Product Manager, Ads

Tokyo
Partial Remote
Full-time
September 30, 2022

Founded in Tokyo in 2012, SmartNews has quickly become the go-to source of news for over 50 millions of users around the world, and a leading news aggregation mobile app. Our mission is bigger than simply aggregating news, and we are working to break through the filter bubble and deliver the world’s quality information to the people who need it. We are seeking talented, strategic product manager with a “get-it-done” attitude to execute our Ads strategies and roadmap. Join us and make a difference!

About you

Ads is only revenue source for SmartNews currently. More success in Ads boosts the company’s strategy. You understand it. You are always passionate to find out opportunity to deliver bigger impact. Quickly catch up changing advertisers needs, market trends through well communication with Sales, Engineers, PMs and advertisers. Iterate based on scientific attitude until meet goals.

Responsibilities

Build and execute Ads product plan to address advertisers’ marketing budgets, customer needs, define value proposition, and increase potential sales.
Set KPI target goals, design and execute roadmap from MVP to official release, and iterate as needed to meet goals.
Conduct AB testing, track and analyze metrics, and iterate on product plan as needed to meet goals.
Align Ads strategy to Market trends, advertiser’s needs, Sales team’s feedback, and Company’s overall mission and strategy.
Define the issues to be solved and collaborate cross-functionally with PMs, Sales, Engineers, Designers, Data Scientists, and others to build project plan and execute to deliver results.
Work with advertising partners to resolve feedback and conflicts.
Motivate and encourage team to deliver product and drive product to meet sales goals.Strive to serve and make decisions to further realize the company’s mission, vision, and values.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

At least 3 years experience of roles below, more than 1 year should be revenue related
- Product manager
- Planner

Possess strong communication skills and ability to own the loop between product, engineers, designers, data scientists, and sales.
Ability to facilitate information from different stakeholders, calculate impact, and prioritize task
Experience of designing KPIs and analysis
Experience working in an agile environment with engineering teams to drive execution of a project plan
Basic knowledge of the internet related with ad delivery (such as cookie/IDFA.GAID)
Experience facilitating at least 2 different teams with different interests and delivering successful product to the market.
Business level English

Preferred Qualifications

experience of engineering
experience of ad-sales
SQL
Business level Japanese

Benefits

Perks and Benefits at the SmartNews Tokyo Office

Support program for employee’s self-development and well-being
Healthy lunches are prepared on-site daily in our SmartKitchen, located in our West Office building. You can even see the cooks at work!
Need a pick-me-up? Stop by ChikyuCoffee, our in-house coffee shop located in both the East and West Office buildings, and get a cup of gourmet coffee, espresso-based beverage, or other seasonal drink!
SmartNews provides all healthcare and social insurance benefits required by Japanese labor law

Visa Sponsorship and Relocation Support

For candidates who meet eligibility requirements, SmartNews can sponsor visas.

To support a smooth transition for candidates who are moving to Japan from overseas, SmartNews partners with a travel service provider.

How to apply

Please apply via the form below & please also submit source-code like GitHub account and CV

APPLY NOW ➜Japanese Required ⚠️

About SmartNews

Recently crowned Japan's latest tech unicorn, this company runs a wildly successful news service that’s powered by machine learning. It's an engineering-focused company (One of co-founders is an engineer) and they have offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Shanghai, Beijing that are apparently doing quite well too.

The mission of SmartNews is to discover and deliver quality stories to the world. Since its inception in 2012, the SmartNews app has been downloaded over 50 million downloads and maintained a monthly active user count of over 20 million.

In addition to being one of the most popular smartphone apps in Japan, SmartNews has worked hard on building their business in the US. They now have partnerships with over 300 major news publications in the US like CBS, Entertainment Weekly, Business Insider, National Geographic and more. They’ve had a great deal of success due to their ML-based sorting and recommendation systems.

SmartNews has a highly diverse development team with many world-class engineers and others working from their offices in Japan,China and the US. They maintain a very strict hiring bar for technical hires and an engineering-driven culture that makes them one of the strongest tech companies in Japan when it comes to technical skill level.

SmartNews is looking to hire the best people regardless of background, so they’re willing to hire people that don’t speak Japanese and (under normal circumstances) bring them to Japan from overseas if necessary. Everyone works together as one team regardless of location, and SmartNews provides everything their employees need to do their best work and maintains a Silicon Valley-inspired culture for engineers in Tokyo.

SmartNews's policies during COVID-19 are as follows:

All interviews are being conducted remotely
Employees are working remotely following the government’s instructions
They've given everyone some monetary incentive to support working from home

Japanese Language Policy
We do not require Japanese language ability in the working environment. We have a language support program if employees want to learn Japanese.
Visa Sponsorship
We support candidates to get a working visa from the start to the end (for JP office joiners).
Paid Leave
Our holidays shall include Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays, and other days designated by the Company.

Annual paid holidays
- 4-10 days of paid holiday will be granted depending on the month in which you join the Company.
- From the second year and onwards, paid holidays will be granted according to the number of years of your employment on April 1st of each year. The number of days granted shall be set forth in the Work Rules.
Other leaves
- Summer holidays
- Year-end and year-beginning holidays
- Special leave for congratulation or condolence (marriage or immediate family death)
- Sick/Injured Child Care Leave
- Family nursing care leave
- Maternity and paternity leave
Benefits
☕️ ChikyuCoffee - Delicious coffee provided by our Barista every day

🍹 Free soft drinks

🌽 SmartKitchen - Healthy organic lunch on a daily basis for free at our cafeteria

👩‍🎓 Foreign language development support

💜 Various social insurance benefits included

🏥 Health insurance

📓 Free book rent from our library collections

🌎 Translation/interpretation support (EN<>JP)
Remote Work
We accept work from home policy during natural disasters and emergency situations. Our company’s working policy during the pandemic follows the government’s recommendations.
Work style
Our engineering and product teams follow the discretionary labor system to better collaborate with members in the US and China.
Diversity
We support diversity in various ways and those are not simply reflected in the quantitative goals.

We have employees with 18 different nationalities. Groups of small gatherings with similar interests are actively communicating across divisions, departments, and regions. We have monthly Global All Hands to share important notes from each region and be aligned globally.

All employees in SmartNews have different personal and professional backgrounds and experiences.
Parents and Family
We are supporting our employees in various ways to help them manage their work better with family care.

We have 10 annual paid leaves (for a child) for employees with children until they enter highschool.

Working from home is encouraged when their family needs care. Employees can freely invite their family to the Smart Kitchen (our corporate kitchen where free lunches are served).

During the working from home period because of the pandemic, employees with small children autonomously held some online sessions for their children such as reading fairy tales and mutual online babysittings.