Data Platform Architect / Lead Data Engineer - Technology Services Section, Global IT Strategy Office (gitso)

Data Platform Architect / Lead Data Engineer

The Global IT Strategy Office under the Corporate IT Supervisory Department is uniquely situated to work on strategic corporate IT initiatives that affect all Rakutenians worldwide. We work as a global organization across multiple regions and time zones to deliver solutions to empower Rakutenians through providing business-relevant IT solutions and services, while safeguarding critical information assets of Rakuten Group.

We are seeking a Data Platform Architect / Lead Data Engineer to design and build the next-generation data platform supporting critical internal operations, including license management, procurement analysis, device inventory management, cloud service usage, and more. This role will shape the core architecture of our enterprise data ecosystem and ensure scalability, security, and performance.

Position details include:

• Design end-to-end data platform and pipeline architecture (batch + streaming).
• Lead the implementation of a modern Lakehouse supporting structured and unstructured data.
• Build secure and scalable data ingestion pipelines from multiple systems and cloud services.
• Develop a unified RBAC and data access governance architecture across internal IT applications.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (Security, IT Infrastructure, Application Owners).
• Ensure platform architecture complies with IT Governance policies, security standards, and enterprise compliance requirements.
• Evaluate, select, and integrate new technologies and tools to optimize the platform.
• Establish data modeling standards, schema evolution strategies, and best practices.
• Mentor junior data engineers and contribute to the overall data platform technical roadmap.

Mandatory qualifications include:

• 5+ years of experience in data engineering, data architecture, or platform engineering.
• Strong knowledge of lakehouse architectures (Databricks, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, etc.).
• Expertise in ETL/ELT pipeline development and streaming technologies (Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub, Informatica).
• Proficiency in SQL, Python, and at least one orchestration tool (Airflow, Step Functions, Dagster, etc.).
• Deep understanding of RBAC, IAM, and enterprise-level access governance.
• Experience integrating data from diverse business systems.

Desired qualifications include:

• Experience in IT operations domains such as license management or asset management.
• Hands-on experience with DevOps/CI/CD for data pipelines.
• Knowledge of data cataloging and metadata management tools.

What we offer:

• Opportunity to architect the foundational data platform for the entire organization.
• Highly visible role impacting multiple business functions.
• Innovative and collaborative work environment.
• Competitive compensation and benefits package.