Director, Engineering and Research

Job Description:

Rakuten Group Inc. (TSE: 4755) is a global technology leader in services that empower individuals communities businesses and society. Founded in Tokyo in 1997 as an online marketplace Rakuten has expanded to offer services in e-commerce fintech digital content and communications to 2 billion members around the world. The Rakuten Group has around 30000 employees and operations in 30 countries and regions. For more information visit Summary:

Rakuten Americas AI & Data Division (AIDD) is seeking a passionate and experienced Director Engineering and Research to play a pivotal role in bridging cutting-edge research with robust engineering capabilities to solve critical business needs. AIDDs mission is to build world-class AI experiences that serve as the digital core of Rakutens global ecosystem.

In this role you will focus on AI applications such as agent experiences search recommendation personalization and the broader customer experiencedelivering meaningful impact for nearly 2 billion Rakuten users. Inspired by our CEOs vision No AI No Rakuten you will help ensure AI is embedded at the heart of everything we do.

You will define and execute multi-year technical and research roadmaps that align foundational research with real-world engineering execution. You will lead interdisciplinary teams scale operations and oversee the full lifecycle of innovationfrom early-stage prototypes to production-ready large-scale systems. The role requires close collaboration with executive stakeholders across Research Product Business and global Rakuten teams to drive integrated high-impact AI initiatives.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Interdisciplinary Vision

• Define and drive multi-year technical and research roadmaps ensuring seamless integration of scientific discovery with scalable engineering implementation.
• Champion a culture of deep collaboration between research and engineering breaking down silos to accelerate innovation and solution delivery.
• Guide architectural direction modern engineering practices and the adoption of technologies emerging from internal and external research.
• Provide expert leadership on the transition from research prototypes to reliable secure production-grade systems.
• Establish cross-functional standards and processes that support both research excellence and engineering efficiency.

Organizational & People Management

• Build mentor and scale high-performing interdisciplinary teams including both ICs and managers.
• Lead talent strategiesrecruitment retention performance management and career developmentfor a diverse technically excellent organization.
• Communicate vision goals and priorities across functions ensuring strong alignment and shared ownership.
• Optimize resource allocation across multiple product lines and initiatives balancing delivery velocity with long-term innovation.
• Accountable for resource planning and budgetary oversight.

Cross-functional Collaboration & Business Impact

• Partner with executive stakeholders in Research Product Business and Operations to align on technical direction and deliver integrated solutions.
• Drive cross-functional initiatives by uniting research and engineering contributions toward shared business goals.
• Serve as a technical and scientific ambassador internally and externally representing the teams innovation and capabilities.
• Identify and support strategic partnerships and business development opportunities that leverage the teams research-engineering synergy.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully an individual must demonstrate excellence across the following domains. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Exceptional leadership in defining communicating and executing multi-year technical and research roadmaps for complex large-scale systems.
• Proven track record of building coaching and scaling interdisciplinary engineering and research organizations that deliver innovative research-informed software products.
• Deep expertise in architecting and operating scalable secure and resilient cloud-native systems combined with a strong foundation in research methodology and experimental design.
• Mastery of the full software development lifecycle modern DevOps practices and a commitment to engineering quality and scientific rigor.
• Demonstrated ability to align and influence executive stakeholders across Research Product Business and Operations on strategic cross-functional initiatives.
• Strong technical acumen in AI/ML domains including LLMs NLP search recommendation systems and conversational AI.
• Comfortable leading through ambiguity in fast-moving international environments managing globally distributed teams.
• Outstanding communication and interpersonal skills; ability to translate complex technical and scientific concepts across diverse stakeholders.
• Proven ability to attract develop and retain top-tier engineering and research talent fostering a culture of innovation psychological safety and continuous learning.
• Experience or strong potential for engaging in strategic partnerships and business development initiatives.
• Fluency in English is required; proficiency in Japanese is a plus.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering or a related field. Masters or Ph.D. preferred. A Ph.D. in a relevant AI/ML research field (e.g. Computer Science Electrical Engineering Statistics Operations Research) is highly desirable.
• 12 years of progressive experience in software engineering and/or applied research including 5 years in senior manager or director-level leadership roles.
• Significant hands-on experience with large-scale distributed systems and modern cloud platforms (e.g. AWS GCP Azure).
• Proven ability to translate AI/ML research advancementsincluding Deep Learning NLP LLMs and conversational AIinto scalable production systems.
• Demonstrated success in leading large interdisciplinary teams toward high-impact outcomes that combine research excellence with engineering precision.

#LI-ONSITE

#LI-KN1

Five Principles for Success
Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.

Always improve Always Advance - Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen
Passionately Professional - Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best
Hypothesize - Practice - Validate Shikumika - Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory
Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge set clear goals and engage your team

At the time of posting Rakuten expects the base compensation for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors including the skills qualifications and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location. The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for discretionary bonus health vision dental insurance 401k matching PTO Volunteer Time Off (VTO) and other employee benefits as the company implements.