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Lead Product Designer, New Verticals

Rakuten

Job Location:

San Francisco, CA - USA

Yearly Salary: $ 132082 - 226820

Posted: 27 June 2026 (30+ days ago)

Application Deadline: 23 November 2026

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Job Description:

Rakuten International is a division of Rakuten Group Inc. a Japanese global technology leader in services that empower individuals communities businesses and society. Headquartered in San Mateo California with more than 4000 employees worldwide the Rakuten International business portfolio includes market leaders in e-commerce digital marketing advertising communications and entertainment. We create products and services that provide exceptional value by aligning members and the businesses that want to engage them in a shared community.

Rakuten is the most rewarding way to shop giving millions of members Cash Back when they buy from their favorite brands. As a leading shopping platform Rakuten partners with thousands of top brands across apparel beauty and wellness grocery travel on-demand services subscriptions and dining helping members save on everyday purchases. Since 1999 Rakuten members have earned more than $4.6 billion in Cash Back making it the largest Cash Back platform of its kind. Learn more at

Job Summary:

Were looking for a Lead Product Designer to join the Vertical Squad a team focused on product experiences that expand how and where members earn Cash Back beyond the core online shopping flow. Youll set the design direction for the squads portfolio of surfaces gift card redemption dining and in-store shopping experiences that bring Rakutens value proposition into new contexts integrate with third-party systems and require translating operational complexity into something that feels simple and rewarding for members. Youll define what good looks like across all of these experiences.

This role is well suited for a designer who goes broad when exploring a new problem space drawing from analogous experiences across industries synthesizing quickly and bringing a considered point of view back to the work. You pick up new domains fast and can context-switch fluidly between the squads different surfaces gift cards dining in-store without losing craft or care in any of them.

As a design team we operate at the intersection of high craft and high impact. We rely on research to de-risk solutions experimentation to measure what works and AI to enhance creativity and amplify the impact of our work. We encourage designers to use AI freely in their process and to help shape new ways of working with this emergent technology.

This role reports to the Director of Product Design and works directly with a product manager researcher UX writer and engineers embedded in your squad.

Key Responsibilities:

Design Ownership: Own end-to-end design for your product areas from problem framing through shipped product. You set the design direction not just execute on it and youre a voice in shaping what the squad works on and why.
Squad Vision: Develop and communicate a design vision for the squads product areas one that gives your cross-functional partners a clear sense of where things are heading and why it matters.
Problem Definition: Know how to frame and scope work before applying UI. With a portfolio that spans distinct surfaces the ability to ask the right questions upfront and identify what actually needs to be solved matters as much as the design itself.
Systems Thinking: Design with awareness of how the vertical surfaces connect to Rakutens core shopping experience building on established design patterns so the work feels cohesive and expected.
Research & Validation: Partner with your embedded researcher or drive research yourself to validate direction early identify friction and de-risk before development.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with your PM and engineering partners to define whats being built why and how. Navigate stakeholder dynamics across teams and communicate design decisions confidently up to senior leadership.
Design Culture: Contribute to the broader design teams culture participate in critiques share learnings and help raise the quality of work across squads.
AI-Assisted Workflows: Leverage AI tools as part of your design process for research synthesis rapid prototyping ideation or wherever they help you move faster and think more clearly.

Qualifications & Minimum Requirements:

6 years of professional design experience with significant experience working with complex systems
Bachelors or Masters degree (or equivalent) in design Human- Computer Interaction (HCI) Industrial Design Computer Science or related field
Portfolio demonstrating end-to-end product design with clear evidence of process decision-making and measurable outcomes
Proficiency with design and prototyping tools e.g. Figma Claude Code
A strong sense of visual and interaction design with a track record of raising the bar

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience working in e-commerce marketplaces or consumer-scale products
Active use of AI tools as part of a design workflow ideally including AI coding tools for rapid prototyping
Track record of influencing design quality and culture beyond your immediate squad through critiques mentorship or team-level initiatives.

#LI-ES1

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

Rakuten provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type. Rakuten considers applicants for employment without regard to race color religion age sex national origin disability status genetic information protected veteran status sexual orientation gender gender identity or expression or any other characteristic protected by federal state provincial or local laws.

As part of our Rakuten interview process we encourage applicants to use their own words rather than AI-generated content. Tell us your story in a way thats personal and authentic.

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.

USD $132082.50 - $226820.00 annually

Required Experience:

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