Product Manager, Rakuten PointClub - Incentive Platform Department (INPD)

Job Description:

Business Overview

The Technology Platforms Division (TPD) drives the growth of the Rakuten Ecosystem by delivering innovative, high-quality technology platforms characterized by integrated control and strategic partnerships.

Within TPD, the Ecosystem Platform Supervisory Department (EPSD) develops scalable and reliable platforms that support the entire Rakuten Ecosystem globally, fostering a culture of ownership and data-driven decision-making.

Department Overview

The Incentive Platform Department (INPD) provides incentive and payment solutions that empower Rakuten's businesses around the world. The platforms are continually adding capabilities and scale to accelerate the Rakuten ecosystem synergies.

Point Service Section is responsible for developing and operating Rakuten Point Platform, the most popular loyalty program in Japan. Through Rakuten Point, millions of users are connected everyday with popular Rakuten services such as EC, Bank, Card, as well as thousands of convenience stores all over Japan. However, our mission doesn’t stop there: Rakuten Point is now expanding all over the world, from Europe to the Americas and the APAC region, and our next mission is to connect them all under a single global platform.

By the time you finish reading this, hundreds of thousands of point transactions have been processed through our platform! Interested in hearing more? Come talk with us!

Position:

Why We Hire

As a Product Manager, you will have the responsibility to implement the strategy for Rakuten Point Web and other Front products. You will define business and system requirements with business clients, and develop a product roadmap to communicate the plan with stakeholders. You will join daily huddle and work closely with engineers to solve issues, support and handle development/project tasks and questions from clients in order to drive the delivery.

Position Details

Product Manager, Rakuten PointClub - Incentive Platform Department (INPD)

Business Overview

Are you interested in building the next generation of Internet services that will be used by millions of users across the globe every day? Rakuten is one of the leading e-commerce companies in the world. Our mission is to empower people and society through the Internet while aiming at becoming the No.1 Innovative Company in the world. By joining our TECH community, the IT powerhouse of the Rakuten Group, you will be part of a diverse global team and play a central role in our technology and innovation.

Department Overview

Incentive Platform Department (INPD) is responsible for developing and operating the Rakuten Point and Rakuten Coupon. We develop and manage Rakuten PointClub and other point related web products, which are among the most popular sites in Rakuten. We will drive the improvement to maximize Rakuten Point value and contribute to the Rakuten Ecosystem. By the time you finish reading this, hundreds of thousands of points transactions have been processed and many users visit our web/app service. We want to work with a person who has a great passion for our services and products.

Position

Why We Hire

As a Product Manager, you will have the responsibility to implement the strategy for Rakuten Point Web and other Front products. You will define business and system requirements with business clients, and develop a product roadmap to communicate the plan with stakeholders. You will join daily huddle and work closely with engineers to solve issues, support and handle development/project tasks and questions from clients in order to drive the delivery.

Position Details

- Define and own the product vision, strategy, and roadmap, aligning with business goals and customer needs.

- Act as the primary liaison between business stakeholders and technical teams, ensuring clear communication and alignment.

- Manage the product backlog, prioritize features, write user stories with clear acceptance criteria, and define functional & non-functional requirements.

- Conduct market research, gather requirements, and analyze customer feedback to drive product improvements.

- Collaborate with engineering, UI/UX and QA teams to ensure timely and high-quality feature delivery.

- Define and track KPIs to measure product success and make data-driven decisions.

- Balance scope, time, and resources to deliver valuable solutions while addressing technical feasibility.

- Be the domain expert in eco-system loyalty programs and be able to recommend improvement solutions.

- Be both quantitative and qualitative, and able to quickly understand and assess complex issues in order to take the right decision.

- Be a role model to the team members when it comes to ownership, proactivity and taking responsibility.

- Production support (on-call).

- Troubleshooting of service in the trouble.

- Handle organizational tasks to support the section.

Mandatory Qualifications

- Bachelor's Degree (BS) in Computer Science, Economics, Business, or a related field.

- 5+ years experience in web system development.

- Experience in project management.

- Experience working directly with software engineers and business stakeholders.

- Experience in KPI-driven service development.

- Experience writing requirement specifications & acceptance criteria.

- Familiarity with Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and Major Development methodologies (e.g., Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Kanban).

- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

- Understanding of the technical stacks, system architecture, and API to define feasible product requirements.

- Use storytelling to convey the value of technical features to non-technical audiences.

- Mediate conflicts between stakeholders with differing priorities and find balanced solutions.

- Motivate and inspire cross-functional teams to achieve common goals without direct authority.

- Warm personality with excellent communication skills.

- Business Level English skills.

- Business Level Japanese skills.

Desired Qualifications

- Advanced Degree (MS or PHD).

- Experience working with clients and business stakeholders to define project scope.

- Experience in software engineering or in a related field.

- Experience in working as a Web service system developer.

- Experience in creating technical documents (e.g. API Specifications, DB Relationship Diagram, Architectural Design).

- Experience in release management.

- Experience working on multiple products/projects in parallel.

- Experience with modern project management tools, preferably JIRA/Confluence.

- Experience in working with cross-cultural global teams in different locations.

- Experience in B2C product development and management.

- Knowledge of Loyalty Services.

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