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# Founding Deployment Lead

- **Company:** The Runway
- **Location:** New York, NY, United States (Remote available)
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Generative AI
- **Published:** September 4, 2026
- **Apply:** https://startup.jobs/founding-deployment-lead-japan-runwayml-8040416

## About the Role

* 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

## Description

As a result, we are looking for a Founding 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 help close complex deals. Quarterly travel to Japan is expected.

What you'll do

 * Own deep, trusted C-suite level relationships with Runway's most strategic partners in Japan,
 * 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


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