Job detail for Japan Content Strategy Lead

Company Description

About the role

Content moves Canva, and ensuring our content is a driver of growth is crucial. Just as we invest in strong business, marketing, sales, and product leaders in our priority markets, we need an equally strong voice in content.

As a Country Content Strategy Lead, you’ll partner closely with the Country Manager to ensure Canva has the right strategic content from your country (or countries), owning content as a growth engine and adapting strategies to support MAU, retention, and revenue impact.

You’ll work closely with the Country Design Lead to deliver content that drives business outcomes. You’ll also champion local relevance and trends that make international users feel Canva is for them, and work closely with country teams (SEO, Localisation, Creators, Product, Marketing) and regional stakeholders to ensure local content delivers high value and measurable impact.

You’ll be coached and supported by a Regional Content Strategy Lead, who will drive content strategy across the region.

Job Description

What you’ll do

As a Country Content Strategy Lead, you bring expertise in strategy, content, business management, and cross-functional stakeholder management. In particular, you will:

• Content Strategy & Execution – Prioritise and execute country content strategy and growth levers, owning content health and production for your country to drive relevance, scale, and business impact.
• Content Quality & Relevance – Ensure that your country’s content meets Canva’s standards, resonates culturally, and supports strategic growth metrics.
• Feedback & Insights – Gather input from sales, partners, and local peers to refine content strategies and enhance Canva’s country impact.
• Discovery & Performance – Own your country’s content performance across discovery, editorial ensuring the right local content is surfaced through search, recommendations, and editorial, and optimised for engagement, activation, and retention.
• Editorial & Trends Leadership – Execute your country’s editorial strategy across surfaces (e.g. Showcases), identifying and activating cultural moments in partnership with Marketing, Social and PR.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration – Act as a strategic partner to Country Manager and country peers to align priorities, unblock execution, and drive content-led growth.
• Creator & Partner Engagement – In collaboration with your country community and partnerships managers, build relationships with local creators and partnerships to activate a thriving content ecosystem.

**Key **

As a Content Strategy Lead, you will lead a wide range of initiatives, from planning and executing content strategy for the Japanese market to business management and cross-functional stakeholder collaboration.

• Content Strategy Planning & Execution: Lead the development of content strategy for the Japanese market, prioritizing and executing initiatives that drive growth. Manage overall content health and production to improve relevance, scalability, and business impact.
• Ensuring Content Quality & Local Relevance: Ensure that content for Japan meets Canva’s quality standards, resonates culturally with Japanese users, and contributes to strategic growth goals.
• Gathering & Utilizing Feedback & Insights: Collect and analyze market needs and feedback from sales teams and partners to improve content strategy and enhance business impact at Canva Japan.
• Optimizing Discovery & Performance: Manage the discoverability and performance of Japan-specific content from the perspectives of search, recommendations, and editorial. Optimize content to ensure the right local content reaches users, driving engagement, activation, and retention.
• Editorial & Trends Leadership: Execute editorial strategy for the Japanese market across various surfaces, including Showcases. Drive projects that capture cultural moments and trends in collaboration with Marketing, Social, and PR teams.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Act as a strategic partner to the Country Manager and the Japan team, aligning priorities and resolving execution challenges to drive content-led growth.
• Building Relationships with Creators & Partners: Collaborate with the Japan community and partnership teams to build relationships with local creators and partners, supporting the growth of a vibrant content ecosystem.

Qualifications

What we're looking for

We’re seeking a strategic thinker who thrives in fast-paced environments and can drive content impact within their market. They’ll take a pragmatic approach to content creation – working across multiple production streams (AIGC, creators, localisation, bespoke, and partnerships) to solve local content needs, improve efficiency, and scale what works.

This role requires someone who can combine strong strategic thinking with a deep understanding of their local market — translating regional direction into actionable country-level plans, and working closely with Country Design Leads to bring these to life. You should be someone who naturally gravitates toward solving problems, enjoys working with data to inform decisions, and can build strong relationships across cross-functional teams.

The ideal candidate combines analytical rigour with cultural curiosity, demonstrating both the ability to shape country-level content strategy and to identify opportunities to scale what works through repeatable approaches, AI-supported workflows, and strong partnerships.

• 3-5+ years of experience in content strategy, regional business strategy and operations, partnerships, or similar roles within high-growth content, media or marketplace global technology companies.

• A deep understanding of content, trends, and aesthetics in your market (or markets), with a pulse on what resonates with local users.

• A proactive, solutions-driven approach, capable of balancing strategy with hands-on execution.

• Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with the ability to align cross-functional teams across regions.

• Experience working in fast-moving, dynamic environments, comfortable with ambiguity and change.

• Strong analytical skills to assess content performance and inform strategy adjustments.

• A track record of successfully managing production workflows, partnerships, and/ or supporting and activating local creators.

• Language skills and cultural knowledge relevant to your geographic market, with ability to work effectively across different time zones.

Ideal Candidate Profile

We are looking for a strategic and execution-oriented individual who can thrive in a fast-paced environment and increase the impact of content in the Japanese market.

You will be expected to solve content needs for the Japanese market while navigating multiple production streams, such as AIGC, creators, localization, and partnerships. We welcome those who can proactively engage in both strategy and hands-on work to improve production efficiency and scale successful initiatives.

This position is suited for someone with excellent strategic thinking and a deep understanding of the Japanese market, who can translate regional policies into actionable plans for Japan and realize them in close collaboration with the Country Design Lead. We are looking for someone who enjoys problem-solving, makes decisions based on data, and can build trusting relationships across departments.

The ideal candidate combines analytical skills with cultural curiosity and can shape a content strategy suitable for the Japanese market. We also welcome those who can identify opportunities to scale successful measures through repeatable mechanisms, AI-supported workflows, and strong partnerships.

• 3-5+ years of practical experience in content strategy, regional business strategy/operations, partnerships, or related fields. *Experience in high-growth content, media, marketplace, or global technology companies is particularly welcome.
• Deep understanding of content, trends, design, and aesthetics in the Japanese market, with a grasp of what resonates with local users.
• Proactive and solution-oriented, capable of balancing strategy formulation with hands-on execution.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, capable of driving collaboration across regions and departments.
• Ability to respond flexibly even in fast-paced and highly uncertain environments.
• Ability to analyze content performance and utilize it for strategy and initiative improvements.
• Experience in improving production workflows, promoting partnerships, or supporting/activating local creators.
• Language skills and cultural knowledge relevant to the Japanese market, with the ability to work effectively with teams across different time zones.