Technical Lead, Software Engineering

Job Description:

Why should you choose us?

Rakuten Symphony is reimagining telecom, changing supply chain norms and disrupting outmoded thinking that threatens the industry’s pursuit of rapid innovation and growth. Based on proven modern infrastructure practices, its open interface platforms make it possible to launch and operate advanced mobile services in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional approaches, with no compromise to network quality or security. Rakuten Symphony has operations in Japan, the United States, Singapore, India, South Korea, Europe, and the Middle East Africa region. For more information, visit: https://symphony.rakuten.com

Building on the technology Rakuten used to launch Japan’s newest mobile network, we are taking our mobile offering global.

To support our ambitions to provide an innovative cloud-native telco platform for our customers, Rakuten Symphony is looking to recruit and develop top talent from around the globe. We are looking for individuals to join our team across all functional areas of our business – from sales to engineering, support functions to product development.

Let’s build the future of mobile telecommunications together!

About Rakuten Group, Inc. (TSE: 4755) is a global leader in internet 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 over 30,000 employees, and operations in 30 countries and regions. For more information visit https://global.rakuten.com/corp/.

Key Responsibilities:

• Architectural Leadership: Design and implement scalable, secure, and high-performance microservices using Java and Spring Boot.
• Systems Design: Lead technical design discussions, providing clear documentation and diagrams for distributed systems, ensuring high availability and fault tolerance.
• Full-Lifecycle Ownership: Drive projects from conception (requirements/specifications) through to deployment and production monitoring.
• Mentorship: Provide technical guidance and mentorship to junior and mid-level engineers, conducting rigorous code reviews and promoting engineering best practices.
• Infrastructure & Orchestration: Manage containerized workloads using Docker and Kubernetes; optimize deployment pipelines and service meshes.
• Data & Messaging: Architect event-driven systems using Apache Kafka; design efficient schemas and data models for NoSQL databases (e.g., Cassandra, or Redis).
• Performance Optimization: Proactively identify system bottlenecks, conduct performance tuning, and resolve complex production issues.
• Agile Execution: Create work plans with verifiable milestones and ensure the team delivers high-quality features on schedule.

Requirements:

• Experience: 6+ years of software development experience, with at least 2+ years in a Lead or Senior role.
• Core Skills: Exceptional proficiency in Java 17+ and the Spring Boot ecosystem.
• Architecture: Deep understanding of Microservices architecture, RESTful APIs.
• Data & Streaming: Strong experience with Apache Kafka (or similar message brokers) and NoSQL databases (e.g., Cassandra, DynamoDB).
• Cloud-Native: Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Fundamentals: Strong command of Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) and advanced System Design principles (scalability, CAP theorem, eventual consistency).
• Quality: Proven track record of writing testable code (JUnit/Mockito) and implementing effective monitoring/observability (Prometheus/Grafana/ELK).
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Education: BTech/MTech in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience.

Desired Skills:

• Experience with Service Mesh (Istio/Linkerd).
• Experience with Cloud Providers (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Prior experience in the Telecommunications domain or high-concurrency fintech platforms.

Rakuten SHUGI Principles:

Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviours 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.
• Be 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 success in unknown territory.
• Maximize Customer Satisfaction. The greatest satisfaction for workers in a service industry is to see their customers smile.

Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! Always be conscious of time. Take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team.