WAY is a company builder focused on launching and scaling technology-enabled businesses in Japan. We are also expanding our roll-up strategy — acquiring and consolidating tech and tech-enabled companies with untapped potential. As our in-house Technologist, you will provide technical leadership across this full spectrum: supporting early-stage product development, guiding technical due diligence, and helping acquired businesses modernise and scale.
This is a high-trust, high-leverage role ideal for someone who thrives as a multiplier: enabling others, increasing technical confidence across the organisation, and applying your skills where they matter most.
You’re a hands-on technologist with a strategic mindset. You enjoy building, but you also thrive when advising, reviewing architecture, or helping others make better technical decisions. You’re naturally curious, collaborative, and energised by supporting multiple high-leverage projects at once.
Whether your background is in software engineering, product architecture, or systems design, you have both the technical depth and business acumen to translate between code and company-building.
Responsibilities
- Provide technical guidance and reviews across multiple company-building initiatives
- Build or advise on early-stage MVPs and technical proof-of-concepts
- Collaborate with business leads to assess feasibility, define technical strategy, and manage build-vs-buy decisions
- Identify and help evaluate external vendors, APIs, and technologies
- Create lightweight technical documentation, best practices, and process templates
- Stay on top of emerging technologies and help WAY apply them thoughtfully (especially around AI, automation, and workflow design)
- Contribute to recruiting and vetting technical talent — from engineering hires to product specialists
- Act as a coach and advisor to founders, operators, and cross-functional teams
- Work with AI. At WAY, we believe AI is not just a tool — it’s a competitive edge. Everyone on the team, regardless of role, is expected to:
- Identify and automate parts of your job that can be made more efficient using AI.
- Experiment with AI tools to increase productivity, improve quality, and unlock new ideas.
- Share what you learn with your teammates so we all get better, faster.
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience in software engineering, technical leadership, or systems architecture
- Broad technical fluency across modern tools, platforms, and frameworks
- Ability to quickly assess risks, estimate timelines, and advise on resource needs
- Comfort moving between hands-on support and high-level advising
- Strong communication skills; able to translate between technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Deep curiosity, strong execution skills, and a long-term mindset
Nice to haves
While not specifically required, tell us if you have any of the following.
- Japanese language ability
- At WAY, we rely on deep technical insight to inform and accelerate company building. Here’s how our values come to life in this role:
- Customers are our obsession. You ground technology choices in the real needs of customers. You prioritise usability, scalability, and value creation over technical novelty.
- Everything is possible. You help teams find a way forward — simplifying complex problems, identifying smart trade-offs, and charting pragmatic paths through uncertainty.
- Strength in diversity. You work across teams, disciplines, and perspectives. You welcome different ways of thinking and help technical and non-technical people collaborate effectively.
- Grit. You take ownership and follow through. You’re the kind of person who gets into the details when needed, whether debugging a prototype or advising on vendor integrations.
- Energy and execution. You bring focus, structure, and urgency to everything you touch. You help others get unblocked and move projects forward with clarity and speed.
- Curiosity enables potential. You’re always learning — whether exploring a new tool, refactoring an idea, or diving deep into a new industry to understand its constraints.
- Pragmatic about purpose. You’re motivated by impact. You want to do your life’s work by building technologies and systems that endure and support people who share that mission.