Customer Success and Support Operations Leader - Tokyo

The APAC User Operations team serves as the frontline for delivering Perplexity AI's industry-leading search capabilities to enterprise clients and individual users across Asia-Pacific markets. This team collaborates with Product, Engineering, Localization, and Technical Success departments to resolve complex technical issues while adapting support frameworks to regional service expectations.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Team Development

• Create and lead the vision and strategy for APAC Customer Success and Support, leveraging the function as a strategic asset to drive retention and revenue growth
• Build, mentor, and develop a high-performing team across support and success functions
• Establish strong partnerships with global teams to ensure alignment and consistency in service delivery while accounting for regional nuances.
• Foster an 'advocacy' culture that places emphasis on delighting customers in everything we do

Operational Scaling

• Architect Tokyo-based support operations covering JST time zone (9 AM - 6 PM) with 8-hour shift rotations
• Develop hiring pipeline for Support Associates in Japan, with expansion plans for other key APAC markets
• Implement comprehensive QA protocols and performance metrics that align with both global standards and regional expectations
• Lead operational performance of services and support, meeting experience, revenue, budget and performance targets

Technical Support Execution

• Localize 15+ knowledge base articles, maintaining terminology consistency with product UI localization efforts
• Drive innovation through experimentation with a design thinking approach to improve support efficiency and effectiveness
• Anticipate customer issues, orchestrate timely resolutions, and act as an escalation point for complex problems

Customer Success & Growth

• Define and drive a targeted, goal-based engagement plan that aligns with customers' objectives
• Develop strategies to maximize product adoption and optimize the customer experience
• Collaborate with sales teams to ensure customer insights are translated into actionable growth strategies
• Understand and optimize for the unique customer service expectations across different APAC markets
• Generate customer insights by understanding both competitive landscape and end-to-end customer journey, including goals, behaviors, and pain points

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Engage cross-functionally with key stakeholders to drive projects and influence decisions that enable delivery of your customer strategy
• Provide structure and thought leadership by developing priorities and managing operating mechanisms that drive organizational effectiveness
• Collaborate with product teams to provide important customer feedback and process improvement suggestions
• Partner with marketing to leverage customer success stories and drive market growth

Qualifications

• Fluency in English and Japanese is a must
• Technical writing proficiency in Japanese
• 7+ years of experience in customer-facing roles with proven ability to engage with customers at both project and senior management levels
• Strong customer orientation with focus on quality and ability to interact with Software Engineers and business decision-makers
• Proven record of successful account management with creative problem-solving skills in a fast-paced environment
• Experience in building and leading customer success/support teams in APAC markets

Bonus

• Business or Fluent level Korean or Mandarin Chinese
• Consumer product and/or API understanding and experience
• Experience with both enterprise and consumer support operations
• Track record in transforming support from a cost center to a value driver
• Experience working with international teams and environments