Careers

Join Maana — Where Craft, Culture, and Hospitality Meet

At Maana, we believe in creating spaces and experiences that feel timeless, warm, and deeply human. Our work celebrates Japanese craftsmanship, culture, and everyday simple moments. We're building a small team of curious minds and passionate storytellers. If you love shaping ideas into meaningful details that bring people together, we'd love to meet you.
Join us to build a world of inspiration and connection.
We're hiring key roles to help shape Maana's next chapter.
Apply Now

Front Desk Staff

Location: Kyoto, Japan
Type: Part Time
About the Role
At Maana, hospitality is more than just service. It's about warmth, care, and making people feel truly at home.
In this role, you'll be one of the faces of Maana—supporting our front desk, café, or retail spaces depending on your personal curiosities and passion. You'll welcome guests and customers, assist with daily operations, and help create a calm, thoughtful environment where people feel at ease.
This is a fun and dynamic role for someone with positive energy, a warm attitude, and a natural interest in people. If you enjoy engaging with others, working as part of a close team, and being surrounded by culture, design, and good hospitality, you'll feel at home here.
Responsibilities
  • • Take ownership of the entire guest journey — from inquiry through departure — with thoughtful, clear communication.
  • • Welcome and assist guests and customers with warmth, efficiency, and professionalism.
  • • Manage check-in and check-out processes, ensuring a smooth and memorable experience.
  • • Respond to guest inquiries — from restaurant recommendations to transportation — with insight and local knowledge.
  • • Coordinate with housekeeping and maintenance teams to ensure rooms are always ready and guest needs are promptly addressed.
  • • Handle reservations across phone, email, and online platforms, maintaining accurate records.
  • • Assist with property management tasks as needed, ensuring day-to-day operations run seamlessly.
  • • Support daily operations at the front desk, café, or retail shop, including check-ins, orders, transactions, and basic customer inquiries.
  • • Help maintain a clean, organized, and inviting space.
  • • Collaborate with other departments such as retail, experiences, and dining with a proactive, helpful attitude.
  • • Work closely with the team to ensure smooth day-to-day operations.
  • • Support opening and closing tasks as needed.
Qualifications
  • • Required: Bilingual in Japanese and English.
  • • Warm, friendly, and reliable.
  • • Comfortable communicating with people from different backgrounds.
  • • Able to stay calm and organized in a dynamic environment.
  • • Prior experience in hospitality, café, or retail is a plus, but not required.

Project Manager for Developer

Location: Kyoto, Japan (On-site)
Type: Freelance, Project-Based, Hourly
About Maana
Maana Homes is a founder-led hospitality company in Kyoto building restored machiya and newly designed residences where people slow down and reconnect with themselves and with place. We're not a hotel chain. Every space we make reflects deep attention to craft, material, and the rhythm of local life.
We're now developing a landmark boutique hotel in Higashiyama, Kyoto—a ground-up project and the most ambitious build in our history, with the opportunity to work alongside award-winning global designers.
About the Role
We're looking for a Project Manager with an architecture or interior design background to run this project alongside our founders, from design development through to opening. This is not a back-office coordination role. You'll be in the room for the decisions that shape what this building becomes, working directly with our founding team, internationally recognized architects and designers, contractors, and craftspeople.
You'll own the day-to-day: schedules, budgets, vendor coordination, site supervision, drawing review, permit and compliance tracking. But you'll also need the design fluency to catch when something on paper drifts from intent—to read a detail, question a material substitution, or flag a sequencing issue before it becomes expensive.
This is project-based and freelance. We're looking for someone local, able to be on-site in Kyoto regularly, not a remote consultant.
What You'll Do
  • • Manage the project timeline and budget across design development, permitting, construction, and pre-opening phases.
  • • Coordinate between architects, contractors, engineers, and artisan partners.
  • • Review architectural and interior drawings for coherence, buildability, and fidelity to design intent.
  • • Run site visits and supervise progress against schedule and quality standards.
  • • Track permits, inspections, and regulatory compliance specific to Japanese construction and hospitality licensing.
  • • Surface risks early—schedule slippage, cost overrun, design compromise—with a clear recommendation, not just a flag.
  • • Report directly to the founders in both Japanese and English, translating between technical, creative, and business conversations as needed.
Who You Are
  • • Background in architecture or interior design, with real project management experience—you've run a build, not just drafted for one.
  • • Bilingual: business-level Japanese and English, both required. You'll be moving between Japanese contractors and officials and English-speaking founders daily.
  • • Based in or able to work locally in Kyoto or Kansai.
  • • Comfortable in a small, founder-led company—this isn't a role with a big project management department behind it. You'll need judgment, not just process.
  • • Detail-oriented without losing sight of the bigger design intent.
  • • Steady under ambiguity—this is a landmark project being built in real time, not a fully specified corporate job.
Structure
  • • Freelance, hourly rate.
  • • Project-based engagement tied to the Higashiyama development timeline.
  • • Scope and hours to be defined based on project phase.
To Apply
Send a portfolio or project history showing relevant architecture, interior design, and project management experience, along with your availability and rate expectations.

Head Chef

Location: Kyoto, Japan
Type: Full Time
About the Role
Maana is looking for a Head Chef to build our dinner program from the ground up, developing the dinner concept that will define Maana's food and beverage experience.
This is a rare opportunity in Kyoto to shape a boutique, intimate dinner experience from the ground up, alongside a hospitality brand guided by soul, simplicity, and warmth.
We believe a meal is a moment to slow down and connect. Our food should feel nourishing from the inside out—simple, thoughtful, and impactful. We are not a typical hotel brand or large-scale operation. Maana is a small and passionate team, and this role offers real ownership, creative freedom, and clear credit for the work you build.
This position is for a chef who wants to be closely involved, valued for their ideas, and excited to create something meaningful for the long term.
What You'll Do
  • • Develop the dinner concept: an intimate, boutique dining experience rooted in nourishment and care, not spectacle.
  • • Shape the format, scale, and rhythm of dinner service alongside Irene and the team.
  • • Build the menu, sourcing, and kitchen structure to support it.
  • • Train and support the kitchen team as we grow.
  • • Collaborate with the team on the larger brand story and experience.
Who This Is For
  • • You have experience leading a kitchen, or you are a strong sous chef ready to step up.
  • • You care about flavor, detail, and the feeling food leaves behind.
  • • You want ownership, creative space, and a long-term home to build a dinner concept.
  • • You are based in Kyoto, or can relocate.
  • • Japanese language ability required.

Sous Chef / Cook — Dinner

Location: Kyoto, Japan
Type: Full Time
About the Role
Maana is building a new dinner program in Kyoto—an intimate, boutique dining experience rooted in nourishment and care, not spectacle. We're looking for a Sous Chef or skilled Cook to help build it from the ground up alongside our kitchen leadership and the wider team.
You'll start close to the work: prepping, cooking, and holding standards on the line as the dinner concept takes shape. As the program grows, so does your role—alongside the Head Chef once that hire is in place, and toward more ownership over menu development, sourcing, and training as trust builds.
This is not a large-scale operation. Maana is a small and passionate team, and this role offers real hands-on craft, room to grow, and a seat at the table as the dinner concept comes to life.
What You'll Do
  • • Execute prep and service to a high standard: taste, timing, cleanliness, and calm.
  • • Support the development of the dinner menu and concept as it's built.
  • • Source and handle seasonal, local ingredients with care.
  • • Help train and support kitchen staff as the team grows.
  • • Work closely with the Head Chef, once hired, to bring the dinner concept to life, and with Irene and the team in the meantime.
Who This Is For
  • • You have solid experience as a sous chef or line cook, ideally in a small, intimate, or fine-dining kitchen.
  • • You care about flavor, detail, and the feeling food leaves behind.
  • • You want to grow your skills and responsibility over time, not just fill a shift.
  • • You're excited to help build something new, not maintain something established.
  • • You are based in Kyoto, or can relocate.
  • • Japanese language ability required.