Rakuten International
e-commerce
Director,DataScience
“Director, Data Science at Rakuten International. Skills: Data Science, Machine Learning, Generative AI, Organizational Leadership, Strategy, Execution. Lead and grow a high-performing centralized data science organization. Help shape data science strategy and prioritize initiatives”
What You'll Achieve.
deliver measurable, company-wide business impact; scale high-impact AI solutions from concept to production; ensure that our data science efforts directly translate into competitive advantages and improved member experiences; ensure data science efforts translate into measurable business outcomes; deliver measurable impact across domains such as campaign forecasting, campaign optimization, and member experience optimization; ensure solutions are production‑ready, observable, and continuously improved, with a focus on reliability and business effectiveness
Industry & Context.
Translate ambiguous business problems into clear, actionable AI and machine learning strategies
What They're Looking For.
Must Have
10+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, or applied AI, 5+ years of leadership experience, including managing managers and building scaled teams, Proven track record of delivering measurable business impact through production-grade ML/AI systems, Bachelor's Degree, foundation in machine learning, statistical modeling, optimization, and/or AI systems, Experience leading the deployment and scaling of models in production environments, Familiarity with modern data and ML ecosystems (Python, SQL, cloud platforms, and production ML tooling), Demonstrated ability to lead in ambiguous environments and define strategy from first principles, communication skills with experience influencing senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams, Ability to balance technical depth with business pragmatism
Nice to Have
Master's Degree, Experience in e-commerce, ad-tech, marketing science, recommender systems, or related domains, Experience integrating AI into customer-facing products and internal workflows, Experience with LLM-based systems, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and evaluation of generative AI solutions
What You'll Do.
Lead and grow a high-performing centralized data science organization
Help shape data science strategy and prioritize initiatives
Translate ambiguous business problems into clear
actionable AI and machine learning strategies
and end to end accountability
Own the end‑to‑end delivery and effectiveness of machine learning and generative AI solutions
Set technical direction and quality standards for scalable ML
Ensure solutions are production‑ready
and continuously improved
Strengthen best practices and technical standards for applied AI
Partner with engineering and platform teams to improve foundations for production AI
Stay current with advances in ML and generative AI and guide thoughtful
pragmatic adoption of new capabilities
How You'll Work.
Team & Collaboration
Serve as a trusted partner to senior leaders; clearly communicating strategy, trade‑offs, progress, and impact; Partner with engineering and platform teams
Communication Scope
communication skills with experience influencing senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams; clearly communicating strategy, trade‑offs, progress, and impact
Process & Methodology
end to end accountability, end‑to‑end delivery
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