Area Director North Asia

The role

Own the full commercial outcome for Japan and Korea, with an initial focus of approximately 80% on Japan: winning new ARR through Sales while protecting and growing the existing customer base through Account Management Reporting to the VP, APAC, you’ll be a hands-on commercial leader, strengthening pipeline and forecast discipline, coaching the team, supporting strategic deals and customer escalations, and building predictable execution across both markets. You’ll develop and continuously refine the local commercial playbook, surface market, product, integration and partnership opportunities, and turn them into clear recommendations and business cases for regional leadership. You’ll also embed practical AI across the team to accelerate preparation, analysis, reporting and productivity — using technology as a force multiplier while applying the judgement needed to make sound commercial decisions.

What we expect

• 8+ years of SaaS leadership experience, including both new-business sales and Account Management.
• Commercially sharp and data-driven. You know your numbers — forecasting, pipeline coverage, churn, NRR and expansion ARR, and use them to drive decisions.
• An experienced enterprise seller. You’ve managed complex customers, buying groups and large hotel groups, chains or similar organisations.
• Strong SaaS and product fluency, with enough technical depth to understand adoption data, account-health signals, integrations, PMS migrations, and incident root causes and to engage credibly with customers and internal specialists
• A strong people leader. You know how to coach and develop both ICs and managers and build a team that takes ownership.
• Strategic but hands-on. You can think long-term about market development while jumping into a sales call, renewal or escalation when needed.
• Experience working cross-functionally across Product, Partnerships, Support, Operations, Marketing, Enablement, and Customer Success in an international or cross-border environment
• An entrepreneurial, proactive, and reliable approach, with the ability to create a roadmap and execute in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment
• AI-native. You actively use AI to improve forecasting, reporting, preparation, business cases and team productivity.
• Native in Japanese and professional fluency in English, with clear, concise communication and the ability to influence stakeholders across an international organisation