Sales Development Leader - Tokyo

OpenAI; United States; On-site; USD 127,000 - 191,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenAI is hiring a Sales Development Manager, Japan to lead and develop a team of SDRs supporting our enterprise business in Japan. You will coach, build scalable outbound and inbound motions, and partner with Sales leadership to drive qualified pipeline.

You will shape engagement with large Japanese enterprises, establish metrics and playbooks, and recruit and onboard SDR talent as the Japan organization scales. Fluency in Japanese and strong English are required.

Qualifications

• Have 6–10+ years of experience in sales, business development, or GTM roles, with significant experience in the Japanese market.
• Experience managing SDRs/BDRs or business development teams in enterprise SaaS or cloud
• Strong enterprise prospecting, pipeline generation, and outbound strategy in Japan
• Ability to navigate complex organizations with multiple stakeholders and long decision-making processes
• Operational and data-driven, with experience managing metrics, funnels, pipeline performance, and forecasting
• Excellent communication skills with both technical and executive stakeholders, in Japanese and English

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of SDRs supporting Large Enterprise, Strategic Accounts, and key industry verticals across Japan
• Drive high-quality pipeline generation through outbound prospecting, inbound qualification, account-based motions, and product-led signals
• Build an SDR motion tailored to the Japanese enterprise market, including account mapping and stakeholder engagement
• Establish strong operational rigor around activity metrics, conversion rates, pipeline quality, and execution consistency
• Partner with Account Directors and Japan sales leadership on territory planning and strategic opportunity development
• Help define scalable SDR playbooks across outbound, inbound, ABM, partner-sourced, and product-led motions
• Coach SDRs on executive communication, discovery, account research, and engaging senior stakeholders in large Japanese enterprises
• Foster a high-performance, low-ego team culture focused on continuous improvement
• Collaborate with Marketing, Partnerships, Solutions Engineering, and Strategy & Operations to optimize pipeline generation in Japan
• Support hiring, onboarding, and development of SDR talent as the Japan organization scales
• Bring customer and market insights back into the broader APAC and global GTM organization

Skills

Leadership

Coaching

SDR management

Enterprise SaaS

Outbound/b2b

Data-driven

Japan market

Executive communication

Job description

About the team

OpenAI’s Enterprise Go-To-Market organization helps the world’s largest companies adopt and scale our AI platform across their business—from ChatGPT Enterprise to our developer platform and APIs.

In Japan, we partner with leading organizations across industries including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Retail, and Technology to build new AI-powered customer experiences, transform operations, and reimagine how work gets done. As adoption accelerates through pilots, experimentation, and developer-led use cases, the GTM team turns that momentum into durable, enterprise-wide deployments.

Sales Development sits at the front of this motion—where technical curiosity becomes executive engagement and OpenAI’s enterprise relationships begin.

About the role

We are hiring a Sales Development Manager, Japan to lead and develop a team of SDRs supporting our enterprise business in Japan. Reporting into Sales Development leadership, this role will be responsible for coaching and developing a high-performing team focused on generating qualified pipeline and creating strategic opportunities across some of Japan’s largest and most influential organizations.

This is a foundational front-line leadership role within OpenAI’s Japan GTM organization. You will help define how we engage prospective customers in the Japanese market, convert product and developer interest into enterprise conversations, and build repeatable outbound and inbound motions that reflect the unique dynamics of enterprise selling in Japan.

You will partner closely with Japan Sales leadership, Account Directors, Marketing, Solutions Engineering, Partnerships, and Strategy & Operations, while connecting our Japan go-to-market motion with OpenAI’s broader regional and global strategy.

In this role, you will

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of SDRs supporting Large Enterprise, Strategic Accounts, and key industry verticals across Japan

• Drive high-quality pipeline generation through outbound prospecting, inbound qualification, account-based motions, and product-led signals

• Build an SDR motion tailored to the Japanese enterprise market, including thoughtful account mapping, stakeholder engagement, and long-term relationship development

• Establish strong operational rigor around activity metrics, conversion rates, pipeline quality, and execution consistency

• Partner closely with Account Directors and Japan sales leadership on territory planning, account prioritization, and strategic opportunity development

• Help define scalable SDR playbooks across outbound, inbound, ABM, partner-sourced, and product-led motions

• Coach SDRs on executive communication, discovery, account research, strategic prospecting, and engaging senior stakeholders within large Japanese enterprises

• Build a high-performance, collaborative, and low-ego team culture focused on continuous improvement

• Work cross-functionally with Marketing, Partnerships, Solutions Engineering, and Strategy & Operations to optimize pipeline generation efforts in Japan

• Support the hiring, onboarding, and development of SDR talent as the Japan organization continues to scale

• Bring insights from customers, prospects, and the Japanese market back into the broader APAC and global GTM organization

You may thrive in this role if you

• Have 6–10+ years of experience in sales, business development, or GTM roles, with significant experience in the Japanese market

• Bring experience managing SDRs, BDRs, or business development teams in enterprise SaaS, cloud, platform, or other technology businesses

• Have a strong understanding of enterprise prospecting, pipeline generation, and outbound strategy in Japan

• Understand how large Japanese enterprises evaluate and adopt new technologies, and can navigate complex organizations with multiple stakeholders and long decision-making processes

• Are highly operational and data-driven, with experience managing metrics, conversion funnels, pipeline performance, and forecasting

• Thrive in fast-paced, high-growth environments where processes are still being built and ambiguity is expected

• Have experience partnering closely with Enterprise Sales teams on strategic account development

• Are an exceptional coach who knows how to develop early-career talent into high-performing sales professionals

• Can communicate effectively with both technical and executive stakeholders and adapt your communication style across Japanese and global teams

• Lead with high standards, accountability, curiosity, and a low-ego mindset

• Are excited about helping Japanese enterprises adopt transformative AI technologies

• Are fluent in Japanese and able to operate effectively in English in a global business environment

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

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