Head of Marketing - APJ

About Exa

We raised a $250M Series C to build the search engine for AIs. Led by a16z, with existing investors Benchmark, Lightspeed, and YC doubling down, the round brings Exa's valuation to $2.2 billion.

Exa is building a search engine for the AI era. Our Search API currently powers Agents, Fortune 500s and AI labs as we transform an industry that hasn't been disrupted since the 90s. We're a largely SF-based team of ~100 from Harvard, MIT, Meta, Google Research, ex-founders & dropouts alike.

We are rapidly building the most intelligent search engine in history. We're high agency, low-ego, and united by the feeling that this is one of the last problems worth getting right.

We are looking for a Head of Marketing, APJ based in Sydney to lead Exa's marketing across Asia Pacific and Japan.

About the Role

This is Exa's first senior marketing leader outside the United States. You will set the marketing strategy for Asia Pacific and Japan and run it as a commercial function, tied to the region's pipeline number. APJ is many markets with different buyers, languages, and routes to market. Deciding which ones matter first, and how Exa wins in each, is the core of the job.

Sales coverage is coming online across ANZ, Southeast Asia, and India, with a partner-led motion in Japan. You will be the marketing counterpart: deciding where to invest, which motions to run in which markets, and how a fast-moving American AI infrastructure company earns credibility with buyers in Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, and Bengaluru.

This is a player-coach role. You will write the regional plan and then help execute it yourself, from shaping a campaign and adapting the message to hosting an executive dinner and sitting in pipeline reviews with Sales. You start as a team of one, with meaningful budget for field events, conferences, and developer events. We expect your first hire, an early-career field events marketer, to join within months, with more headcount as growth justifies.

Exa's buyers are technical, and much of our growth starts with developers who sign up and build before anyone talks to Sales. The right person understands both product-led growth with developers and account-based programs for enterprise buyers. You will work closely with Sales, Product, and Marketing to keep all of it pointed at the same priorities.

This is an AI-first role at an AI-first company. Account research, localization, campaign analysis, and reporting should be workflows you build, since one person covering a dozen markets only works if the work is automated.

This role is based in-person in Sydney, with regular travel across APJ and periodic trips to our San Francisco HQ.

What You'll Own

APJ marketing strategy

Own the regional marketing plan. Translate Exa's global priorities into a plan for APJ, prioritize markets by opportunity and sales coverage, and decide where to invest across markets and programs. Own the APJ marketing budget, which centers on field events, conferences, developer events, and selective local sponsorships (including developer creators and communities). Success is measured by revenue growth.

Go-to-market by market

Build a go-to-market approach for priority markets across ANZ, Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. The right motion differs by market (direct, partner-led, or channel-based), and some markets should wait until product-led signal justifies the spend.

Pipeline and demand

Own APJ pipeline targets. Build the programs that create qualified opportunities and move them through the cycle: account-based campaigns, executive dinners, a small number of high-value trade shows, reactivation of any stalled pipeline, and webinars or localized content. Use pipeline and conversion data to shift investment toward what works. Success is measured by pipeline and by cost per opportunity.

Sales partnership

Be the marketing partner to APJ Sales, SDRs, and regional partners. Align on ICP, target accounts, campaign priorities, lead routing, and follow-up, and run a regular operating rhythm. Success is measured by lead-to-opportunity conversion and by seller satisfaction with campaigns and enablement.

PLG in region

Ensure APJ developers and AI-native companies find Exa, sign up, and build. Run developer events, hackathons, and meetups in the region with DevRel support, sponsor local developer creators and communities where they reach the right builders, and work with Digital and Growth Marketing on inbound quality and conversion. Use sign-up and usage signal to tell Sales where to engage. Success is measured by sign-ups and PQL-sourced pipeline.

Exa story in APJ

Adapt Exa's global positioning for APJ buyers, identifying where the story needs local proof, language, or emphasis. Bring customer and market insight into messaging, launches, and the roadmap through Product Marketing. Keep brand and demand working as one program. Success is measured by regional launch success.

Agencies, partners, and vendors

Select and manage agencies, event vendors, and marketing partners across the region, including co-marketing with channel and cloud partners. Make sure each one understands the priorities, and delivers quality work.

Team building

Hire and lead the APJ marketing team as the region grows, starting with an field events manager. Set the bar, develop people, and build a function that executes without you in every room.

What Success Looks Like

• APJ has a marketing plan with clear market priorities, tied to the regional pipeline number, and Sales co-owns it.

• Marketing-sourced and influenced pipeline in APJ is measured, growing, and trusted by Sales and Finance.

• Each priority market has a working motion (direct, partner-led, or product-led) chosen on evidence.

• APJ developers and AI-native companies adopt Exa at a rate that feeds Sales.

• Exa has credible local customer stories in ANZ, Japan, and at least one other market.

• Investment shifts quarter to quarter based on what the data says.

• Your first hire is in seat and performing, and the playbook you built makes each new market faster to open.

You Should Have

• 10+ years in B2B marketing at technology companies, including 3+ years leading marketing for APJ or a major part of it (ANZ plus at least one Asian market).

• A record of owning a regional pipeline number and budget, and of deciding where to invest across markets. You can reconstruct the numbers live.

• Hands-on experience with both direct and partner-led go-to-market, ideally including Japan.

• Strong sales partnership: an operating rhythm you built with Sales and SDRs, and an example of pushing back on a seller request you thought was wrong.

• Deep field and event craft. You have run conferences, executive dinners, and developer events yourself, and can still build and run a campaign end to end.

• Comfort with a technical product and technical buyers. You can hold a real conversation about APIs, agents, and retrieval.

• Experience building a region for a US-headquartered company, operating semi-autonomously across time zones.

• Evidence you have hired and developed marketers.

• A proven AI builder mindset. You have shipped automations or internal tools with LLMs and can show us.

Nice to Have

• Experience at a developer tools, API-first, cloud, or data infrastructure company.

• Experience running product-led growth alongside an enterprise sales motion.

• Japanese, Mandarin, or another regional language.

• Relationships with regional cloud providers, systems integrators, or developer communities.

• Experience launching a region from zero at an early-stage company.

Exa is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy or related conditions, criminal histories consistent with applicable law, or any other basis protected by applicable law.