Riya Mahajan

Business Architect, Educator & Community Builder

Meet Riya Mahajan
Business Architect, Educator & Community Builder 📖

Born and raised in Japan, Riya Mahajan studied Mechanical Engineering at Waseda University before taking an unexpected path into consulting. Today, she works as a Business Architecture Associate Manager at Accenture, helping organizations navigate cloud transformation and large-scale technology initiatives.

Outside of work, she's passionate about education and community building. For the past 11 years, she has been teaching students from international schools, creating learning communities across subjects like physics and chemistry. What began as a way to share her knowledge has become a long-term passion and a way to disconnect from the pace of everyday work.

What are you currently building?

A learning community for students at international schools. For over a decade, she's taught students of all ages in subjects like physics and chemistry, finding fulfillment in helping others learn while creating a space that allows her to recharge outside of work.

What excites you about Japan?

Tokyo has become much more international over the years, making it easier to meet people from around the world. She especially enjoys how the city's communities are small enough to build genuine relationships, where mutual connections are common.

Although she's always dreamed of living abroad and has traveled more frequently in recent years, she always finds herself wanting to come back to Japan for its convenience, cleanliness, and safety.

A risk that changed your trajectory?

Joining a Japanese consulting firm despite having an engineering background. During university, she accepted an offer at Accenture expecting an English-speaking role, only to find that the work was conducted almost entirely in Japanese. It was a steep learning curve, but sticking with it led her to grow into her current role as a Business Architecture Associate Manager.

A habit that has had the biggest impact?

Making time for herself and the people around her. Whether it's going to the gym through ClassPass, training for HYROX, or meeting friends each month to work toward personal goals, she believes consistently investing in life outside of work keeps her motivated. She's also studying for the GMAT with the goal of pursuing a master's degree abroad, driven more by the experience of living overseas than by career advancement.

Advice for your early 20s?

You don't have to have everything figured out. There will always be new challenges to solve, so don't put too much pressure on yourself. Enjoy where you are, have fun, and trust that things will work out.