Pre-Sales Manager, Japan — VAST Data
Location: Tokyo, Japan (hybrid; travel across Japan as required)
Reports to: VP Pre-Sales / SE Leadership, APAC
Team: Systems Engineering (Japan)
About VAST Data
VAST Data is redefining the infrastructure that powers the AI era. Our data platform collapses the traditional storage tiering model into a single, scalable system built for the most demanding AI, machine learning, and high-performance data workloads. As we scale across Japan and the wider APAC region, we are investing in the technical leadership needed to win in one of the world's most sophisticated enterprise and research markets.
The Role
The Pre-Sales Manager for Japan will lead VAST's Systems Engineering effort in-region — owning technical strategy, customer engagements, and the growth and development of the local SE team. This is a player-coach role: you will set the technical direction and mentor a growing team while remaining personally credible in front of Japan's most demanding customers and partners. You will partner closely with Sales leadership to drive technical wins, and with the channel ecosystem that is central to how enterprise infrastructure is sold in Japan.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead, coach, and grow VAST's Systems Engineering team in Japan, building a high-performing pre-sales function as the business scales.
- Act as the senior technical authority in-region, owning solution architecture, proof-of-concept strategy, and technical win plans for strategic accounts.
- Partner with Sales leadership on regional strategy, pipeline development, and forecasting from a technical standpoint.
- Build and maintain deep technical relationships with enterprise customers, hyperscalers, research institutions, and HPC/AI-focused organisations across Japan.
- Develop and enable the partner and channel ecosystem, ensuring distributors and system integrators are equipped to position and support VAST solutions.
- Lead technical evaluations, benchmarks, and POCs, translating complex data infrastructure requirements into compelling VAST solutions.
- Serve as the voice of the Japan market back to VAST's product and engineering teams, influencing roadmap and localisation priorities.
- Represent VAST at industry events, executive briefings, and customer engagements as a trusted technical advisor.
Required Experience & Skills
- Substantial pre-sales / Systems Engineering experience in enterprise infrastructure — storage, data platforms, HPC, networking, or AI/ML infrastructure.
- Demonstrated people-leadership or team-lead experience, or a clear readiness to step into a first formal management role.
- Strong technical depth across data storage, file/object protocols, Linux, virtualisation, and modern AI/data pipelines.
- Proven success driving complex, high-value technical sales cycles in the Japanese enterprise market.
- Established relationships within Japan's enterprise, channel, and/or research/HPC communities.
- Business-level English and native-level Japanese (spoken and written) — essential for customer, partner, and internal collaboration.
- Excellent communication and executive presence; able to move fluently between deep technical detail and business value.
Desirable
- Experience with competitive storage/data platforms (NetApp, Pure Storage, Dell, Weka, or similar).
- Exposure to AI/ML, GPU-accelerated computing, or large-scale HPC environments.
- Experience building or scaling a pre-sales team in a high-growth or start-up/scale-up setting
Skills Required
- Substantial pre-sales / Systems Engineering experience in enterprise infrastructure (storage, data platforms, HPC, networking, or AI/ML infrastructure).
- People-leadership or team-lead experience, or readiness for a first formal management role.
- Strong technical depth across data storage, file/object protocols, Linux, virtualization, and modern AI/data pipelines.
- Proven success driving complex, high-value technical sales cycles in the Japanese enterprise market.
- Established relationships within Japan's enterprise, channel, and/or research/HPC communities.
- Business-level English and native-level Japanese (spoken and written).
- Excellent communication and executive presence; able to move between deep technical detail and business value.
- Experience with competitive storage/data platforms (NetApp, Pure Storage, Dell, Weka, or similar).
- Exposure to AI/ML, GPU-accelerated computing, or large-scale HPC environments.
- Experience building or scaling a pre-sales team in a high-growth or start-up/scale-up setting.
VAST Data Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about VAST Data and has not been reviewed or approved by VAST Data.
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Healthcare Strength — Medical, dental, vision and life insurance are included, with several elements identified as employer-provided. Coverage aligns with what is commonly offered by high‑growth tech companies.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time off includes generous or unlimited PTO alongside paid sick days and paid holidays, coupled with remote or work‑from‑home flexibility. This breadth supports taking time away when needed.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Company equity is a standard part of offers with a typical four‑year vest, and professional development support is available. Equity is positioned as a meaningful component of total compensation at a growth‑stage company.
VAST Data Insights
What We Do
Meet the data platform company for the AI era. Accelerating time-to-insight for workload-intensive applications, the VAST Data Platform delivers scalable performance, radically simple data management and enhanced productivity for the AI-powered world. Launched in 2019, VAST is the fastest-selling data infrastructure startup in history.
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