Job Description:

Business Overview

Rakuten Group is headquartered in Japan and serves approximately 100 million domestic customers and 2 billion customers across 30 countries worldwide. We provide more than 70 services across various fields including e-commerce, payment services, financial services, telecommunications, media, and sports.

Department Overview

Rakuten has expanded its business scale with the shopping mall business “Rakuten Ichiba” and the credit card business “Rakuten Card” as core pillars, achieving consolidated revenue of 2.2 trillion yen and domestic gross transaction value of 6.0 trillion yen.

Looking ahead, Rakuten aims to establish a stronger “Rakuten Ecosystem,” including offline daily-life settings, by fully utilizing assets cultivated primarily online, such as Rakuten Members, Rakuten Points, brand strength, and member data.

This position is within the Platform Strategy Division, a corporate organization directly under the COO and Vice President. The division does not operate individual services; instead, it drives cross-Group marketing and ecosystem growth strategies.

As the only division at Rakuten Group responsible for company-wide, cross-functional initiatives based on overall corporate strategy, it offers opportunities to develop a broad strategic perspective while engaging in high-level planning and execution.

Position:

Why We Hire

We are recruiting a Chief UI Designer to create emotionally impactful and engaging experiences across the Rakuten Ecosystem.

This role goes beyond visual direction, requiring the translation of business and brand strategy into user-facing design expressions. You will define how Rakuten communicates visually and how users perceive and feel the brand.

You will also lead creative concept development, tone and manner, and visual guideline creation, ensuring consistency across products and services.

Generative AI is actively incorporated to accelerate and innovate design production.

Position Details

- Develop and drive design strategy across the Rakuten Ecosystem

- Define creative concepts and design guidelines based on the direction of services and products

- Translate strategy into user experience and interface design

- Collaborate with UX designers, engineers, marketers, and other teams

- Ensure consistency and quality in visual expression, tone, and manner

- Promote efficiency through prototyping and design systems

- Mentor team members and contribute to building a strong design culture

- Lead innovation in design expression through new technologies such as generative AI

Work Environment

- Expected Assignment: Platform Strategy Division → Customer Strategy Department → Experience Section

- The Platform Strategy Division has approximately 60 members, balanced gender ratio, average age in the mid-30s

- Many members joined mid-career, and the division welcomes diverse backgrounds such as consulting, IT, platform companies, venture companies, telecommunications, and content operations

- The Experience Section consists of approximately 15 members (Web Directors, UX Designers, UI Designers, Front-end Engineers), with similar demographics

Mandatory Qualifications:

Desired Traits

- Takes responsibility for design output and is committed to quality improvement

- Possesses a strategic mindset and can drive business and brand growth through design

- Demonstrates excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

- Applies analytical and research-driven decision-making

- Operates with an art director mindset, guiding brand expression

- Values teamwork and acts with an organization-wide perspective

- Shows interest in mentoring and supporting designer development

- Maintains curiosity toward business, marketing, and technology

- Embraces change and proactively incorporates new design processes

Required Skills and Experience

- 5+ years of UI design experience for web, mobile, or app environments

- Experience in strategic design proposals and creative direction

- Experience developing UI concepts and design guidelines based on business and brand strategy

- Advanced proficiency with Figma, Adobe XD, and relevant tools

- Experience designing or directing motion design and animation

- Experience providing feedback and conducting design reviews

- Strong presentation and stakeholder engagement skills

- Business-level Japanese

- Understanding and practical application of Design Thinking or HCD

Desired Qualifications:

- Experience creating design strategies based on personas or key journeys

- Experience building or supervising design systems using Material Design or HIG

- Experience in art direction, visual concept creation, and production supervision

- Knowledge of motion design and animation direction

•Understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and experience working with engineers

- Experience supervising design across multiple media channels (brand tools, DTP, etc.)

- Experience improving design processes or workflows at organizational level

- Experience utilizing new technologies such as generative AI or real-time rendering for creative innovation

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