Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Rakuten Kobo

• Success in this role demands not only profound ML engineering expertise but also a forward-thinking mindset for seamlessly integrating ML/AI into the core of our engineering practices
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline; master's degree is preferred
• 5+ years in ML Engineering with at least 2 years in MLOps on GCP
• Demonstrated success in moving organizations up the MLOps maturity curve
• Experience collaborating with data scientists, data engineers and product managers
• Strong communication skills to translate technical frameworks into business-friendly language
• Strong hands-on experience with GCP tools such as:
• Vertex AI
• BigQuery
• Cloud Storage
• Cloud Composer / Airflow
• Cloud Build and Cloud Deploy Cloud Functions
• MLOps framework and Automation:
• Strong understanding of data ingestion pipelines and experiment tracking tools
• Ability to enforce reproducibility and lineage tracking
• Familiarity with Kubeflow and/or TFX
• Proven ability to design and implement CI/CD pipeline for ML (automated training, testing, and deployment, integration with GitHub or Cloud Build)
• Experience with model versioning and registry (Vertex AI Model Registry)
• Knowledge of Feature Store design
• Ability to setup automated monitoring for data and model drift, model performance
• Experience setting up observability stacks (logging, metrics, alerts, model health dashboards)
• Software Engineering and DevOps:
• Proficiency in Python (mandatory), familiarity with R/Scala/Java as needed
• Experience with containerization (docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes, GKE) Strong background in infrastructure-as-a-code (Terraform, Deployment Manager)
• Ability to implement unit tests, integration tests, and ML-specific validation
• Compliance and Best Practices:
• Knowledge of responsible AI practices (bias, explainability)
• Familiarity with data governance, security and compliance standards
• Strong ability to document and enforce coding standards, review processes, and reproducibility guidelines

Desirable

• Rakuten Kobo Inc. is seeking a visionary and highly skilled Senior ML Engineer to spearhead the evolution of our MLOps capabilities
• In this pivotal role, you will collaborate closely with Data Scientists, Data Engineers, Platform Engineers, and business stakeholders to transform our Machine Learning production workflows from manual processes to a state-of-the-art, fully automated framework on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
• This groundbreaking position is dedicated to streamlining the entire ML project lifecycle, ensuring the continuous delivery of significant business value through innovative Machine Learning solutions

• Rakuten Kobo would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this role however only qualified candidates will be shortlisted