Japan Growth Marketing Lead

About the role

The position manages digital advertising channels directly in-house and collaborates closely with local and global cross-functional teams while deeply understanding Japanese consumer behaviour.

Marketing teams grow awareness and demand for a company's products. They write copy, run campaigns, manage channels, and measure results. The work spans content, paid ads, email, events, and search. Marketing roles combine creativity with data and constant testing. Marketing teams usually run experiments every week and keep the work that performs. Most companies hire specialists in channels such as paid search, email, or content.

Key facts

What you'll do

Partnering with the local creative team ensures advertising concepts are built specifically for Japanese audiences, clarifying which messages and formats drive results.

Close work with teams worldwide, including the global HQ in Sydney, engages partners, local agencies and internal stakeholders.

Requirements

Around 7 or more years in growth, performance or digital marketing with hands-on experience managing significant advertising budgets directly in-platform across search, app, web, social and video, rather than overseeing an agency, is required. Strong knowledge of attribution, analytics, experimentation, conversion optimisation and incrementality measurement guides decision making.

Strong analytical and business judgment uses performance data to make confident budget and investment calls that grow users and revenue. Running campaigns independently and end-to-end, from strategy development and campaign setup to bid and budget management, performance analysis and optimisation, is demonstrated. A deep understanding of Japanese consumers, their media behaviour and the local digital platform landscape is translated into campaigns that resonate.

Proving yourself a curious, proactive self-starter who thrives in a fast-paced, evolving environment, navigates ambiguity, takes measured risks and communicates effectively with both local and global stakeholders is essential. Meeting the language requirement of native-level Japanese and business-level English is essential.

Practical notes

The role is based in Shibuya, Tokyo, within Canva's Japan team in the International Supergroup. Typical interview steps

Marketing interviews often include a portfolio review, a campaign exercise, and analytics questions. Candidates may be asked to plan a launch, write a brief, or improve a funnel. Some loops include a presentation. Results from past campaigns carry the most weight. Interviewers ask about specific campaigns you ran and what the numbers said. Preparing a short case of one campaign with its results is strong preparation.

Good to know

Growth marketing in this role relies on experimentation, data analysis and incrementality testing to drive user and revenue growth. The position works with a mix of global strategy and local market execution in a fast-moving digital advertising environment. Success depends on balancing channel scale, efficiency and creative relevance for Japanese audiences.

Questions to ask

Good questions to ask the employer in the interview: what does success look like in the first six months, how is the team structured, what is the current biggest challenge, and how are decisions made. Asking about growth paths and the review process is also well received. Employers expect questions, and good ones show preparation.

Career growth

Marketing careers move from associate to manager, director, and VP levels. Specializations include growth, brand, product marketing, and content. Generalists often start, then specialize as they advance. Measured impact on pipeline and revenue drives progression. Marketing careers reward measurable results and adaptability. Channel experience plus business sense usually beats a general resume.

About the company

Canva is an online design and visual communication platform with a mission to empower everyone to design anything. Founded by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams in 2013, Canva has over 190 million monthly active users and was valued at $26 billion in 2024.