary, ensuring achievement of agreed academic targets and high-quality curriculum implementation, pedagogy, teaching, learning and assessment.
• Establish clear learning outcomes and academic performance expectations, regularly reviewing Board and internal assessment results against targets, benchmarks and prior-year performance, and driving timely interventions to address gaps.
• Strengthen teaching quality and instructional effectiveness through structured classroom observations, feedback, coaching and continuous improvement of pedagogical practices.
• Oversee examinations, assessment standards, student reporting and academic compliance, ensuring consistency, accuracy and adherence to required standards and timelines.
• Drive academic innovation and effective use of digital learning platforms, including skill-based learning, differentiated pedagogy and technology-enabled teaching and learning.
• Drive student achievement and exposure through external competitions, curricular/co-curricular opportunities and national/international platforms.
• Set the school’s university and career-readiness ambition, overseeing career guidance, university counselling and programmes that strengthen student profiles. 3. People Leadership & Development
• Build a high-performance, collaborative and engaged school culture, strengthening accountability, communication, staff morale and shared ownership.
• In partnership with HR, ensure effective workforce planning, recruitment and development of school leaders, teachers and other key staff.
• Actively support the implementation of the performance management framework, ensuring timely and effective goal-setting, performance reviews and appraisals for the School, in collaboration with HR.
• Identify capability gaps and ensure effective professional development, coaching and mandatory training, including safeguarding and child protection.
• Build leadership bench strength through succession planning and development of HODs, Coordinators and other critical roles.
• Drive staff engagement, satisfaction and retention, while maintaining appropriate attendance, performance and workforce discipline standards. 4. Student Affairs, Safeguarding & Wellbeing
• Own the whole-school framework for student welfare, behaviour, discipline, attendance and wellbeing, ensuring consistent standards and timely interventions across all segments.
• Hold overall accountability for safeguarding and child protection, ensuring compliance with Group and regulatory requirements and appropriate management of escalated cases.
• Lead the school’s Learning Support, SEN and inclusion framework, ensuring appropriate support and resources for diverse student needs.
• Own and control student attrition, driving early identification of students at risk and ensuring timely interventions to achieve student retention.
• Own the school’s crisis and emergency management framework and provide leadership during significant incidents. 5. Parent, Community & Stakeholder Engagement
• Drive parent engagement, satisfaction, communication and advocacy, ensuring consistent parent-teacher engagement and effective involvement of PSG/parent bodies.
• Ensure timely and effective resolution of parent concerns and escalated complaints, including those raised through designated support/helpdesk channels.
• Strengthen the school’s reputation and community presence through outreach, partnerships and parent/community advocacy.
• Act as a key external representative of the school with the Board, regulatory/government authorities, media and other key stakeholders, as appropriate.
• Oversee key school-wide communications and digital engagement channels, ensuring effective parent-student-school communication. 6. School Operations, Admissions & Resource Management
• Collaborate with Sales and Marketing to drive student enrolment and support achievement of agreed enrolment targets.
• Oversee effective day-to-day school operations, including timetabling, master calendar, assemblies, shared facilities and cross-division coordination.
• Own the whole-school budget and resource allocation, driving cost optimisation and efficient utilisation of people, infrastructure and other resources without compromising educational quality or safety.
• Monitor and improve key operational efficiency benchmarks, including staffing ratios and campus/facility utilisation. Job Requirements Minimum Qualifications
• Master’s Degree with a teaching degree or its equivalent Experience
• Overall 15+ yrs of experience
• At least 5 years of experience in a senior management or leadership role within a school or educational institution. Prior experience in strategic planning, financial management and people leadership would be an advantage.