Regional Director for Aquent, world’s leading talent agency for marketing and design (Tokyo, Japan)

For 25 years Aquent has been the worldwide leader for matching creative freelancers to work opportunities. We’ve been in Japan for 14 years, and our clients here range from the country’s largest companies to its hottest startups. Aquent has offices in 40 cities across 7 countries, including 4 in Japan. Our Tokyo office is one of Aquent’s largest and most successful markets.

We are looking for the right leader to take this business to the next level.

As Tokyo Regional Director what will you do?

You will have full P&L responsibility. You will hire great people, set clear goals, provide exceptional coaching, deliver fanatical customer service, hit operating and financial targets. This is a hands-on role. You’ll work side-by-side with your teams to connect directly with clients and talent, to network and represent Aquent in the creative community. Under your leadership the business will grow, and our culture of learning and experimentation will continue to blossom.

This is a general management role cutting across multiple disciplines and presenting a range of learning opportunities. You will manage and develop people, create and implement client and account strategies, collaborate with cross-functional teams to launch new divisions, work with senior management on strategies for new businesses, and localize training and technology innovations from outside of Japan.

You will grow to be a beacon of knowledge and expertise in the creative and digital community—clients will want to hear your opinions and will turn to you for advice.

What will work be like?

Aquent’s mission is to be the champion of modern work for creatives. We take that seriously and work hard to make a difference in the world. At the same time we remember that our company was founded by three college roommates who hired their friends and siblings as the first employees. That notion of work as a vehicle for friends to do something fun together still exists. We relish in each others’ successes and practice work/life balance.

You’ll join during a growth and investment phase. We’ve doubled the size of our Tokyo office in the past 8 months, our marketing budget has more than doubled, staff receive companypaid training and professional development, we send new employees to global headquarters in Boston for training, and all leaders worldwide come together in person on a regular basis to share and exchange learning.

The Tokyo office itself is located minutes from Aoyama-itchome station, with lots of natural sunlight and incredible panoramic views of Shinjuku, Meiji Jingu stadium, and Roppongi. In our office we have our own soft cream machine, regular pizza lunches, and our dress code is cool biz all year round. Our desk layout is so intriguing clients come to our office and take notes.

Three fun facts about Aquent:

1. We’re the only company to stand behind our fanatical customer service with a 110% money-back guarantee

2. We’ve been nominated for a British Academy Award

3. We own a beach house in Hawaii free for employees to use

Are you right for this role?

Fundamentally we’re looking for someone who is curious, relentless, quick, creative, and wicked smart. The ideal candidate will have staffing or recruiting experience, sales at some point in their career (and ideally sales management), team leadership, and some experience working in or selling to advertising, marketing, creative, or communications. You will need to be comfortable with technology, especially web and mobile. The role requires fluency in spoken and written Japanese, plus at least business-level English.

Is this you? Contact Steve Kapner, co-founder and Japan managing director, at skapner@aquent.com, 080-3367-6350, or facebook.com/skapner.

If we hire your referral, you’ll get $1000! If you refer someone but we don’t hire them, we’ll give you a pair of movie tickets as a way of saying thank you!

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