Product Manager (PDM) for Logistics Related Systems - EC Logistics Development Department (ECLD)

Business Overview

When you see the word "Rakuten", you probably have an image of many e-commerce-related services such as "Rakuten Ichiba", "Rakuten Books", and "Rakuten Fashion".

If you order items from these services, it is commonplace every day that the items will be delivered to your home. So, where and how are these items managed, how are they boxed, shipped, and delivered to your home? In fact, these parts that you cannot directly see are the scope of responsibility of EC logistics, which we are in charge of.

Department Overview

We operate a number of warehouses in Japan where we store and manage Rakuten Books, Rakuten Fashion, and Rakuten Direct items, and perform tasks such as receiving and shipping. In addition, we have developed a service called "Rakuten Super Logistics" and receive items from merchants in Rakuten Ichiba, and we also do item-related work on behalf of them.

What is necessary for the series of operations in this warehouse is the system developed by the EC Logistics Development Department. If our system stops, items purchased through e-commerce will not be delivered, and the only direct contact with customers is "logistics (delivery)". Logistics has a strong impression of being behind the scenes, but it plays such an important role.

In addition, while managing these systems close to the "site (warehouse)", the control of the "estimated delivery date" displayed on Rakuten Ichiba, the "delivery status display" from the purchase history on Rakuten Ichiba, and the "delivery related notification" are also part of the system that our department is in charge of.

In this way, we, the EC Logistics Development Department, develop and operate the "logistics" that support the Rakuten Group and the "systems" that support it in general.

ECLD's Mission:

1. To realize a service that allows shoppers to get "what you want" "when you want it" and "where you want it" by utilizing logistics and IT.

2. To provide convenient logistics services and functions to shoppers so that they can enjoy shopping.

3. To support the operation of Rakuten Ichiba merchants from a logistics perspective and contribute to maximizing sales.

4. Contribute to the development of Rakuten Ichiba by expanding the above logistics system.

Position:

We are looking for a product manager who is responsible for managing Logistics developments as one of technical organization in Rakuten Group and is able to communicate well with both business members and development members by demonstrating strong ownership and lead initiatives based on mid to long term business strategies in the Logistics domain.

The product manager is responsible for creating the system roadmap, by aligning with stakeholders, supporting a series of system designing and development execution processes until its release. The position will also be responsible for KPI management for continuous product improvement to iterate PDCA cycles. Your main responsibilities will be as follows:

- Develop a logically-sequenced product and feature roadmap.

- Conduct product improvement activities and development management support.

- Collaborate with business members such as those who are involved in the product you own.

- Conduct system planning, system requirement definition, product design, and UI design according to business needs.

- Support development cycles for the success of products based on defined KPIs.

- Collaborate with developers such as engineers, designers, and infrastructure personnel.

- Implement and provide support for services after system release.

- Report to business owners about their products and project's progress and outcomes, in a way that can be evaluated with both numerical and/or non-numerical methods.

The products you will be responsible for may depending on your experience and the status of ongoing projects, but the following are representative examples:
- Warehouse Management System (WMS).

- Shipping platform system that integrates with internal logistics systems and delivery carriers.

- Logistics Platform system that integrates with external order management systems and warehouse systems.

- Workforce Management System/KPI Management System (WFM).

- Logistics service finance and accounting system.

- Data management, analysis system tools (DWH, BI, etc.).

Work Environment

We have approximately 160 members actively working both in Japan and overseas.

Many of our members join with experience as product managers or engineers in software development industry. However, most of them do not originally have a background in logistics and acquire their industry knowledge after being assigned to our department.

We primarily utilize the internal Private Cloud environment, with some resources on Public Cloud. Due to the nature of our logistics operations, we also maintain some on-premises environments for our warehouses. The department responsible for managing the network is also within the same development. Each member leverages their areas of expertise to contribute to the maintenance of these non-software domains as well.

Mandatory Qualifications:

- 3 years or more of product management experience, or equivalent experience.

- Experiences in collaborating with business members, engineers, test engineers, infrastructure personnel, designers, etc. to launch services.

- Being able to analyze business requirements and make accurate input, such as system definition and system design with documents.

- Being able to make decisions and make proposals using data.

- Ability and passion to commit to a project.

- Ability to communicate while involving stakeholders.

- Ability to always consider maximizing customer satisfaction and decide on the action to be taken now.

- Ability to respond to unexpected accidents and system troubles.

- Business level Japanese proficiency.

- TOEIC score of 800 or above or equivalent ability.

Desired Qualifications:

- Work experience as an IT engineer.

- Product management experience for business systems.

- Product management experiences in EC domain.

- Agile development experience.

- Data modeling and analysis experience using BI tools and big data.

- Implementation of system tests, quality assurance tests, etc.

- Experience in creating test scenarios.

- Knowledge of the logistics industry.

- Knowledge of Warehouse Management System (WMS).

- Business level English proficiency.

Other Information:

Additional information on Location

Rakuten Crimson House(Headquarters)

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