Skip to main content
CareerApp
Rakuten.com

Director, Data Science (San Mateo)

Rakuten.com

San Mateo, CA · Director

$156,008 – $291,500

Listed on Rakuten.com’s own careers site. You apply with them directly — we never stand between you and the employer.

What this role is

Director of a centralized data science team responsible for developing and scaling machine learning and generative AI solutions that drive measurable business impact across the company. This role suits senior technical leaders with strong ML foundations and 5+ years managing teams who want to shape AI strategy and mentor high-performing data scientists.

Our summary, not Rakuten.com’s wording. The full posting is on their site.

What they ask for

Required

  • 10+ years in data science, machine learning, or applied AI
  • 5+ years leadership experience including managing managers
  • Proven track record delivering measurable business impact through production ML/AI systems
  • Bachelor's degree
  • Strong foundation in machine learning, statistical modeling, optimization, or AI systems
  • Experience leading deployment and scaling of models in production
  • Familiarity with Python, SQL, cloud platforms, and production ML tooling
  • Ability to lead in ambiguous environments and define strategy from first principles
  • Strong communication skills with ability to influence senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams
  • Balance technical depth with business pragmatism

Nice to have

  • 15+ years in data science, machine learning, or applied AI
  • Master's degree
  • Experience in e-commerce, ad-tech, marketing science, recommender systems, or related domains
  • Experience integrating AI into customer-facing products and internal workflows
  • Experience with LLM-based systems, retrieval-augmented generation, and evaluation of generative AI solutions

Turn on analytics and we load Google Analytics: Google gets the pages you open and what you do here — searches, jobs you view, jobs you apply to — and sets its own cookies. Leave it off and the only cookies we set are your login, your theme, and this answer. Accept All also records a yes to advertising, which nothing uses yet. Privacy Policy.