Director, Regional Sales - New Business Japan

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The same principles built into our products are reflected in how our team works: we embrace AI as a core productivity multiplier, with all team members expected to incorporate AI into their daily workflows to drive efficiency, innovation, and impact. GitLab is where careers accelerate, innovation flourishes, and every voice is valued. Our high-performance culture is driven by our values and continuous knowledge exchange, enabling our team members to reach their full potential while collaborating with industry leaders to solve complex problems. Co-create the future with us as we build technology that transforms how the world develops software.

Director, Regional Sales - New Business (Japan)

An overview of this role

As the Director, Regional Sales - New Business, you'll build and lead a dedicated function focused on driving new logo growth across Japan. You'll report to the Director of APJ for New Business and will hire, develop, and coach a high-performing team of Account Executives to win first-order deals across more than 24,000 in-ICP accounts, from whitespace to existing installs, with an average deal size up to 25,000. You'll define and execute a scalable sales strategy for a fast-moving, high-volume territory. You'll use tools like Salesforce, Clari, Gong, and Outreach to build predictable pipeline, shorten deal cycles to 6 months or less, and consistently meet or exceed new business goals. It's a rare opportunity to help shape, operationalize, and scale a sales motion focused on new business in a growing, high-impact market while you collaborate closely with cross-functional partners to bring GitLab's DevSecOps platform to new customers across Japan.

What you'll do

• Lead a distributed team of Account Executives across Japan focused on winning new logos and driving first-order revenue.
• Develop and execute a scalable new business sales strategy for Japan, covering both installed base and whitespace accounts within our ideal customer profile.
• Drive consistent pipeline generation and deal progression across a high volume of target accounts, with an emphasis on predictable new logo performance and efficient deal cycles.
• Collaborate closely with marketing, sales operations, and enablement to design and optimize motions, campaigns, and processes that support new business growth.
• Use CRM and sales enablement tools such as Salesforce, Clari, Gong, and Outreach to inspect pipeline, forecast accurately, and coach your team based on data-driven insights.
• Hire, onboard, and develop a high-performing sales team, providing regular coaching on territory planning, opportunity management, negotiation, and deal structure.
• Partner with regional and global sales leadership to help define, refine, and scale this sales function, sharing learnings and best practices across teams.
• Represent GitLab and our open source, DevSecOps, and SaaS offerings with executive-level stakeholders in Japan, reinforcing our value proposition and long-term partnerships.

What you'll bring

• Proven success leading high-performing field sales teams within open source, DevOps, or SaaS environments, with a focus on new logo acquisition and net new revenue.
• Experience building, coaching, and developing Account Executives to consistently create pipeline, progress opportunities, and close new business across Japan.
• Demonstrated ability to design and execute scalable sales strategies for a large, mixed account base (installed customers and whitespace) across the Japanese market.
• Proficiency using CRM and sales enablement tools such as Salesforce, Clari, Gong, or Outreach to forecast accurately, manage pipelines, and drive operational discipline.
• Strong relationship-building, negotiation, and deal-structuring skills, including experience engaging and presenting to executive-level stakeholders.