Web Backend Engineer - Kobo Japan Technology Department (KJT)

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

Job Description:

Business Overview

Rakuten Group, Inc. is a global innovation company offering over 70 diverse services, including the internet shopping mall "Rakuten Ichiba," travel booking site "Rakuten Travel," online securities "Rakuten Securities," e-money "Rakuten Edy," and professional sports. Our mission is to empower people and society through the power of technology, and we continuously challenge ourselves to create new value under our corporate philosophy of "Empowering people and society through innovation."

Department Overview

Our department is a technical division responsible for the development and maintenance of the e-book store deployed on Rakuten Ichiba. We are tackling the rewarding mission of delivering the best reading experience to tens of millions of Rakuten Ichiba users.
As part of Rakuten Group, Inc., we collaborate with Rakuten Kobo Inc. in Canada to develop and operate the e-book business on Rakuten Ichiba. We are dedicated to developing and improving services daily to provide the best reading experience to readers worldwide.
Our team works closely not only with teams in Japan but also with teams in China, Canada, and Germany, driving projects in a global environment. We aim to deliver the best e-book experience to users worldwide, working alongside multinational members. Your skills and passion will be a crucial step in enriching reading culture around the globe.

Position:

Position Details

As a Web Backend Engineer in the Kobo Japan Technology Department, you will be responsible for the system development, maintenance, and operation of Rakuten Ichiba's e-book store. Leverage your expertise and experience to solve technical challenges in a large-scale system and drive the evolution of our services. Specifically, your responsibilities will include:

- Designing Scalable Systems: Lead the design and implementation of highly available, fault-tolerant, and high-performance backend systems using the latest Java and Spring Boot. Drive new feature development, strategic refactoring, and architectural evolution to support massive user growth and evolving business needs.

- Deep Integration with the Rakuten Ecosystem: Architect sophisticated integration solutions that seamlessly connect the Kobo platform with critical Rakuten Group services (e.g., payment gateways, authentication systems, loyalty programs). Your work will ensure a consistent and delightful user experience across the entire Rakuten ecosystem.

- Leading Middleware Development: Lead the design, development, operation, and optimization of critical in-house middleware that underpins the e-book store, accommodating diverse content formats and high transaction volumes.

- Database Design and Performance Optimization: Design robust database solutions for Oracle/PostgreSQL, encompassing database design, schema management, and advanced query optimization. Ensure excellent system performance, data integrity, and scalability for our rapidly growing user base.

- Driving Technical Excellence: Foster a culture of quality and best practices through rigorous code reviews, advocating for clean architecture, test-driven development, and continuous improvement across the team. Working within a Scrum development process, collaborating with product owners and other team members, and taking responsibility for design, implementation, testing, and deployment. You will actively participate in daily scrums and sprint reviews to share progress and resolve issues.

- Global Collaboration and Leadership: Work closely with international engineering teams in Toronto, China, and Germany, contributing to global technical strategies and fostering knowledge sharing.

Mandatory Qualifications:

- 5+ years of practical experience as a Backend Engineer (Intermediate to Senior level).

- Solid knowledge of Java programming, with a deep understanding of object-oriented programming (OOP) principles and familiarity with core Java APIs.

- High level of knowledge and experience with Spring Boot, capable of independently setting up, developing, and deploying Spring Boot applications.

- Expertise in SQL, able to write complex queries, optimize SQL statements, and deep knowledge of relational databases (e.g., Oracle/PostgreSQL).

- Strong command of mainstream ORM frameworks such as MyBatis or Hibernate/JPA, capable of efficiently performing data CURD operations.

- Familiarity with RESTful API design principles and best practices, able to design and implement clear and standardized interfaces.

- Practical knowledge of containerization technologies like Docker and Kubernetes.

Desired Qualifications:

- Experience with caching technologies like Redis.

- Experience with message queues such as Kafka or RabbitMQ, including asynchronous processing.

- Experience with PostgreSQL performance tuning.

- Experience in developing and operating large-scale distributed systems.

- Experience in developing on cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.).

Other Information:

Additional information on English Qualification

Business Level English proficiency (ability to communicate, create specifications, and documents in English for business purposes)

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