Creative Lead, Japan

About the Team We bring OpenAI’s brand to life around the world. As a multidisciplinary creative team, we design work that connects meaningfully with local cultures, from flagship global campaigns and international events to deeply localized moments. In close collaboration with the U.S. Creative Studio, as well as global and regional marketing teams, agencies, and creators, we ensure OpenAI’s brand principles are honored, protected, and expressed responsibly everywhere people meet our products. About the Role As the Japan Creative Lead, you will lead the creative vision and execution of OpenAI’s brand in Japan. You will define how global ideas are translated, adapted, and evolved for Japan, while developing original ideas rooted in Japanese culture. You will shape creative direction, elevate craft, and ensure local relevance while protecting global brand integrity. As part of the International Creative Studio, you’ll collaborate closely with creative colleagues across OpenAI and cross-functional partners in Japan. Together with the Japan Marketing Lead, you will select and co-lead agencies in Japan, while guiding creators and production partners to deliver bold, distinctive, and world-class work that connects with local audiences. You will play a key role in shaping and evolving OpenAI’s visual identity and creative frameworks for Japan, ensuring they resonate with local audiences while remaining true to our global brand vision and principles. We’re looking for a creative leader who is conceptually strong, visually sophisticated, culturally fluent in Japan, and deeply collaborative. You can set a high bar, bring others along with clarity and inspiration, and move confidently between creative direction and hands-on work. This role is based in Tokyo, Japan. In this role, you will: - Lead creative direction for brand campaigns, marketing, digital, content, experiential, events, and partnerships in Japan, across consumer and B2B audiences - Translate global brand strategy and creative vision into culturally resonant work for Japanese audiences, developing locally originated ideas alongside global campaign adaptations - Set and maintain a high bar for concept, craft, and storytelling across all creative outputs, with close attention to Japanese language, typography, and visual expression - Partner closely with the International and U.S. Creative Studio, Japan Marketing, and cross-functional partners to align on creative direction, systems, and brand standards - Guide and mentor designers, art directors, and creative partners working on Japan, providing clear direction, feedback, and inspiration - Collaborate with Japan Marketing to turn audience insights and product capabilities into clear, locally relevant ideas and stories - Shape and evolve OpenAI’s visual systems and creative frameworks for Japan while maintaining a consistent global brand - Select and co-lead agencies in Japan together with the Japan Marketing Lead, aligning on agency partners, briefs and creative direction - Interpret strategy and briefs, identifying the core creative tension and turning it into distinctive ideas that resonate in Japan - Act as a trusted creative partner to cross-functional stakeholders in Japan, balancing ambition, cultural nuance, and brand responsibility You might thrive in this role if you: - Have a strong, distinctive portfolio demonstrating creative leadership, conceptual clarity, and exceptional craft across multiple mediums - Bring experience leading brand work in Japan, with a portfolio that demonstrates local cultural relevance and strong global brand stewardship - Have experience working within a global brand organization, bridging global creative leadership and local marketing teams. - Can interpret global creative direction through a local cultural lens, articulate nuanced consumer insights and creative preferences that may be lost in translation, and constructively navigate differing perspectives to deliver work that resonates locally while maintaining global brand consistency. - Have deep cultural fluency in Japan and a strong understanding of local audiences, language, visual culture, storytelling, and creative communities - Are equally comfortable setting creative vision and getting hands-on when needed - Have a refined design eye and a strong, well-articulated point of view - Enjoy collaborating across languages, cultures, and time zones in complex, fast-moving environments - Are an empathetic leader who elevates teams through clarity, trust, and constructive feedback - Balance creativity with strategic rigor and strong brand stewardship - Are excited by the role of creativity in shaping how transformative technology shows up in people’s lives in Japan - Have strong cross-functional collaboration skills About OpenAI OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement https://cdn.openai.com/policies/eeo-policy-statement.pdf. Background checks for applicants will be administered in accordance with applicable law, and qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment consistent with those laws, including the San