Forward Deployed Architect, Japan

Job description

WHO WE ARE Notion is the collaborative AI workspace where teams and agents think together https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkpYpWfEK5s. We're building one place where your knowledge, projects, meetings, and AI tools live side by side, so work is faster, clearer, and less fragmented. Millions of individuals, small teams, and large companies run their work on Notion. Notinos (our employees) are customer zero in bringing this future of work to life. We care about craft, building things that last, and the belief that great work is still fundamentally human. Our goal isn’t to ship the next feature. Each and every team of Notinos is working to set the standard for how humans work together in the AI era. From building a business’s system of record to making and managing AI agents to automating away the busy work, we care deeply about giving our customers more time for their life’s work. ABOUT THE ROLE As a Forward Deployed Architect on Notion’s Services team, you will help customers turn AI ambition into operational reality and unlock the full potential of our platform. You will partner directly with customers to design, build, and launch AI-native workflows that drive adoption, usage, and measurable business outcomes. This role sits at the center of Notion’s workflow-led GTM motion. You will partner directly with customers to understand their business goals, operating processes, technical environment, governance needs, and adoption barriers, then translate that context into scalable Notion architectures that drive measurable value. You will be hands-on across discovery, solution design, workspace architecture, workflow build, AI implementation, launch planning, adoption and handoff. You will work deeply with customers to define what Notion should own, where it should integrate with existing systems, and how Notion can become a durable operating layer for their teams. The best candidates combine strong consultative discovery, systems thinking, technical fluency, AI-native workflow design, implementation judgment and exceptional customer presence. You should be comfortable reasoning through technical tradeoffs, designing scalable solutions, and partnering closely with Forward Deployed Engineering when deeper engineering support is required. WHAT YOU'LL ACHIEVE - Partner with customers on forward deployed engagements from discovery through launch, translating business goals and workflow requirements into scalable clear solution design and Notion solutions that drive durable adoption. - Design scalable Notion architectures that translate customer workflows, permission and governance needs, integrations and AI use cases into optimal workspaces that are easy to adopt, manage and scale. - Design and deploy AI-native workflows using Notion AI, custom agents, automations, Workers, Developer Platform capabilities and adjacent AI tools, partnering with Forward Deployed Engineering when advanced technical depth is needed for migrations, API constraints, security architecture or frontier implementation. - Help customers navigate change by designing adoption plans, enablement materials and launch approaches that drive sustained usage and measurable business value. - Identify repeatable patterns across customer engagements and convert them into packaged solutions, templates, reference architectures, run books, enablement assets and product feedback. - Serve as a trusted advisor to customers, simplifying complex technical requirements, making practical tradeoff recommendations and helping stakeholders align around a clear implementation path. - Partner cross-functionally with GTM, Product, Engineering, PMM, Services leadership and the partner ecosystem to scale what works beyond individual customer engagements. - Create clear implementation plans, handoff materials and success measures that align customers and internal teams on the path to value. SKILLS YOU'LL NEED TO BRING - 5+ years of experience in tech services/consulting, solutions architecture, implementation, customer engineering, or a similar customer-facing role. - Proven ability to translate ambiguous customer goals into clear workflows, implementation plans, solution architectures, and measurable success criteria. - Strong consultative discovery skills, including the ability to map current-state workflows, identify customer pain, understand operating models, surface technical constraints, and define practical future-state solutions. - Hands-on AI builder mindset, with experience using AI tools to design, prototype, automate, or improve real business workflows. - Technical fluency with APIs, integrations, data models, automation, enterprise systems, developer workflows and implementation tradeoffs. You do not need to write production code but you should be able to reason through technical constraints and troubleshoot effectively. - Strong experience delivering implementations that drive adoption, change management and long-term customer value. - Strong project and engagement management skills, including ownership of scope, timeline, deliverables, stakeholder alignment, risks, decisions, dependencies and launch readiness. - Exceptional written and verbal communication, with the ability to simplify complex technical concepts for business, technical, and executive audiences. - Strong executive presence and customer judgment, with the ability to build trust, frame tradeoffs clearly, and move ambiguous decisions forward. - Bias toward action, high learning velocity, and comfort building in fast-changing AI-native product environments. - Written and spoken Japanese fluency to communicate directly with external customers, partners, and internal teams NICE TO HAVES - Experience designing or deploying Agents, automations or AI-powered workflows with Customers. - Experience with Notion, APIs, MCPs, Workers, coding agents or developer platform workflows. - Experience developing discovery methodologies, reusable delivery assets, internal tooling, packaged services or reference architectures from the ground up. - Experience partnering with Product and Engineering teams to turn field learnings into roadmap signal, reusable architecture patterns or scalable product improvements. - Previous experience in a fast-paced, high-growth technology environment. - Business level English proficiency to communicate effectively with global stakeholders and peers. - Experience working with Japanese enterprise customers or familiarity with Japan market dynamics and business practices. By clicking “Submit Application”, I understand and agree that Notion and its affiliates and subsidiaries will collect and process my information in accordance with Notion’s Global Recruiting Privacy Policy https://notion.notion.site/Notion-Global-Recruiting-Privacy-Policy-fc3eb4e829354a26a2bb6fd5e289b550. https://dev.notion.so/a3ce416456924276a59de91bca740028?pvs=21 #LI-Onsite A NOTE ON AI You don’t need deep AI expertise for every role, but we do expect every Notino to be intellectually curious, drawn to tinkering and discovery, and excited to use AI as a real collaborator in their work. For some roles, AI fluency is a core requirement — when that’s the case, we'll say so explicitly in the qualifications. People who thrive here don’t treat AI as a novelty. They use it to think better, and make their work easier for others to build on. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY & ACCOMMODATIONS We hire talented people from a wide range of backgrounds. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every bullet, we still encourage you to apply. Notion is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of any legally protected characteristic. Consistent with applicable law, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Notion provides reasonable accommodations during the application process; if you need one, please let your recruiter know. Notion is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Notion considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Notion is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please let your recruiter know.