Ads Marketing Manager, Japan

About the team

OpenAI is building the next generation of advertising for an AI-powered world. As AI changes how people discover information, explore possibilities, and make decisions, we believe this presents a huge opportunity for businesses to connect with customers in new ways.

The Ads Marketing team is building this opportunity from the ground up. We define how businesses discover OpenAI’s advertising platform, become successful advertisers, and grow their investment over time. Working closely with Product, Ads Engineering, Data Science, and Sales, we combine customer insight, rigorous experimentation, and fast execution to turn early opportunities into scalable growth.

About the role

As Japan Ads Marketing Manager, you will help build OpenAI’s advertising business in Japan, with a primary focus on growing small and medium-sized advertisers. This is a hands-on, zero-to-one opportunity to establish the programs, agency engagement, and local marketing approaches that will shape our growth in Japan.

You will own the market’s SMB growth strategy and revenue outcomes across acquisition, activation, retention, and expansion—translating a deep understanding of Japanese businesses into programs that help advertisers succeed. You will also partner with Sales and global marketing teams to support large-advertiser engagement through events, activations, and coordinated market initiatives. You will bring local insight to global teams and adapt global capabilities to the needs of the Japanese market.

In this role, you will

- Own SMB revenue and growth goals in Japan, translating market opportunities into a focused strategy and measurable marketing programs.

- Build acquisition, onboarding, activation, and lifecycle programs that help SMBs launch successfully, see value, and grow their advertising investment.

- Identify priority customer segments, verticals, and growth opportunities through customer insight, market analysis, and experimentation.

- Recruit, engage, and grow SMB-focused agencies and partners through education, enablement, co-marketing, and scalable programs.

- Build awareness and consideration through locally relevant case studies, webinars, events, and educational content, amplified through influencer marketing, owned channels, and paid media.

- Partner with Sales to connect marketing programs with customer opportunities and improve handoffs across self-serve and sales-assisted journeys.

- Coordinate with Sales and global marketing teams on large-advertiser events, activations, and market engagement.

- Adapt global campaigns and programs for Japan, balancing local customer needs with shared resources and capabilities.

- Measure commercial impact, test new approaches, and scale programs that improve advertiser acquisition, retention, and revenue.

- Bring customer and agency feedback to Product, Ads Engineering, and global teams to inform the advertiser experience and future growth opportunities.

You might thrive in this role if you have

- Experience in digital advertising, growth marketing, or advertiser marketing, with a track record of delivering measurable business growth.

- Deep understanding of Japan’s advertising market, including SMB needs, agency relationships, and local customer behavior.

- Experience building and launching programs from scratch, setting priorities in ambiguity, and moving from strategy to hands-on execution.

- Strong knowledge of self-serve advertising and performance marketing, with experience improving acquisition, activation, retention, or expansion.

- Experience working with agencies and partners to reach, educate, and grow advertisers.

- Strong analytical judgment and the ability to connect customer insight, funnel performance, and experimentation to revenue outcomes.

- A track record of working effectively with Sales, Product, and global or regional marketing teams.

- Strong communication skills in Japanese and English, with the ability to engage local customers and collaborate across global teams.

Experience that would be especially valuable

- Experience at an advertising technology platform such as Google, Meta, or a comparable business.

- Experience taking global programs into Japan and using local insights to improve the broader approach.

- Experience delivering advertiser events or activations with sales teams, alongside scalable SMB growth programs.