The Role
Serve as the CTO’s strategic and operational partner by aligning leadership, KPIs, budgets, hiring plans, and cross-functional initiatives. Optimize the CTO’s priorities and schedule, anticipate needs, prepare meeting materials, resolve conflicts, and build stakeholder alignment across Woven by Toyota and Toyota. Create dashboards and analyses, improve operational infrastructure, support organizational transformation, and represent the CTO. The role requires fluent English and Japanese communication, empathetic leadership, and experience scaling senior technology executives.
Summary Generated by Built In
About Woven by Toyota
Woven by Toyota is enabling Toyota’s once-in-a-century transformation into a mobility company. Inspired by a legacy of innovating for the benefit of others, our mission is to challenge the current state of mobility through human-centric innovation — expanding what “mobility” means and how it serves society.
Our work centers on four pillars: AD/ADAS, our autonomous driving and advanced driver assist technologies; Arene, our software development platform for software-defined vehicles; Woven City, a test course for mobility; and Cloud & AI, the digital infrastructure powering our collaborative foundation. Business-critical functions empower these teams to execute, and together, we’re working toward one bold goal: a world with zero accidents and enhanced well-being for all.
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Chief of Staff to the Chief Technology Officer
The Chief of Staff (CoS), reporting to the CTO, is a strategic leader who establishes operational excellence and solves complex challenges to scale and enable the CTO to deliver the Company’s goals. This individual will excel at establishing processes, prioritizing tasks, resolving conflicts, addressing challenges, and fostering alignment—often anticipating and addressing issues before they reach the CTO’s desk.
The Chief of Staff will act as a frequent sounding board for ideas, and in turn will be an excellent communicator and collaborator, in some cases on behalf of the CTO — both verbally and in writing, and in both English and Japanese. The Chief of Staff will build trusted, collaborative relationships with the Product and Technology leadership team and key stakeholders across Woven By Toyota, Toyota, and beyond. You are passionate about transforming technology to save lives and improve the quality of lives.
Who Are We Looking for
- Align the CTO’s management team, ensuring they are working as one team with one plan. Align KPIs to give the CTO a consolidated view of company performance/areas that require focus.
- Build bridges, and partnerships, and collaborate with key stakeholders, including Toyota and Toyota Ecosystems, to create synergies and leverage work to achieve the company’s goals
- Budget oversight, in collaboration with the finance and other stakeholders, teaming up to align the financial plan and hiring plan with the strategy
- Support the CTO on strategic topics, taking things off the CTO’s plate and ensuring the CTO is set up to run efficiently in that role. Act as the CTO’s representative and ambassador.
- Proactively optimize the CTO’s time, aligned with business priorities. Decide where time should be invested, ensuring the right balance between internal/external commitments. Allocate the right time investments to the right stakeholders.
- Work behind the scenes to help solve problems, mediate disputes, and foster alignment before issues reach the CTO
- Create dashboards and analyses for the CTO, in support of achieving the goals of the Product and Technology division
- Engender operational excellence and infrastructure to drive results, foster growth, and increase the overall efficiency of the Product and Technology division
- Anticipate the CTO’s needs in advance and ensure that the CTO is well prepared and has materials well in advance of key events and meetings
- Provide inspirational leadership with active listening, empathy, inclusivity, and modeling company values to maximize the performance of teams and individuals
Experience and Skills
- Proven experience in a leadership role to scale C-level executives in a high-growth technology company or deep tech environment
- Demonstrated ability to lead and coordinate complex, multi-functional initiatives, acting as a strategic thought partner and operational right hand to senior leadership
- Demonstrated success delivering advanced technologies and shipping complex software ideally in the automotive space
- Exceptional interpersonal, leadership, and communication skills, with a proven ability to manage multifaceted operations and build trust-based relationships with diverse internal and external stakeholders
- Recognized for high ethical standards and empathetic leadership, with extensive experience in navigating organizational complexity and engaging effectively across all levels of an organization
- A good track record of leading through change and transformation, including organization-wide strategic planning, process improvements, and cultural evolution
- Adept at partnering and influencing at the senior levels of an organization and working collaboratively across functions, levels, and divisions toward shared goals
- Familiarity with working across multiple cultures and levels of organizational maturity
- A mission-driven leader who believes that the role of technology is to contribute to the common good of humanity
- Thrive in ambiguity and embrace the challenge of creating company-wide OKRs, designing product roadmaps, problem-solving, and influencing a diverse set of stakeholders toward a common goal
- Fluent in both English and Japanese, with strong written and verbal communication skills in both languages
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Important Points
・All interviews will be arranged via Google Meet, unless otherwise stated.
・The same job descriptions are available in both English and Japanese; therefore, we kindly ask that you apply to only one version.
・We kindly request that you submit your resume in English, if possible. However, Japanese resumes are also acceptable. Please note that, depending on the English proficiency requirements of the role, we may request an English version of your resume later in the process.
WHAT WE OFFER
・Competitive Salary - Based on experience
・Work Hours - Flexible working time
・Paid Holiday - 20 days per year (prorated)
・Sick Leave - 6 days per year (prorated)
・Holiday - Sat & Sun, Japanese National Holidays, and other days defined by our company
・Japanese Social Insurance - Health Insurance, Pension, Workers’ Comp, and Unemployment Insurance, Long-term care insurance
・Housing Allowance
・Retirement Benefits
・Rental Cars Support
・In-house Training Program (software study/language study)
Our Commitment
・We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity.
・Any information we receive from you will be used only in the hiring and onboarding process. Please see our privacy notice for more details.
Skills Required
- Leadership experience scaling C-level executives in a high-growth technology company or deep technology environment
- Experience leading and coordinating complex, multifunctional initiatives as a strategic partner to senior leadership
- Success delivering advanced technologies and shipping complex software
- Exceptional interpersonal, leadership, and communication skills
- Experience managing multifaceted operations and building trust-based relationships with diverse stakeholders
- High ethical standards and empathetic leadership
- Experience navigating organizational complexity and engaging across all organizational levels
- Track record leading organizational change and transformation, including strategic planning, process improvement, and cultural evolution
- Ability to partner with and influence senior organizational leaders across functions and divisions
- Experience working across multiple cultures and levels of organizational maturity
- Ability to create company-wide OKRs, design product roadmaps, solve problems, and influence diverse stakeholders
- Fluency in English and Japanese, with strong written and verbal communication skills in both languages
- Automotive industry experience
Am I A Good Fit?
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The Company
What We Do
Woven by Toyota will help to deliver the safest, most intelligent mobility experiences and lifestyle for Toyota customers everywhere. At Woven by Toyota, we envision a human-centered future, where world-class technology expands global access to mobility, enhances the capabilities of drivers, and empowers people to thrive. We achieve this with a unique global culture that weaves modern Silicon Valley innovation with Japanese quality craftsmanship. As society, technology and customer needs evolve, we continuously pursue new ways to create a more personal, seamless experience for customers.
