Data Scientist, Data Intelligence Office – Travel Development Department (TDD)

Key Skills

Java Programming, Python Programming, SQL, Apache Hadoop, Machine learning techniques, A/B Testing, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Presto, Apache Hive, SPARK Programming, Data Engineering

Job Description

Data Intelligence Office is responsible for providing solutions, using data science for Rakuten Travel's various functions such as product, marketing, sales, advertising, and quality control.

The goal of the Marketing Optimization Group is to optimize Rakuten Travel’s marketing activities, such as UI/UX optimizations, personalization of online travel experience for our end customers through data science.

Position:

Why We Hire

We are looking for talented Data Scientists to join the Marketing Optimization Group. The group is responsible for optimizing the marketing activities of Rakuten Travel business. In recent years, the online travel industry has been rapidly changing, and we are required to provide a more tailored and personalized experience for end customers. Therefore, we always seek talented and enthusiastic data scientists to provide the best values to the customers. In addition, we also have an environment to analyze user logs and run various experiments to improve our products iteratively.

Position Details

You will be working closely with data engineers and front-end engineers to understand the business problem, architect new data models, design experiments, and run AB tests/multi-armed bandit. Specifically, you will be responsible for an item recommendation, thumbnail optimization, and NLP tasks using user reviews. In this role, you will:

• Define requirements for backend and frontend 
• Create a proof of concept
• Write experimentation design
• Run an AB test/bandit optimization
• Evaluate the results using statistical analysis

Mandatory Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or more in a quantitative field (Statistics, Mathematics, Econometrics, Computer Science, Physics, Engineering, Bioinformatics, or similar)
• 3+ industrial experience in building machine learning/deep learning models, including image processing, NLP, etc.
• Strong skills in SQL and distributed system optimization (e.g., Spark, Presto, Hadoop, Hive)
• Fluency in Python
• Deep experience in experimentation and statistical analysis, for example, A/B testing, multi-armed bandits, causal inference from observational data.
• Proven ability to work in a cross-functional team
• Ability to catch up with state-of-the-art technologies

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience in deploying the system for the production environment
• Fluency in Japanese is a plus
• Publication in top international conferences