Technical Director

Company description


Overview

This role will serve as the primary technical representative for Publicis Sapient in Japan, supporting Nissan’s NJPN teams and acting as the bridge between Nissan Japan’s local priorities and the global PACE platform.

The Technical Liaison will ensure that the Japan market’s business and technical needs are accurately captured, prioritized, and implemented within the PACE framework. The individual must be fluent in both Japanese and English and capable of operating autonomously — not simply as a coordinator, but as a trusted technical decision-maker who can represent Sapient credibly in front of senior Nissan stakeholders.

The successful candidate will not simply relay requirements—they will act as a hands-on, empowered technical decision-maker, ensuring that the PACE platform and its related digital products are effectively implemented and optimized for the Japan market.

This person will also be expected to operate organically with the London-based global platform teams, collaborating daily with the PACE product, architecture, and delivery leadership to ensure seamless integration between Japan’s local delivery and the global platform direction.

The ideal candidate will have an understanding of digital platforms, cloud architectures, and enterprise customer experience systems—particularly Nissan’s global PACE platform, which underpins commerce, content, and connected experiences across markets. This individual must grasp the functional and technical nuances of PACE to drive the implementation of products and solutions critical to Nissan Japan’s business.

They must be fluent in both Japanese and English, able to bridge cultural, linguistic, and organizational gaps between Nissan Japan and Publicis Sapient’s global delivery teams—ensuring Japan’s needs are clearly represented, prioritized, and realized through the PACE platform.

Responsibilities

Stakeholder Engagement

• Serve as the technical face of Publicis Sapient for Nissan Japan (NJPN) and NCX, representing the full scope of the PACE platform and its integrations.

• Translate Nissan Japan’s market priorities and business goals into clear, actionable product and platform requirements.

• Proactively identify blockers or risks in PACE deployments and make in-region decisions to remove them without delay.

• Conduct technical workshops, solution design sessions, and implementation reviews with Nissan’s digital and IT teams.

• Support country leadership and global PACE product owners in shaping the platform roadmap to meet Japan’s evolving needs.

Technical Direction & Governance

• Act as the technical authority for PACE implementations and related systems (Digital Platforms, Dealer/Commerce solutions, APIs, etc.).

• Review and validate architecture decisions, integrations, and configuration approaches to ensure alignment with global platform standards and local regulatory and data requirements.

• Drive localization strategies for Japan—balancing autonomy, compliance, customer experience, and platform reusability.

• Maintain alignment with Publicis Sapient’s global engineering teams to ensure delivery consistency and technical excellence.

Delivery Enablement

• Ensure that PACE products and services are implemented effectively and deliver measurable business value to Nissan Japan.

• Provide day-to-day technical guidance to distributed teams (Japan, India, Europe), maintaining speed and quality.

• Support deployment, release management, and DevOps practices consistent with Nissan’s enterprise frameworks.

• Serve as the escalation point for all technical issues related to PACE or connected systems in Japan.

Strategic & Organizational Leadership

• Be a trusted advisor to Nissan Japan’s senior technology and digital leadership (CDIO, IT, Marketing, Digital Experience).

• Partner with Engagement and Program Directors to support account growth, solution shaping, and strategic planning.

• Collaborate with global platform owners to influence PACE roadmap priorities through Japan’s business insights and adoption learnings.

Qualifications

Required Skills & Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in digital technology, engineering leadership, or solution architecture.

• Proven experience working with enterprise clients in Japan, ideally within large-scale digital transformation programs.

• Strong expertise in one or more of the following:

• Experience Platforms (e.g., Adobe or similar CMS frameworks)

• Cloud & DevOps (AWS prefered)

• CRM / Data / API Integration (Salesforce, CDP, MDM, or data orchestration platforms)

• Proven ability to translate complex platform roadmaps into local implementations.

• Exceptional stakeholder management and cross-cultural communication skills.

• Fluent in Japanese (native or business level).  Japanese is a priority, if English is not a strength a Publicis Account liaison may be sourced — must be able to explain technical concepts clearly in both languages.

• Hands-on understanding of API-led architecture, microservices, and platform governance.

Additional information