Head of Partnerships - Japan

WE ARE AN APPLIED AI LAB BUILDING END-TO-END SOFTWARE AGENTS. We're the makers of Devin, the first AI software engineer, and Windsurf, the AI-native IDE. Together, they represent our vision for collaborative AI teammates that enable engineers to focus on more interesting problems and empower teams to strive for more ambitious goals. Our team is small and talent-dense. Among our founding team, we have world-class competitive programmers, former founders, and leaders from companies at the cutting edge of AI including Scale AI, Palantir, Cursor, Waymo, Tesla, Lunchclub, Modal, Google DeepMind, and Nuro. Building Devin and Windsurf is just the first step—our hardest challenges still lie ahead. If you’re excited to solve some of the world’s biggest problems and build AI that can reason on real-world tasks, apply to join us. ABOUT THE ROLE As Head of Partnerships, Japan, reporting into the GM and President, you will be responsible for building and scaling Cognition’s strategic ecosystem across the Japanese market. This includes identifying, structuring, and activating partnerships with leading enterprises, system integrators, cloud providers, and government aligned organisations to accelerate adoption of Devin. You will play a critical role in establishing Cognition’s presence in Japan, acting as both a market builder and a strategic operator. This is a highly cross functional role, working closely with product, engineering, and go to market leadership to ensure our partnerships directly translate into revenue, product insight, and long term market positioning. This role requires a blend of commercial instinct, technical fluency, and deep understanding of how to navigate and influence complex organisations in Japan. IN THIS ROLE, YOU WILL: - Build and own Cognition’s partnerships strategy in Japan, identifying high leverage partners across enterprise, SI, cloud, and public sector ecosystems - Source, structure, and close strategic partnership agreements that drive revenue, distribution, and product adoption at scale - Develop joint go to market motions with partners, including co selling, co building, and embedded deployment of Devin within partner ecosystems - Act as the senior relationship owner across key partners, engaging C suite, innovation leaders, and technical stakeholders - Navigate complex, multi layered organisations across enterprise and government aligned institutions in Japan - Translate partner and market feedback into product insight, working closely with engineering and product teams to refine Devin’s use cases - Identify and unlock new market opportunities, including industry specific use cases and strategic expansion pathways - Work closely with international leadership to shape Cognition’s broader APAC strategy and ensure strong alignment with global priorities - Drive measurable outcomes, including partner sourced pipeline, revenue contribution, and ecosystem expansion REQUIREMENTS FOR THE ROLE: - Proven track record of building and scaling strategic partnerships in Japan, ideally within enterprise software, AI, or deep tech environments - Strong experience working with large enterprises, system integrators, and/or cloud ecosystems in Japan - Ability to navigate Japanese business culture and decision making structures, with credibility at executive level - High level of technical fluency, with the ability to understand and position complex AI and software engineering solutions - Demonstrated ability to structure and close complex, multi party commercial agreements - Thrive in ambiguous, high growth environments, with the ability to operate autonomously and move quickly - Exceptional stakeholder management skills across both local and global teams - Fluent in Japanese and English YOU MIGHT EXCEL IF YOU… - Have built or scaled a partnerships or alliances function from zero to one in Japan - Have experience working with or within top tier Japanese enterprises, consultancies, or technology providers - Have a background in technical roles (engineering, solutions, or forward deployed) and moved into commercial or partnership leadership - Have successfully driven co sell or ecosystem led growth motions in high growth SaaS or AI companies - Are highly ambitious, competitive, and thrive in high intensity, build mode environments WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS Japan is a critical market for Cognition. The right partnerships strategy will define how quickly Devin is adopted across the region. This role is not just about building relationships, it is about shaping the market, unlocking distribution at scale, and embedding Cognition into the fabric of Japan’s technology ecosystem. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY Cognition is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities throughout the hiring process - please let us know if you need any.