About the role
At Shopify we believe in making commerce simple for scaling and enterprise brands. We give merchants the composability, reliability and flexibility they need to build their businesses and create economic independence. Shopify helps power commerce experiences for over 1 million companies like Gymshark, Suntory, AmericanEagle, Loccitane, Unilever and many more. We are in hyper-growth, building the tools and experiences for today’s leading brands and creating a level playing field for entrepreneurs who are just getting started.
Shopify can’t make commerce simple alone. Scaling and enterprise brands need an ecosystem of world class agency partners to help them migrate to and grow on the Shopify platform. The Shopify Agency Partnerships team work across the organisation to enable scalable growth through:
Recruiting new enterprise agency partner types to our partner program.
Enabling these agency partners on how to sell and build on Shopify, through 1:1 and 1:many initiatives.
Managing a book of high performing agency partners and ensuring they continue to grow in our partner program.
Building the sales channel by collaboratively working with these Partners - co-selling with them, generating referrals from them and helping them scale capacity and skill to stay competent in the eco-system.
Contributing to GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) growth from partner referred merchants.
Building effective GTM motions with our highest performing agency partners, targeted to specific merchant segments, and ensuring execution is at a high standard.
This role will be based in Japan so fluent Japanese and English are requirements for this role.
Using a combination of strong commercial acumen, a deep understanding of the agency landscape, as well as a good understanding of the Shopify platform, you and your team will be responsible for implementing our global partner program in Japan. This will be a hands on role where your team will work primarily across larger merchants (scaling to enterprise brands) and you and your team will need to develop and lead projects to drive the sustainable acquisition of new partners, the enablement of these partners, build partner management service models and have a strong sense of how these projects are creating impact for partners, merchants and Shopify. All while collaborating cross functionally across the broader APAC and global teams.
Real talk: being a member of a fast-moving team doing cutting edge work in a hyper growth environment is not always easy. That said, being pushed to the top of your game with smart, dedicated and highly-engaged colleagues and partners is incredibly fulfilling and a great catalyst for personal growth.
ABOUT THE PROFILE
At least 10-12 years experience overall, with at least 3-5 years experience in partnerships oriented roles and in the SaaS eco-system and managing people.
To be a great leader and manager. You help instill confidence and skill in your direct reports. People really want to work for you and with you, and you have done this with people both in office and remote, and across time zones. You’re able to be an effective coach and mentor, and have the capability of developing your team to operate at the next level.
Experience building teams and strategies in Japan and understand the complexities and diversity of the market. You are used to owning your craft and market in a global organization.
A background in partnerships. We’ll want to hear about your experiences managing different types of partners and about your impact enabling your partner's to have success.
Commercial Ownership - you have directly held and delivered revenue targets over Quarters, and demonstrated commercial success in previous roles
Proven experience in navigating complexity. You will have worked successfully in an environment of constant change, few rules and structures, and with rapidly rising expectations. You understand how to prioritize the ‘big rocks’ and are able to help your team do the same.
Creativity and execution. You come up with unique ways to solve problems, you’re able to connect the dots and nail down root causes for problems. You don’t easily take no for an answer and are effective in translating strategic directions into action.
To be a champion for your teams. Being close to the action, you’ll need to know your teams and your people well, and have their trust so that issues and concerns are voiced readily allowing you to escalate and take appropriate action. You’re willing and able to get your hands dirty alongside your teams - you are also an individual contributor to the team’s success as well as a leader.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills and a relentless attention to detail.
Knowledge of the e-commerce ecosystem; there are many moving parts and you need to understand how they all integrate and fit together.
Understanding of e-commerce best practices, industry trends, tech vendors, integrations, systems architecture etc.
Strong time management and prioritization skills to support a wide portfolio of Partners with multiple asks coming through at the same time, and the ability to reprioritize on an ongoing basis.
IT WOULD BE GREAT IF YOU ALSO HAVE:
Experience working with a diverse set of digital agencies - from large holding companies to global SIs to SMB web development agencies.
Exposure to globally diverse teams. Shopify is growing rapidly and we are continually investing in new regions.
A trainer at heart - you love enabling others to be the best they can be.
The ability to thrive on change. We evolve at a rapid pace and things change quickly, sometimes even daily!