Head of Partnerships, Japan

Responsibilities

Lead and build the team

• Hire, develop, and retain a high-performing Japan partner team spanning GSI, regional SI, and reseller coverage.
• Set goals, territories, partner portfolios, and accountability for pipeline, revenue, and attach-rate outcomes.
• Establish operating cadences including one-on-ones, pipeline reviews, deal inspection, partner QBRs, and quarterly business planning.
• Coach the team on executive engagement, joint business planning, and co-selling in Japanese enterprise accounts.

Set and own the Japan partner strategy

• Define priority partner segments, partners, and motions based on revenue potential, customer reach, and strategic fit.
• Design partner coverage across organizations such as NTT DATA, Fujitsu, NEC, Hitachi, and Accenture.
• Localize the global partner program for Japan, including tiers, incentives, enablement paths, and rules of engagement.
• Own annual and quarterly partner business plans for Japan.

Lead strategic partnerships

• Own executive relationships with key Japanese partners, from joint business planning through board-level sponsorship.
• Negotiate and structure resale, co-development, and revenue-sharing agreements with Legal, Finance, and Deal Desk.
• Lead joint solutions and industry offerings across manufacturing, financial services, retail, telecommunications, life sciences, and the public sector.

Own pipeline, revenue, and execution

• Own Japan partner-sourced and partner-influenced pipeline, revenue, and attach-rate targets.
• Run disciplined forecasting with the team and Japan sales leadership.
• Allocate partner investments including market development funds, enablement, co-marketing, and headcount.
• Build reporting and systems hygiene for clear visibility into the Japan partner business.
• Coordinate with Japan sales, Applied AI, Marketing, Legal, and Product.
• Ensure Japanese language, data residency, security, and sovereignty requirements inform global product and engineering priorities.
• Embed partners into account planning and co-selling, and resolve channel conflicts.

Represent the partner ecosystem

• Represent the company at partner executive forums, industry conferences, and analyst engagements.
• Sponsor Japanese customer success stories delivered with partners.
• Build the company’s reputation as a partner-first AI company in Japan.

Requirements

• 15–20+ years in enterprise technology, including substantial experience leading partner, alliances, or channel businesses in Japan.
• 5+ years of people leadership over partner or alliance teams.
• Direct experience building a partner business in Japan for a US or global technology company.
• Proven ownership of country- or region-level partner-sourced and partner-influenced revenue targets.
• Established executive relationships with major Japanese system integrators and consulting firms.
• Experience negotiating resale agreements, joint solution development, revenue-sharing, and incentive models.
• Experience operating as a player-coach while scaling a team.
• Ability to shape strategy in ambiguity and execute with global, cross-time-zone teams.
• Business-level fluency in Japanese and English.
• Based in Tokyo.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience with AI, data, or cloud platform partnerships, including partner-built solutions and marketplace motions.
• Experience working inside a Japanese SI or distributor.
• Experience localizing and influencing a global partner program for Japan.
• Experience working with professional services or applied AI teams to deliver partner-led customer outcomes.

Compensation and benefits

• Hybrid policy: Staff are currently expected to work from an office at least 25% of the time; some roles may require more office time.
• Visa sponsorship may be available, subject to role and candidate eligibility.