Sr. Manager, Software Engineering

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 Sr. Manager Software Engineering to play a pivotal role in bridging business needs with cutting-edge AI capabilities. As part of AIDD our mission is to build world-class AI experiences that serve as the digital core for Rakutens global this role you will work on AI for agents search recommendation personalization and the broader customer experience delivering meaningful impact for nearly 2 billion Rakuten join a team inspired by our CEOs passion and strategic direction: No AI No Rakuten. This mindset means that AI is not an optional extraits at the heart of everything we do.

In this role you will lead a team of engineers to deliver high-quality scalable and innovative AI solutions that align with business objectives. You will take ownership of the planning design development and deployment of global projects ensuring timelines and quality standards are met. You will grow and mentor your team fostering a culture of collaboration innovation and continuous improvement. You will define technical strategies managing stakeholder expectations and ensuring adherence to best practices in software development. By leveraging your leadership and deep technical expertise you will drive operational excellence and contribute to the organizations technological advancements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and mentor a high-performing team of software engineers fostering a culture of technical excellence innovation and continuous learning including performance management and career development.
• Drive the end-to-end software development lifecycle for AI-powered products and features from architectural design and technical specification to implementation testing deployment and ongoing maintenance.
• Define and implement technical strategies and best practices for building scalable reliable and secure AI systems ensuring alignment with AIDDs overall architectural vision.
• Collaborate closely with Product Management Design Data Science and Research teams to translate business needs and research insights into actionable engineering roadmaps and deliver robust user-centric AI solutions and products
• Oversee project planning resource allocation and execution ensuring timely delivery adherence to quality standards and effective mitigation of technical risks for global AI initiatives.
• Champion modern engineering practices including robust coding standards CI/CD pipelines automated testing and comprehensive monitoring for AI/ML systems.
• Ensure operational excellence of deployed AI solutions addressing performance scalability and stability requirements in a production environment.
• Communicate technical direction progress and challenges effectively to stakeholders across various departments and leadership levels.
• Recruit develop and retain top engineering talent across global teams.
• Collaborate effectively across time zones and cultures managing distributed engineering teams.
• Be willing and able to travel for business as required.

Qualifications:

To perform this job successfully an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge skill and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Proven track record of successfully leading mentoring and scaling high-performing software engineering teams specifically focused on the development and delivery of AI/ML-powered products or platforms.
• Deep expertise in the full software development lifecycle (SDLC) within an AI/ML context including architectural design robust coding standards CI/CD automated testing monitoring and operational excellence for large-scale production systems.
• Strong technical acumen and hands-on experience in building and deploying AI/ML systems with specific proficiency in areas such as Deep Learning Natural Language Processing (NLP) Large Language Models (LLMs) conversational AI search or recommendation systems.
• Extensive experience with cloud technologies (e.g. AWS GCP Azure) and architectural best practices for building scalable reliable and secure cloud-native AI applications.
• Exceptional leadership skills in fostering a culture of technical excellence innovation and continuous improvement within engineering teams.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional stakeholders including Product Management Data Science AI Research and Operations to translate complex requirements into technical solutions and drive alignment in a matrixed international environment.
• Strategic thinker capable of balancing big-picture technical vision with hands-on execution and detailed problem-solving.
• Excellent communication skills able to articulate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience operating effectively in fast-paced international environments comfortable managing global initiatives.
• Fluency in English is required; proficiency in Japanese is a plus.

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering or a related technical field. Masters degree preferred.
• A minimum of 8 years of progressive experience in software engineering with at least 3 years in a leadership role managing engineers.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience in the design development and deployment of AI/ML-powered software systems.
• Strong technical foundation and hands-on experience with Python and modern software development practices.
• Proven ability to lead teams toward high-impact technical outcomes.
• Experience working with or within Japanese organizations or teams preferred.

#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.