Conversational AI Engineer, Japan

About Cookpad
Cookpad is a food tech company dedicated to shaping the future of home cooking and food as a pillar for a sustainable future. We have been developing innovative product ideas and we have a new product launch in 5 countries: Japan, Indonesia, UK, France and Italy.

Moment helps people learn to cook in an innovative way with a personal coaching service. This service is completely based in AI using multimodal (text, vision, audio).

About the role
As an AI Engineer specializing in Conversational AI at Moment, you will design, implement, and optimize intelligent dialogue systems that create engaging, natural, and context-aware user interactions. You'll leverage cutting-edge Large Language Models (LLMs) and conversational AI techniques to build robust conversation flows that integrate seamlessly with our products, enhancing the user experience through natural language interactions.

Please note this is primarily an on-site role, based in our Meguro,Tokyo office. Remote working is not possible.

Requirements

YOUR FOCUS WITHIN THE TEAM
Conversational system design and development

• Design and implement sophisticated dialogue systems that maintain context across multiple user interactions
• Develop and optimize advanced prompt engineering strategies to effectively leverage LLMs
• Create natural, engaging conversational flows with appropriate personality and tone
• Implement robust systems for intent recognition, entity extraction, and context management
• Develop fallback mechanisms and escalation paths for handling ambiguous inputs and edge cases
• Build personalization capabilities into conversations based on user preferences and history

Integration and production implementation

• Integrate conversational interfaces with backend APIs and services
• Collaborate with front-end developers to ensure seamless integration of conversational capabilities
• Translate business and product requirements into technical conversational AI solutions
• Take ownership of features from concept through production deployment
• Implement production-ready code following software engineering best practices

Knowledge sharing and documentation

• Document conversation design patterns, flows, and implementation details
• Create and maintain prompt libraries and conversation templates
• Share conversational AI best practices with the broader engineering team
• Communicate ideas and demos to team members effectively
  

MANDATORY SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Solid professional software engineering background with senior level industry experience
• Strong Python programming skills with production-level experience
• Hands-on experience building applications and integrations with modern generative AI models (LLMs)
• Demonstrated expertise in prompt engineering and optimization techniques for conversational AI
• Experience designing and implementing dialogue management systems
• Experience with multi-agent systems for complex conversational workflows
• Experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for enhancing conversational context and knowledge
• Proficiency in modern software engineering best practices (test-driven development, version control, CI/CD, containerization)
• Strong problem-solving abilities and analytical thinking including experience exploring and defining open-ended problems.
• Ability to work effectively both independently and within a team in a fast-paced environment

.....and good to have

• Familiarity with vector embeddings and vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, FAISS)
• Experience with conversational AI frameworks and tools (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex)
• Knowledge of cloud services for AI deployment (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Understanding of MLOps/LLMOps practices for model deployment and monitoring
• Familiarity with UX principles for conversational interfaces

Benefits

What we offer

• The position is full-time employment in Tokyo, subject to a probation period. 
• A competitive salary
• Relocation support, including Japan work visa (if required)
• The chance to work in a fast-paced, highly ambitious team