Business Development Associate - Japanese Speaker

The Role

This role is based in Vietnam from our centrally located Ho Chi Minh City office (District 1) and is open to any Japanese speaker. You’ll be part of our growing HCMC team of 15 people working across Business Development, Product, Tech, Marketing and Growth.

We’re looking for a smart, energetic and ambitious Business Development Associate to join our Business Development team, where you will be a crucial part of our outbound sales team tasked with selling to businesses in Japan that can use what3words’ technology. This will include managing your own sales pipeline in a broad range of sectors including e-commerce, delivery, travel, tourism and emergency services. You will work closely with and report directly to our Head of APAC.

As part of your role, you will work closely with our Head of APAC to sell what3words into large enterprises such as automotive companies in Japan, as well as managing relationships with existing partners like Subaru and Mitsubishi. This is a unique opportunity to work on large strategic accounts and develop valuable enterprise sales skills, including regular business trips to Japan.

Your global Business Development team is a group of talented people from all over the world on an unprecedented journey. Every day brings new challenges and we are always learning. You will be proud to see your individual and team contributions making a real difference as we make what3words a leading addressing standard in Japan and around the world.

If you are a recent graduate or professional who is looking to join a rapidly growing business in its scale-up phase that values entrepreneurial thinking and creative decision-making, this is your unique opportunity.

Your responsibilities will include :

Create and present your own sales decks to lead one-to-one sales calls and meetings with businesses that can integrate what3words’ technology

Proactively manage key relationships with existing partners in Japan with the view to maintaining and expanding our business with them, regularly acting as conduit between them and other client-facing departments in the business like marketing

Be the key Japanese language and culture expert within what3words, working closely with other departments in the company like marketing and product, providing language support and advice on positioning what3words in Japan

Identify and attend key industry events to represent what3words and network with potential customers

Regular business trips to Japan as required for in-person meetings

Working hours will be 9am - 6pm ICT but you may at times need to be flexible to accommodate global BD team meetings where possible

You will have :

Fluent English; the ability to communicate effectively with English-speaking clients or internal colleagues

Fluent Japanese; the ability to communicate effectively with Japanese-speaking clients, with excellent Japanese writing

Excellent communication skills, both written and oral; you can clearly communicate the what3words proposition and are highly persuasive when interacting with prospective customers and partners

An outgoing nature; you enjoy networking, building relationships and being in a customer-facing role

Strong relationship-building interpersonal skills

Strong ability to work autonomously

A highly organised approach to your work - you will need to effectively manage your time across outbounding, meeting clients, progressing deals with excellent pipeline management

The ability to quickly comprehend the what3words technology and be highly motivated by our ambition to become a global addressing standard

Excellent local knowledge of the Japanese market

You will be :

Tech-savvy, with the ability to explain technical detail in easy-to-understand language

Able to produce resources of a very high standard (e.g. slide decks), quickly

We give thorough training and sales onboarding to set you up for success - but we love proactive learners who take initiative

Flexible and comfortable with dealing with ambiguity as we build our strategy as we go, learn from our mistakes and double down on what works

Ambitious and interested in building a long-term career with us

A team-player, motivated by working with a close-knit team and supporting colleagues in their work to drive the business forward

Organised, able to juggle a large workload and prioritise effectively and a mindset to automate and simplify processes where possible

Bonus points if you :

Speak other languages

Have prior sales experience or a strong business network in Japan

Equality, diversity and inclusion at what3words

Our mission is to help everyone talk about everywhere, and we believe diverse perspectives make for a better company and better products too. We strongly encourage applications from underrepresented groups and are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our hiring processes and company culture

Benefits

We offer the following benefits to all permanent employees of what3words :

Flexible working

Competitive salary

6 week remote working (work from anywhere) policy

25 days holiday : plus the option to buy more!

Share options

Private health insurance

Wellbeing Days

Generous parental leave policies

Family friendly policies

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)

Lunch & learn sessions

Team social budget