Program Manager, Grants & Project Operations
Program manager at SambaNova Systems Japan (AI infrastructure company) coordinating government-funded R&D projects such as NEDO and MEXT. Day to day: grant administration, project reporting and documentation (bilingual JP/EN), audit readiness, and stakeholder coordination among technical teams, partners, and funding agencies. Requires business-level Japanese and English.
- Compensation
- ¥15M–¥20M / yr
- Location
- Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Not specified
- Employment
- Contract
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Project management
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
- Experience supporting government-funded R&D projects, technology development programs, or strategic projects
- Strong project coordination, documentation, and organizational skills
- Experience working with multiple stakeholders across organizations
- Excellent Japanese communication skills (business level or above)
- Ability to communicate effectively in English in a professional environment
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications
Nice to have
- Experience with NEDO, MEXT, or other Japanese public funding programs
- Experience in semiconductor, AI, quantum technology, deep-tech, or related industries
- Experience supporting project proposals, technical documentation, reporting, and compliance activities
- Experience preparing or reviewing bilingual (Japanese/English) project documentation
- Experience working with international and cross-functional teams
- Familiarity with project governance, grant administration, contract documentation, and audit support activities
Full description
SambaNova is a leader in next-generation AI infrastructure, delivering a full-stack inference platform for customers worldwide. At the core of SambaNova's technology is the RDU (Reconfigurable Dataflow Unit) — a chip built on a dataflow architecture rather than the traditional GPU model. Its decode performance is especially strong for agentic workloads like multi-turn agents, code generation, and long-running applications. RDUs are packaged into SambaRack, rack-scale hardware that lets customers deploy state-of-the-art models with better performance, greater energy efficiency, and faster time to value.
The Program Manager, Grants & Project Operations supports the successful execution of government-funded R&D projects and strategic initiatives at SambaNova Systems Japan GK.
This role serves as a key coordination point among technical teams, management, headquarters, research partners, customers, and funding agencies. The position focuses on project operations, grant administration, documentation, reporting, and stakeholder coordination to support efficient and compliant project execution throughout the project lifecycle.
Key Responsibilities
- Government-Funded Programs
- Coordinate and support government-funded R&D projects, including NEDO, MEXT, and other public funding programs
- Coordinate project reporting schedules, submission requirements, and administrative deliverables
- Coordinate preparation and submission of project-related documentation and supporting evidence
- Maintain project records and ensure audit readiness
- Support project reviews, inspections, and compliance activities
- Support funding claims and related documentation activities
- Project Operations
- Coordinate project schedules, reporting deadlines, deliverables, and follow-up actions
- Drive timely completion of reporting and administrative requirements across project teams
- Consolidate information from project schedules, meeting records, technical updates, and stakeholder inputs
- Support monitoring of project reporting schedules and communicate administrative issues as appropriate
- Support project activities throughout the lifecycle, from project setup through reporting and closeout
- Documentation & Technical Communication Support
- Support preparation, review, and quality assurance of project proposals, technical reports, progress reports, presentation materials, and external communications
- Organize and structure information provided by technical teams for project documentation and funding submissions