Pre Sales Manager - Japan

Description 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