Kotoba's voice models are already licensed to Fortune 50 companies and major US tech firms. We're hiring a GTM Manager to turn that early traction into a repeatable, scalable US enterprise business.
You'll own our voice foundation model licensing and API business in the United States end to end — mapping and prioritizing target accounts, generating pipeline through outbound, inbound, industry events, and partnerships, driving technical validation alongside our researchers, and managing deals through to signature and expansion. As one of the first dedicated GTM hires in the US, you'll shape the strategy, playbooks, and pricing, and feed market insight directly back into our product and research roadmap.
■ About Kotoba
Kotoba is a generative AI company on a mission to become the default for voice AI in East Asia. At our core is a low-latency, high-accuracy speech translation model that connects conversations so naturally it feels as though both speakers share the same language, supporting Japanese, English, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, and other major language pairs. We also build ultra-low-latency speech-to-text and text-to-speech models that run everywhere from the data center to edge devices, and we license this foundational technology — the basis for the next generation of voice agents — to Fortune 50 companies and major US tech firms. We work from two hubs: Tokyo and San Francisco.
Our own product, the Kotoba app, is available on iOS and Android. Since launch it has grown to a steady 2,000–3,000 new downloads per day and reached No. 1 in its App Store and Google Play category, ahead of the likes of Google Translate. Enterprise adoption is accelerating in Japan, and the app has supported nearly 100 live events including SusHi Tech Tokyo.
Kotoba was founded in 2023 by two Japanese generative AI researchers with PhDs from top US universities. We've raised over ¥3 billion (roughly US$23M) from prominent VCs in Japan and the US — including Kindred Ventures and Globis Capital Partners — and from the corporate venture arms of leading US and Japanese enterprises. We also receive strong government support in Japan for AI model training.
■ What you'll do
- Own the pipeline of model licensing and API deals with large US enterprises end to end — from prospecting and qualification through negotiation, close, and expansion
- Build repeatable pipeline generation across outbound, inbound, industry events, and partnerships, starting with target account mapping
- Design and drive technical validation (PoCs) together with our researchers, resolving technical blockers on the way to close
- Work with leadership on deal structuring, pricing, and contract terms for licensing and API agreements, and serve as the first point of contact for inbound US inquiries
- Drive post-signature adoption, usage growth, renewals, and account expansion
- Coordinate across customers and internal teams in the US and Japan, feeding customer needs back to leadership, research, and product
■ What we're looking for
Required
- Experience selling AI, API, infrastructure, or developer-platform products to large US enterprises — in enterprise sales, business development, GTM, or solutions engineering
- A track record of building pipeline from scratch and closing complex, six-to-seven-figure deals, ideally in a founding or zero-to-one environment where you built the strategy, playbooks, and process yourself
- Enough technical understanding to drive technical validation together with researchers — you don't need to be an engineer
- Based in, or willing to relocate to, the San Francisco Bay Area, and able to work in person from our SF hub
Preferred
- Experience selling voice AI, speech technology, or foundation-model licensing
- Existing relationships with AI/ML buyers at US big tech or Fortune 500 companies
- Experience at an AI lab, model provider, or API-first developer platform
- Experience selling into media, telecom, automotive, or contact-center industries
- Experience at a high-growth startup
■ Location
San Francisco/ Tokyo
