Japan SEO Country Lead

Company Description

Join the team redefining how the world experiences design.

Hey, g'day, namaste, kia ora, 你好, hallo, vítejte!

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Job Description

About the Group/Team

At Canva, we create tools that empower the world to design. Our mission is to democratize design and empower creativity for anyone and everyone, on every platform. Since launching in August 2013, Canva has grown exponentially—we're one of the world's fastest-growing startups, and the journey has only just begun.

International is becoming Canva's biggest growth driver in 2026 and beyond. To reach our foundational goal of having 1 in 5 internet users use Canva every month, we're shifting from translating English successes to implementing truly local strategies that resonate with and convert local audiences.

The SEO group spans the globe with keyword researchers, technical SEO specialists, content specialists, copywriters, engineers, data analysts, designers, and operations specialists. As SEO Country Lead for Japan, you'll be part of the Logged Out Experience (LOX) Group and International Supergroup, working in a dual alignment model — embedded in your Country team locally while contributing to Central SEO globally.

About the Role/Specialty

You’ll lead Canva’s SEO growth in Japan— defining, executing, and scaling a strategy that reflects the unique realities of your market. This isn’t about following a global playbook; it’s about building one for your market.

You’ll own the end-to-end SEO strategy across technical, content, and authority-building pillars — verifying the opportunity, prioritizing what matters, and delivering measurable growth in sessions, signups, and engagement.

As the SEO Country Lead, you’ll operate at the intersection of local strategy and global systems. You’ll be embedded in your Country team as a strategic partner to your Country Manager, while also contributing to Canva’s centralized SEO engine within the Logged Out Experience (LOX) Group.

You’ll be supported by a global network of experts — Regional SEO Leads, Technical SEOs, Product Managers, and Content Specialists — and have access to Canva’s proprietary SEO platforms and best-in-class third-party tools. You’ll also collaborate closely with your International SEO Strategist, who provides regional capability leadership, coaching, and alignment across markets.

Success in this role means running a high-performing, locally embedded SEO operation that:

• Achieves measurable impact and market penetration goals.

• Operates autonomously while aligned to Canva’s global systems and standards.

• Surfaces insights, innovations, and frameworks that help scale the Truly Local SEO model across 40+ markets.

You’ll thrive here if you’re both a strategist and an operator — equally comfortable running audits, leading discussions with your Country Manager, mentoring local SEOs, and proposing scalable solutions that improve how we grow internationally. 

What you’ll do (responsibilities)

Strategic SEO Leadership

• Lead the end-to-end SEO strategy for Japan, spanning technical, content, and authority pillars — and lead at every level from day one. Before your team is built, you are already leading: shaping the SEO roadmap, influencing stakeholders, and driving decisions. Leadership is a behavior, not a function of headcount.
• Translate market insights into a focused, high-impact roadmap aligned with Canva’s international growth goals. Always communicate your local work in terms of Canva's broader International and growth priorities — not just country-level KPIs.
• Continuously evaluate market performance, adapt to shifts in user behavior, and prioritize the highest-ROI initiatives.
• Represent SEO as a strategic function — not an execution layer — in country planning discussions. Contribute actively to the global SEO growth engine by sharing learnings, frameworks, and precedents that scale beyond your market.
• Never pause because of a blocker. If a resource isn't available, a process isn't working, or a dependency is slow — find another path. Collaborate with the right people to unblock it yourself. Great SEO Country Leads find a way, always.
• Build systems, playbooks, and ways of working that reduce dependency on you personally. Your goal is a market that runs autonomously — where the methodology is owned by the team, self-improving over time, and doesn't stall when you're not in the room. 

Team Building & Capability Development

• Build and lead a high-performing local SEO team (generalists, content specialists, outreach experts) as the market scales — owning the full people lifecycle from defining hiring needs and leading recruitment, to effective onboarding, performance tracking, and development.
• Define clear goals, rituals, and development plans to grow your team’s autonomy and impact. Set high standards and give direct, regular feedback — keep your team accountable and growing, not just managed.
• Foster a culture of ownership, curiosity, open communication and experimentation within your team and across the country organization.

Market Expertise & Competitive Intelligence

• Become Canva’s definitive expert on Japan’s search landscape — platforms, user intent, competitors, and trends.
• Continuously analyze search behavior, market signals, and competitive activity to uncover new opportunities and influence Japan roadmap.
• Validate local hypotheses through data and user insights, ensuring every initiative has measurable rationale.

Content & Localisation Strategy

• Partner with localisation and design teams to deliver high-quality, locally relevant content that resonates with your market’s culture and search behavior.
• Prioritize and optimize high-impact categories, combining English-to-local localisation with bespoke content creation.
• Collaborate with central teams to leverage scalable systems (creator templates, internal linking, AI tools) while tailoring them for local impact.

Technical Excellence & Link Building

• Maintain strong technical foundations: site speed, indexation, structured data, hreflang implementation, and mobile optimisation.
• Partner with the i18n Technical SEO Specialist to identify and address localized technical needs.
• Define and oversee link-building goals and tactics, using outreach specialists and local partnerships to improve authority signals.

Performance Analytics & Reporting

• Develop country-specific KPIs aligned with both SEO and country business goals.
• Monitor and analyse performance across all key metrics — sessions, signups, returning users, and visibility.
• Communicate results and learnings transparently with stakeholders across Country, International SEO, and Central Growth teams.
• Surface insights proactively, highlighting what’s working, what’s not, and how you’ll pivot for improvement.

Navigating the Evolution of Search & Discovery

• Monitor AI search and discovery trends across your country—tracking how users find information through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, and other emerging AI-powered platforms
• Assess channel viability in your market: Determine where traditional SEO still drives strong ROI versus where AI discovery, social search, or other channels should be prioritized
• Experiment with AI optimization strategies: test approaches for visibility in AI-generated answers, LLM citations, and next-generation discovery experiences—including GEO and AEO techniques
• Document learnings for the global SEO engine: Share what's working (or not working) with AI search optimization in your country to inform how Canva approaches these emerging channels globally
• Approach search evolution as a team capability, not an individual task. Build a methodology that adapts — so when search shifts, your market has already moved.

Qualifications

What we're looking for

Japan Market Expertise:

• Native Japanese speaker with business-level English
• Deep understanding of Japan search behavior, cultural nuances, and internet user dynamics
• Ability to bridge local market insights with global business objectives
• Ideally based in Tokyo, as some time in office must be required

Strategic Thinking & Market Intelligence:

• Proven ability to assess markets, synthesize insights, and propose bespoke strategies (not just replicate playbooks)
• Experience verifying channel opportunities and knowing when to invest vs. pivot
• Capability to identify what will work in YOUR market based on data and local understanding

Proven SEO Leadership:

• Demonstrated track record leading successful SEO projects on large websites (500+ pages)
• Comprehensive understanding of all three SEO pillars (content, technical, link building) and how they integrate
• Experience with comprehensive SEO and analytics toolset (Google Analytics, Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs, Screaming Frog, Deepcrawl, Mode, Looker, Dragon Metrics)

Relationship Builder & Embedded Partner:

• Outstanding communicator who brings clarity to diverse stakeholders and makes collaboration easy
• Proven ability to build trust-based partnerships and influence without authority
• Experience working cross-functionally and embedding with non-SEO teams
• Track record of translating technical SEO work into business impact that resonates with leadership

Ownership Mindset:

• You act like it's your business, not just your job
• You proactively propose strategies rather than waiting for direction
• You solve problems resourcefully and escalate strategically
• You're comfortable with autonomy and accountability

Data-Driven Decision Maker:

• Excellent analytical skills for data-driven decision making
• Ability to develop reporting frameworks and KPIs that align with both SEO and business goals
• Transparent about what's working, what's not, and why—using data to make the case for priorities

Team Builder (as you scale):

• Ability to recruit, develop, and retain high-performing teams
• Experience leading through rapid growth and scaling challenges
• Focus on building team culture where trust, support, and personal growth thrive

Future-Oriented & Adaptable Mindset

• Curiosity about emerging channels: You're actively learning about AI search, LLMs, and how discovery is evolving—not waiting for playbooks to be written
• Comfort with ambiguity: You can experiment with AI optimization strategies (structured data for LLMs, content formatting for AI answers) even when best practices are still being established
• Channel-agnostic thinking: You understand that "SEO" increasingly means "discoverability"—whether that's traditional search engines, AI tools, social platforms, or channels we haven't imagined yet
• Data-driven adaptability: You can objectively assess when to double down on traditional SEO versus when to pivot resources to AI discovery (or anything else more suited)
• Early adopter energy: You're the person who's already testing how Canva appears in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews—bringing insights rather than waiting for direction

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience developing and executing multi-year market expansion strategies
• Mobile-first optimization expertise (critical for mobile-dominant markets)
• Experience working in hyper-growth startup environments
• Familiarity with multi-platform ecosystems (Google + local search engines/social platforms)