Senior Vice President - Franchise & Title Strategy
Crunchyroll
Tokyo, JPThis is a Full Time Job
The Role
Crunchyroll is seeking an SVP/VP Franchise & Title Strategy to transform great anime titles into enduring global franchises that deepen fandom over a lifetime.
Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, this leader takes the baton after content has been acquired, shaping how titles are nurtured, prioritized, and activated across the Crunchyroll ecosystem. This role does not acquire or license content; it partners closely with the Chief Content Officer once titles enter the Crunchyroll portfolio to maximize their long-term potential.
The SVP/VP, Franchise & Title Strategy will bring together Strategy, Marketing, Commercial lines of business, and Regional teams around a unified view of the portfolio–ensuring priority titles have clear franchise ambitions, the right level of investment, and coordinated activation across markets and fan touchpoints.
The goal is to turn exceptional stories into lasting relationships with fans and build franchises that can grow far beyond a single season or release.
Responsibilities
Build franchises that live far beyond the screen
• Own Crunchyroll’s global Franchise and Title Strategy, defining how acquired titles are prioritized, nurtured, and grown across their lifecycle.
• Establish long-term ambitions and multi-year plans for priority franchises, informed by fan insights, market dynamics, and performance.
• Connect streaming with theatrical, games, manga, eCommerce, consumer products, events, and other fan experiences to deepen fandom and extend franchise value.
Turn priority releases into global fan moments
• Lead the Title Marketing Strategy function, setting the strategy and ambition for how titles are launched and sustained across the Crunchyroll ecosystem and then partnering closely with regional marketing teams and general managers to execute on ambitions.
• Establish clear marketing priorities and strategies for key releases, aligning global and regional teams around shared goals.
• Build title plans that maximize audience, engagement, and fandom before, during, and beyond launch.
Build a world-class B2B marketing engine for our partners
• Build the strategy and capabilities that demonstrate Crunchyroll’s value to licensors, studios, and rights holders.
• Showcase how Crunchyroll grows audiences, builds fandom, and creates lasting value for titles and franchises around the world.
• Create compelling partner narratives, insights, case studies, and tentpole moments that deepen relationships and reinforce Crunchyroll as a valued global partner.
Create the operating system that turns strategy into action
• Serve as the connective tissue across Content, Marketing, Regional teams, and adjacent businesses to align execution around priority titles.
• Establish an integrated planning cadence across title marketing, localization, regional activation, commercial businesses, and franchise development.
• Partner with Regional GMs to bring local fan and market insights into franchise plans while maintaining a coherent global strategy.
Build the management system and team
• Build the operating model, governance, and decision frameworks for managing the title portfolio as an enterprise asset.
• Foster a culture of high standards, collaboration, and continuous improvement focused on fans, creators, and Crunchyroll outcomes.
Experience
Education
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience required.
• Deep industry expertise, judgment, and demonstrated results will be valued more heavily than a particular academic pathway.
Experience
• 15 years of progressively senior experience in entertainment, media, streaming, film/television, games, consumer products, franchise management, or another IP-driven business.
• Significant experience building and growing entertainment franchises over multiple years, beyond individual releases or marketing windows.
• Demonstrated success in recognizing growth opportunities within an existing portfolio and mobilizing organizational focus and investment behind them.
• Experience developing integrated franchise strategies across streaming, theatrical, games, commerce, consumer products, events, publishing, and other extensions.
• Deep experience partnering with creators, studios, publishers, licensors, and rights-holders, ideally including Japanese partners.
• Experience setting global title and franchise strategy, priorities, and investment frameworks that regional and functional teams translate into execution.
• Demonstrated ability to orchestrate complex initiatives across Content, Marketing, Commercial businesses, Product, and Regional teams through influence rather than direct ownership.
• Strong international experience connecting franchise ambition, partner priorities, and audience needs across markets.
• Experience improving partner-facing workflows and establishing measures for franchise health, growth, and long-term value.
• Native to Business level bilingual Japanese and English language skills
• Direct anime and Japanese entertainment experience is highly desirable; candidates from adjacent fandom-driven businesses should demonstrate fluency in creator/rightsholder ecosystems and global franchise building.
#LifeAtCrunchyroll #LI-Hybrid
Salary/Benefits
Competitive salary
Benefits
• Health insurance through Sony Kenko Hoken Kumiai
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Allowances for gym & wellness, cellphone, meals, commuting
• Company's paid parental leave
• Paid time off (PTO)
• Flex time off
Perks
• Crunchyroll Premium account
• Professional development
• Hybrid work schedule
• 5 Yasumi days
• Half-day Fridays during the summer
• 3 Obon summer Yasumi days
• Winter break
Additional Information
Crunchyroll is a global leader in anime and manga entertainment, founded by fans to deliver the art and culture of anime to a passionate community of over 100 million fans across 200 countries and territories. We provide a range of experiences, including streaming video, theatrical releases, games, merchandise, and events, all powered by the beloved anime content. Our mission is to deepen fandom and create lasting relationships with fans through exceptional stories and experiences. We are committed to diversity and inclusion, reflecting our values of courage, curiosity, kaizen, and service in all that we do. Crunchyroll, LLC operates as an independently managed joint venture between US-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan's Aniplex, both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation.