Founding Growth & Deployment Lead, Japan

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.