Business Development Manager (Japan)
Startale Labs
Sales & Business Development
Tokyo, Japan
Posted on Mar 7, 2026
About Startale
Startale is building infrastructure and products that accelerate the adoption of on-chain finance and applications. We partner with ecosystems, enterprises, and institutions to bring real-world usage on-chain.
Role overview
This is a frontline outbound business development role focused on originating and closing new commercial and strategic opportunities in Japan. You will own target account/partner mapping, outreach, discovery, pitching, negotiation, and execution, working cross-functionally with product and leadership to close deals and expand key relationships.
What you’ll do
- Own end-to-end BD in Japan
- Build and manage a pipeline of partners/customers across blockchain infrastructure, fintech, and relevant enterprises
- Identify high-leverage use cases and craft compelling value propositions and pitches
- Lead partner conversations, align stakeholders, and drive deals to decision
- Coordinate internally with product/engineering to shape solutions and unblock deal execution
- Represent Startale at industry events and ecosystem meetings in Japan
- Track and report pipeline metrics (weekly), forecasting, and key deal risks
- 2–6 years of professional experience in Sales, Business Development, or General Operations within one or more of: Blockchain infrastructure, Fintech, Traditional Finance, or Management Consulting
- Demonstrated capability in outbound sourcing, cold outreach, converting to meetings, and progressing deals
- High ownership; thrives in fast-paced environments
- Outgoing, energetic, and highly competitive; motivated to grow quickly
- Strong structured thinking and communication—able to sell to both business and technical stakeholders
- Native Japanese
- Business-level English
- Strong relationship-building and stakeholder management
- Comfort with ambiguity and moving fast with incomplete information
- Experience selling infrastructure/platform products (APIs, developer tools, SaaS, or fintech rails)
- Existing Japan network in web3/fintech/finance
- Experience running partnerships (ecosystems, exchanges, wallets, payment providers, institutions)