Customer Manager

Our client is a leading, global Tier 1 automotive supplier which focuses on electronics and software for software-defined vehicles—covering ADAS sensors/cameras, vehicle compute, connectivity, and mobility software—with a self-described mission to make mobility safe, connected, and autonomous.

This position is a key account management role focusing on one JOEM customer, managing internal and external stakeholders.

This position is a great career move for salespeople who prefer to work deeply into one customer rather than chase business across many customers. In this role, you will gain a lot of business insight, interacting with executives internally and with customer top management.

Role and Responsibilities:

1) Contracts & Standards

• Lead and coordinate internal reviews of customer contracts.

• Negotiate global terms & conditions and ensure alignment with internal policies.

2) Claims & Disputes

• Define, prepare, and execute customer-specific claim strategies.

• Act as key negotiator and internal coordinator for cross-BA claims; support BA-specific claims on demand.

3) Commercial Management

• Drive commercial improvements (e.g., A/R, premium freight).

• Manage crisis topics as needed.

• Improve efficiency and digitalization across B2B portals and CRM.

4) Sustainability

• Capture, align, and negotiate customer sustainability requirements in line with the Automotive sustainability strategy.

5) Customer & Competitive Intelligence

• Monitor competitor activities and provide actionable insights.

• Serve as the interface to BA product teams and Japan Marketing; bridge innovation roadmaps between the customer and BAs.

JOEM Product/Platform Intelligence (critical task)

• Proactively gather, synthesize, and distribute JOEM’s product plans—by vehicle architecture and platform, including alliances (e.g., with TOYOTA).

• Use these insights with BA/CST to identify early entry points and position our technical solutions at the start of JOEM’s development process.

6) Volume Planning

• Provide a single source of truth for OEM production volumes (car/platform and finished goods) as the basis for sales planning.

• Build and maintain a global volume-intelligence network and framework.

7) Customer Communication & Events

• Define the marketing/communications/events plan per customer strategy.

• Execute in collaboration with Japan Marketing.

8) Customer Experience

• Deliver an outside-in view of customer satisfaction and feedback.

• Track actions to closure and provide proactive feedback to the customer.

Collaboration

• Serve as the subject-matter expert for the JOEM account and work closely, in harmony, with Customer Sales Management (CSM) across BAs.

• Experience: 5+ years in JOEM customer-facing roles (sales, project/program management, business controlling, etc.) in the automotive industry.

• Communication & teamwork: Proactive, open communicator with a strong team mindset (must-have).

• Process knowledge: Familiarity with Tier 1 side supplier business processes into JOEMs is a plus.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree preferred; Business or Engineering background ideal.

• IT skills: Intermediate–advanced proficiency with office productivity software.

• Languages: Native level Japanese and business-level English.