Data Science Manager (CXD)

Rakuten Kobo Inc.; Singapore; On-site; SGD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Great Place to Work

Singapore HQ

Job summary

Rakuten Asia Pte. Ltd.

in Singapore seeks a Data Science Manager to lead the applied AI science function within the CXD team, managing a group of data scientists and ML engineers responsible for the intelligence layer of the conversational AI platform. Based in Singapore and collaborating with product/engineering across Japan and APAC, you will set the technical direction, build team capability, and drive measurable improvements in model quality, retrieval performance, and personalisation that

Qualifications

• 7+ years in applied ML or NLP with leadership experience
• Deep hands-on experience with LLMs and RAG production systems
• Ability to provide mathematical and algorithmic sign-off on system design
• Experience with online experiments (A/B, bandits)
• Proven team-building and coaching experience
• Strong communication across cultures/time zones
• Familiarity with privacy/compliance considerations

Responsibilities

• Lead data science & ML engineering teams across Runtime Decision Plane and Learning Plane
• Own end-to-end lifecycle of LLMs in production including evaluation and upgrades
• Drive RAG architecture, retrieval quality, and knowledge base health
• Define and enforce evaluation gates and feedback loops for continuous improvement
• Collaborate with product/engineering in Singapore and Japan to align scientific roadmap
• Define and measure personalisation strategies tied to business outcomes
• Shape memory/context layers and user profile management for scalable conversations

Skills

Team leadership

Applied ML & NLP

LLMs & RAG

Experimentation

Python

Cloud ML (GCP)

Vector search

Cross‑regional collaboration

Stakeholder influence

Education

PhD in CS/ML/NLP

Tools

Python

GCP

Vector search

Job description

Job Description: Rakuten Group, Inc. is a global leader in internet services and has a diverse ecosystem spanning across e-commerce, fintech, communications and more serving approximately 1.8 billion members worldwide. Founded in Tokyo in 1997, the Group operates in over 30 countries and regions with more than 30,000 employees. Based in Singapore's Central Business District, Rakuten Asia Pte. Ltd. serves as the regional headquarters for Asia, driving value through areas such as advertising product development, product strategy, and data management to support Rakuten Group's global ecosystem. Learn more at: https://global.rakuten.com/corp/

The Data Science Manager will lead the applied AI science function within Rakuten's CXD team, managing a team of data scientists and ML engineers responsible for the intelligence layer of our conversational AI platform.

Based in Singapore and working closely with product and engineering counterparts across Japan and the wider APAC region, you will set the technical direction, build team capability, and drive measurable improvement across model quality, retrieval performance, and personalisation — ensuring that science directly moves business outcomes at scale.

This role is chartered around two foundational responsibilities that define the scientific integrity of the platform as it scales across multiple Business Units Runtime Decision Plane (Mathematical & Scientific Sign-off) and Learning Plane (Flywheel & Feedback Systems).

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Science Strategy: Build, manage, and mentor a team of data scientists and ML engineers. Define the team's technical roadmap across both the Runtime Decision Plane and the Learning Plane, establish ways of working, and create an environment where rigorous science and rapid iteration coexist. Set the scientific bar for the group-wide Customer Service AI platform — enabling rapid, safe onboarding of distinct Business Units beyond the initial deployments. Partner closely with Product and Engineering leads across Singapore and Japan to align the science agenda with platform priorities and BU expansion commitments.

LLM Strategy & Model Lifecycle Management

Own the end-to-end lifecycle of large language models in production — including vendor evaluation, model selection, fine-tuning, and version upgrade planning. Shift the team's focus from basic prompt optimisation to systematic model comparison frameworks and agentic reasoning evaluation, grounding every production decision in formal theory and empirical benchmarking rather than heuristic tuning. Provide scientific sign-off on orchestration strategies, multi-step agent routing policies, and chain-of-thought reasoning design — establishing a clear, defensible process for every model change that reaches production. Govern the cost-quality-latency trade-off across all BU deployments.

RAG Architecture & Continuous Iteration

Lead the ongoing research and improvement of Retrieval-Augmented Generation systems, covering retrieval quality, reranking strategies, knowledge base health, and generation faithfulness. Drive a structured iteration cycle — hypothesis, offline evaluation, staged rollout, impact measurement — and maintain a clear improvement backlog prioritised against business impact. Distinguish retrieval gaps from LLM synthesis failures to ensure the evaluation framework correctly attributes root causes. Collaborate with Knowledge Engineering teams to ensure retrieval and content quality reinforce each other across all BU knowledge bases.

Evaluation Framework, Experimentation & VoC Intelligence

Define and operate a multi-layer evaluation framework spanning offline benchmarks, online A/B experiments, and continuous production monitoring. Define and enforce pre-launch BU evaluation gates — statistical coverage thresholds, intent accuracy floors, hallucination rate ceilings — that every new BU deployment must pass before going live. Own the team's Voice of Customer analysis practice — building error taxonomies and active learning pipelines that transform production telemetry and VoC signals into structured learning cycles. Hold the bar for measurement rigour across all product changes, ensuring the Learning Plane operates as a systematic feedback flywheel rather than a series of one-off eval runs.

Conversational Memory, Context & User Profile Management

Set the technical direction for the memory and context layer — session state, long‑term user profile modelling, and contextualised retrieval. Ensure the system delivers coherent, personalised interactions at scale while meeting privacy and compliance requirements. Work with engineering to translate architectural decisions into scalable production systems.

AI-Driven Personalisation for Upsell & Conversion

Partner with Product and Business stakeholders to define and deliver personalisation capabilities that shift the chatbot's role from a support tool to an active growth channel — covering user segmentation, intent prediction, eligibility‑aware recommendation, and guided selling signal design. Build the scientific framework for customer‑centric personalisation grounded in behavioural signals and lifetime value thinking, not just answer quality. Own the measurement framework that connects personalisation investments to conversion and revenue outcomes, and coach the team to reason about the problem from customer operations and LTV lens.

Mandatory Requirements

• 7+ years in applied machine learning or NLP, including 3+ years in a people management or technical lead role PhD in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, or a related technical discipline strongly preferred; exceptional candidates with equivalent research‑level industry experience will be considered
• Deep hands‑on experience with LLMs and RAG systems in production — retrieval pipeline design, reranking, chunking strategy, knowledge base management
• Demonstrated ability to provide mathematical and algorithmic sign‑off on system design decisions — formally justifying and defending orchestration strategies, routing policies, and retrieval scoring mechanisms, not only implementing them
• Experience with agentic reasoning evaluation, multi‑step orchestration analysis, and systematic model comparison frameworks — moving beyond prompt tuning to platform‑level scientific rigour
• Strong track record designing and running online experiments (A/B, interleaving, bandits) and translating results into product decisions
• Experience building error taxonomies, evaluation frameworks, and feedback loops that systematically improve production quality metrics — not just one‑off eval runs
• Experience building and developing high‑performing data science teams; comfortable with hiring, performance management, and career development
• Demonstrated ability to synthesise analytical findings into clear product problem statements and influence prioritisation at a leadership level
• Proficiency in Python and cloud ML infrastructure (GCP preferred); familiarity with vector search and embedding models
• Strong communication skills — able to represent the science function credibly to both technical and non‑technical senior stakeholders across cultures and time zones
• Comfortable working in a cross‑regional environment with key stakeholders based in Japan

Rakuten is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications regardless of sex, marital status, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, religious belief, or age.

Rakuten Asia is the regional headquarters of Rakuten Group Inc, a global leader in internet services and innovation. Located in the heart of Singapore, Rakuten Asia drives the growth and development of Rakuten’s businesses across the APAC region. Recognized and certified as a "Great Place to Work" since 2022, Rakuten Asia is committed to empowering individuals, communities and businesses through cutting‑edge technology, data‑driven solutions, and a culture of collaboration. From e-commerce, fintech, sports, and even entertainment, our work is diverse, exciting, and impactful. We believe in empowering our people to grow, innovate, and make a difference. If you’re looking for a workplace where your talent is valued, where your contributions matter, and where you can play a part in shaping the future of technology and society, Rakuten Asia is the place for you. Join us and take the next step in your career with Rakuten Asia!