Founding Growth & Deployment Lead, Japan
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AI Summary
We are building AI to simulate the world through merging art and science.
We believe that world models are at the frontier of progress in artificial intelligence. Language models alone won’t solve the world’s hardest problems – robotics, disease, scientific discovery. Real progress requires models that experience the world and learn from their mistakes, the same way that humans do. And this kind of trial and error can be massively accelerated when done in simulation, rather than in the real world.
World models offer the most clear path to general-purpose simulation, changing how stories are told, how scientific progress is made and how the next frontiers of humanity are reached.
Our team consists of creative, open minded, caring and ambitious people who are determined to change the world. We aspire to continuously build impossible things and our ability to do so relies on building an incredible team. If you are driven to do the same, we'd love to hear from you.
About the role
*Open to hiring remote across the US and London – we also have offices in NYC, San Francisco, Seattle, and London
Japan has been one of Runway’s fastest-growing markets, even without a major commercial presence – it's our third-largest market among both enterprise and self-serve customers, and the fastest-growing self-serve market in Asia. In addition to millions of individual users, we've seen 300% growth in enterprise customers in the past 12 months, and Japan has driven a third of our sales volume in Asia overall.
As a result, we are looking for a Founding Growth & Deployment Lead to own Runway’s most strategic enterprise relationships in Japan – end to end. You will guide deals from first conversation through close, then ensure those partners thrive and expand on our platform after launch. This role requires full professional bilingual fluency in Japanese and English, deep familiarity with Japanese enterprise culture, and the commercial chops to own a book of business and close complex deals. Quarterly travel to Japan is expected.
What you’ll do
Own the full commercial lifecycle for Japan book of business – from sourcing and qualifying opportunities to negotiating and closing enterprise deals, through to renewal, upsell, and long-term expansion
Travel to Japan at least once per quarter for in-person relationship building, deal advancement, and partner support
Represent Runway in Japan's creative and enterprise ecosystem – at events, industry forums, and partner summits
Partner cross-functionally with Product, Creative, Sales, and Leadership to translate Japan-specific market signals into roadmap input and go-to-market strategy – you are the voice of the Japanese market internally
Go deep inside partner organizations to understand their creative and operational workflows, then design and propose targeted Runway solutions
Identify and pursue new categories of opportunity within Japan – new verticals, new use cases, new partner types – and prototype quickly to validate before scaling
Be hands-on in quickly onboarding new partners to our platform and/or API while also supporting their long-term expansion and technical understanding of how to leverage Runway
Analyze, track, and report on the performance of existing partnerships leveraging BI tools and data
What you’ll need
7+ years of overall experience in customer-facing roles, engaging C-level audiences with complex global organizations ideally within tech, finance, or consulting
Full professional bilingual fluency in Japanese and English
Deep familiarity with Japanese enterprise culture, procurement, and relationship dynamics; able to travel to Japan at least quarterly
Experience owning or contributing to P&L, commercial forecasting, and pipeline management
Proven track record leading complex Generative AI or ML implementations with measurable business outcomes
Highly resourceful, autonomous, and action-oriented – thrives in ambiguity, creates structure, and manages competing priorities without losing sight of what matters
Exceptional executive communication and presentation skills
Nice to have but not required: existing relationships in Japan's media, entertainment, advertising, or enterprise tech sectors
SF-based preferred
Runway strives to recruit and retain exceptional talent from diverse backgrounds while ensuring pay equity for our team. Our salary ranges are based on competitive market rates for our size, stage and industry, and salary is just one part of the overall compensation package we provide.
There are many factors that go into salary determinations, including relevant experience, skill level and qualifications assessed during the interview process, and maintaining internal equity with peers on the team. The range shared below is a general expectation for the function as posted, but we are also open to considering candidates who may be more or less experienced than outlined in the job description. In this case, we will communicate any updates in the expected salary range.
Lastly, the provided range is the expected salary for candidates in the U.S. Outside of those regions, there may be a change in the range, which again, will be communicated to candidates.
Working at Runway
Great things come from great teams. We’d love to hear from you.
We’re committed to creating a space where our employees can bring their full selves to work and have equal opportunity to succeed. So regardless of race, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, religion, origin, ability, age, veteran status, if joining this mission speaks to you, we encourage you to apply.
More about Runway
We're excited to be recognized as a best place to work:
Crain's | InHerSight | BuiltIn NYC | INC
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