Early Career AI Engineer

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 30,000 employees, and operations in 30 countries and regions. For more information visit https://global.rakuten.com/corp/. 

Job Summary:

Rakuten AIDD is seeking innovative and driven Early Career AI Engineers to join our core AI User Experience team. Our mission is to build world-class AI experiences that serve as the digital core for Rakuten’s global ecosystem. In this role, you will work on AI for Customer Service, Customer Engagement, and the broader Customer Experience—delivering meaningful impact for millions of users across the Rakuten platform.  You’ll join a team inspired by our CEO’s passion and strategic direction: “No AI, No Rakuten.” This mindset means that AI is not an optional extra—it’s at the heart of everything we do.

Key Responsibilities:

• AI Product Development: Design, build, and maintain features for AI-driven web applications and services (front-end and back-end).
• GenAI Integration:
  • Develop and integrate agentic AI frameworks using cutting-edge tools and SDKs, such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, OpenChat’s ChatCompletion, and Agent SDK.
  • Leverage LLMs to create innovative user experiences.
• Collaboration: Work closely with product managers, UX designers, and global engineering teams (US, Japan and beyond), adapting to multi-cultural and distributed work environments.
• API & Data Management:
  • Design, implement, and manage robust RESTful APIs and data schemas that are critical for the production readiness of enterprise applications—ensuring secure, reliable, and scalable systems that can power AI-driven customer experiences at global scale.
  • Manage relational and NoSQL databases to support real-time and batch AI workloads.
• Testing & Optimization: Write unit and integration tests, debug code, and optimize performance for scalability and reliability.
• Continuous Learning: Stay current with GenAI and LLM trends, propose new ideas, and drive implementation.

Qualifications:

• Technical Proficiency:
  • Strong coding skills in Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java, or similar languages.
  • Familiarity with front-end frameworks (React, Angular, Vue) and back-end development.
  • Solid understanding of data schema design and hands-on experience with SQL/NoSQL databases.
• GenAI/LLM Experience:
  • Strong preference for hands-on project or internship experience with Generative AI, LLMs (OpenAI, Google, open-source, etc.), and frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, OpenChat’s ChatCompletion, or Agent SDK.
  • School or independent projects involving building, fine-tuning, or deploying LLMs (please highlight in your application).
• Cultural Agility:
  • Demonstrated ability to work in multicultural environments.
  • Flexibility to adjust working hours for collaboration with teams in Japan (some early morning or evening meetings as needed).
• Drive for Results:
  • Strong ownership mindset, able to deliver high-quality results with minimal supervision.
  • Bias for action and a track record of shipping projects from idea to completion.
• Contributions to open-source AI/LLM projects or Kaggle/ML competitions.
• Exposure to cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure).

Minimum Requirements:

• Experience or internship in AI for customer service, conversational AI, or related domains.

• Recent Graduation: Bachelor’s, Master’s, or above in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a closely related major (graduation by August/September 2025 or earlier)

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the hourly rate for this role will be between $30-35/hr. 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. 

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.