About the role

Aplyr's Quick Take

This role is for a Technical Sales Engineer who will lead technical efforts in Japan, focusing on pre-sales activities and customer success in high-stakes environments. It's a mix of hands-on technical work and strategic sales support, ideal for someone who enjoys both engineering and customer interaction.

Good fit

Ideal candidates have a strong technical background, experience in sales engineering, and familiarity with defense or security sectors. They should be comfortable working independently and leading initiatives in a new market.

Worth noting

This is a unique opportunity as the first technical hire in Japan, offering significant ownership and influence in shaping the company's presence in the region. The role may involve high-pressure situations given the focus on defense and national security clients.

Mattermost is the leading collaborative workflow platform for defense, intelligence, security, and critical infrastructure. Trusted by the U.S. Department of War and Fortune 500s, our platform runs on-premises and in private clouds, delivering secure messaging, file sharing, workflow automation, audio/screenshare, and project management—all with full data and operational control. Mattermost powers high-stakes workflows across mission planning, real-time, real-world operations, DevSecOps, incident response, and cyber defense—enabling secure collaboration from tactical edge and DDIL environments to enterprise HQ. Teams operate across web, desktop, and mobile, with embedded interoperability for Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and Microsoft 365.

To learn more, visit www.mattermost.com

About the Role

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Technical-Sales Engineer to join Mattermost as we enter the Japanese market. This is a high-impact, early-stage opportunity requiring a "player-coach" mentality with significant room for ownership, autonomy, and professional growth.

As the first technical hire in Japan and the Indo-Pacific region, you will not only lead technical demonstrations but also serve as a strategic partner to our sales team, directly shaping regional growth and ensuring customer success in high-trust environments.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Technical Leadership: Lead all regional technical activities, including pre-sales architecture, product demos, and deep-dive technical evaluations.
Mission-Critical Deployment: Architect and deploy solutions within complex on-premise, air-gapped, and private cloud environments, ensuring operational resilience for defense and national security customers.
Partner & Channel Enablement: Collaborate with system integrators (SIs), VARs, and distributors to build a sustainable technical network and contribute to the regional partner go-to-market plan.
Stakeholder Management: Translate complex technical details into value propositions for audiences ranging from executive C-suite (General Officers) to frontline operational personnel.
Product Advocacy: Act as a bridge between Japanese customers and our global product/engineering teams, representing local requirements to help build world-class, mission-ready software.
Post-Sales Excellence: Support technical engagements for key accounts to ensure customers are achieving their specific mission outcomes and workflow automation goals.

Required Skills & Experience

Industry Expertise: 10+ years of technical experience, specifically within the cybersecurity sector or high-growth SaaS/technology companies.
Domain Knowledge: Proven experience serving defense, national security, or critical infrastructure customers.
Infrastructure Mastery: Strong knowledge of closed cloud environments, on-premise deployments, and the technical/operational concepts utilized within secure sectors.
Entrepreneurial Mindset: Experience in global startups is preferred; you must be an independent, creative problem-solver capable of negotiating technical "win-win" scenarios.
Communication: Native Japanese language skills and strong English proficiency (reading/writing).
Travel: Ability to travel based on business needs to support partner events, tradeshows, and customer sites (up to 50%).

Preferred Qualifications

Active Security Clearance: Highly desired due to the nature of our mission-critical customer base.
Forward-Thinking: Awareness of GenAI and its applications in secure collaboration.
Education: Bachelor’s degree in a technical field or equivalent work experience.

Why Mattermost?

Mattermost is an open-core technology company building secure collaboration solutions for organizations in high-trust environments. We enable secure messaging and workflow automation across the world’s most sensitive deployments—from air-gapped defense systems to private clouds. In this role, you are the technical face of Mattermost in Japan, driving our expansion into one of our most critical growth regions

Mattermost is an EEO Employer, we are a remote-first, open-source company.

We are continually working to expand our hiring in more countries and regions, ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations, which takes time.

Mattermost values your unique perspective—we welcome all applicants. We encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply and are committed to assessing candidates based on their skills and qualifications. We do not tolerate discrimination against staff or applicants based on race, religion, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy status, veteran status, or other personal characteristics.

If you require accommodations during the interview process, please let us know—we’re happy to assist.

Skills & Tags

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Aplyr's read

Mattermost is an open-source collaboration platform attracting tech-savvy professionals focused on secure, customizable team communication and project management solutions.
Synthesized from recent postings & public sources

What's promising

•Mattermost's open-source nature allows for high customization and flexibility.
•The platform is designed with a strong focus on security, appealing to defense and government sectors.
•Mattermost integrates seamlessly with a wide array of tools, enhancing productivity.

What to watch

•The open-source model may require more technical expertise from users.
•Competition from established platforms like Slack and Microsoft Teams is intense.
•Limited public information about the company's financial health and growth trajectory.

Why Mattermost

•Mattermost offers a self-hosted option, ensuring data control and privacy.
•The platform is particularly tailored for high-security environments, such as government and defense.
•Mattermost's open-source community actively contributes to its development and innovation.

Aplyr’s read is generated by AI from public sources. Was it useful?

About Mattermost

Mattermost

mattermost.com

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Mattermost is an open-source collaboration platform designed for team communication and project management. It provides messaging, file sharing, and integrations with various tools to enhance productivity.