Chief UX Designer - Customer Strategy Department, Platform Strategy Supervisory Department (CSD)

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 UX Designer to lead the UX domain and drive business growth as we create new services and expand existing ones.

The team includes strategists, marketers, analysts, researchers, and designers working to enhance service value.

The Chief UX Designer will engage deeply in business and service strategy, define UX direction, and lead the domain.

The Experience Section is also challenging new user experiences enhanced by generative AI, exploring new possibilities for UX design.

In this position, you will lead core customer strategy projects, contribute to team development, and support the growth of the UX organization.

Position Details

- Lead UX design for Rakuten Ecosystem products and services

- Define value propositions and experience concepts based on business and user needs

- Create wireframes and mockups to express strategic concepts

- Collaborate with directors, designers, engineers, and stakeholders

- Identify opportunities and issues in the UX domain

- Conduct user research and extract insights

- Build prototypes to validate usability and facilitate team decision-making

- Oversee and supervise UX quality across products and services

- Lead organizational UX capability development and team growth

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 deliverables and completes work with commitment

- Collaborates effectively and contributes to team outcomes

- Demonstrates strong communication, coordination, and interpersonal skills

- Shows willingness to continue learning beyond one’s specialty

- Flexible and able to adapt to change without relying solely on past experience

- Capable of managing multiple tasks and projects simultaneously

- Possesses strong design analysis and research skills, and can explain concepts logically

- Shows interest in developing and mentoring UX designers

Required Skills and Experience

- 5+ years of UX design or web service direction experience

- Experience with strategic design proposals and execution

- Experience in persona development, scenario design, and needs extraction

- Knowledge and application of HCD

- Experience conducting user interviews and usability testing

- Experience leading UX in a business environment

- Knowledge of iOS/Android, mobile, and web design

- Knowledge of Material Design, Human Interface Guidelines

- Proficiency with Figma and Adobe CC

- Strong presentation and communication skills

- Business-level Japanese

Desired Qualifications:

- Facilitation skills

- Ideation workshop design and facilitation experience

- Access analytics knowledge or experience

- Experience launching or redesigning services

- Project management or leadership experience

- Knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript

- Deep understanding of HCD

- Experience in team management or talent development

- Experience in building or operating design organizations

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