Research Scientist, Generative AI

Job Description:

Situated in the heart of Singapore's Central Business District, Rakuten Asia Pte. Ltd. is Rakuten's Asia Regional headquarters. Established in August 2012 as part of Rakuten's global expansion strategy, Rakuten Asia comprises various businesses that provide essential value-added services to Rakuten's global ecosystem. Through advertisement product development, product strategy, and data management, among others, Rakuten Asia is strengthening Rakuten Group's core competencies to take the lead in an increasingly digitalized world.

Rakuten Group, Inc. is a global leader in internet services, offering a dynamic ecosystem of over 70 services across e-commerce, FinTech, digital content, and communications. Founded in 1997, Rakuten’s mission is to empower people and society through innovation and entrepreneurship. With a vision of driving disruptive innovation globally, Rakuten integrates various services under a unified brand, supported by a unique ecosystem model that leverages data and AI.

We are seeking an innovative and dedicated Research Scientist to join our Large Language Model (LLM) Research team. This role involves advancing our research agenda by developing new deep learning techniques and collaborating with peers across the organization. The ideal candidate will have a passion for producing groundbreaking research and will contribute to a unified vision that enhances generative AI and responsible AI deployment at scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive and execute cutting-edge research to advance the state-of-the-art in generative AI and large language models, contributing to areas such as multilingual modelling, code generation, multimodality.
• Design and conduct experiments, including experimental design, code development, evaluations, and results analysis, ensuring research outcomes are reusable and impactful.
• Own and pursue an independent research agenda, identifying impactful research problems, designing innovative solutions, and carrying out long-running projects.
• Work collaboratively within a globally distributed research team, and foster partnerships across the organization to align on shared goals and maximize the impact of research outcomes.
• Contribute to publications, open-source projects, and knowledge-sharing efforts, enhancing the visibility and reach of research findings.
• Set ambitious long-term research goals and develop intermediate milestones to advance our understanding and capabilities in generative AI.
• Mentor junior researchers and promote a healthy, cross-functional team environment.

Mandatory Qualifications:

• 2+ years of work experience in a research position at a university, industry, or government lab.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Ph.D. in AI, computer science, or a related discipline.
• Proven experience in a research-focused role within industry, academia, or government institutions.

Desired Qualifications:

• Extensive experience in generative AI and LLM research, with a focus on creating high-performance implementations of deep learning algorithms.
• First author publications in leading AI conferences (e.g., NeurIPS, CVPR, ICML, ICLR, ICCV, ACL).
• Proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks, with skills in developing, debugging, and optimizing research code.
• Strong interest in the ethical implications of AI technology and a thoughtful approach to responsible AI development.
• Proven experience in a research-focused role within industry, academia, or government institutions.
• Strong track record in deep learning research, with accomplishments such as first-author publications in peer-reviewed AI conferences or journals.
• Proficient in writing and executing software for large-scale AI experiments, including deep learning models and large datasets.
• Ability to speak, write, and communicate in Japanese will be advantageous.

Rakuten is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications regardless of sex, marital status, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religious belief, or age.