Senior Machine Learning Engineer

Job Description:

Here at Rakuten Kobo Inc. we offer a casual working start-up environment and a group of friendly and talented individuals. Our employees rank us highly in terms of commitment to work/life balance. We realize that for our people to be innovative, creative and passionate they need to feel valued and supported. We believe in rewarding all our employees with competitive salaries, performance based annual bonuses, stock options
 

If you’re looking for a company that inspires passion, personal, and professional growth– join Kobo and come help us make reading lives better. 

The Role: Senior ML Engineer (MLOps)

Rakuten Kobo Inc. is seeking a visionary and highly skilled Senior ML Engineer to spearhead the evolution of our MLOps capabilities. In this pivotal role, you will collaborate closely with Data Scientists, Data Engineers, Platform Engineers, and business stakeholders to transform our Machine Learning production workflows from manual processes to a state-of-the-art, fully automated framework on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

This groundbreaking position is dedicated to streamlining the entire ML project lifecycle, ensuring the continuous delivery of significant business value through innovative Machine Learning solutions. Success in this role demands not only profound ML engineering expertise but also a forward-thinking mindset for seamlessly integrating ML/AI into the core of our engineering practices.

Experience and Background:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline; master's degree is preferred.
• 5+ years in ML Engineering with at least 2 years in MLOps on GCP.
• Demonstrated success in moving organizations up the MLOps maturity curve.
• Experience collaborating with data scientists, data engineers and product managers.
• Strong communication skills to translate technical frameworks into business-friendly language.

The Skillset:

Strong hands-on experience with GCP tools such as:

• Vertex AI
• BigQuery
• Cloud Storage
• Cloud Composer / Airflow
• Cloud Build and Cloud Deploy Cloud Functions

MLOps framework and Automation:

• Strong understanding of data ingestion pipelines and experiment tracking tools.
• Ability to enforce reproducibility and lineage tracking.
• Familiarity with Kubeflow and/or TFX
• Proven ability to design and implement CI/CD pipeline for ML (automated training, testing, and deployment, integration with GitHub or Cloud Build)
• Experience with model versioning and registry (Vertex AI Model Registry)
• Knowledge of Feature Store design.
• Ability to setup automated monitoring for data and model drift, model performance.
• Experience setting up observability stacks (logging, metrics, alerts, model health dashboards).

Software Engineering and DevOps:

• Proficiency in Python (mandatory), familiarity with R/Scala/Java as needed.
• Experience with containerization (docker) and orchestration (Kubernetes, GKE) Strong background in infrastructure-as-a-code (Terraform, Deployment Manager)
• Ability to implement unit tests, integration tests, and ML-specific validation.

Compliance and Best Practices:

• Knowledge of responsible AI practices (bias, explainability)
• Familiarity with data governance, security and compliance standards.
• Strong ability to document and enforce coding standards, review processes, and reproducibility guidelines.

Nice to have:

• Familiarity with the eBook, audiobook, or publishing industry.
• Contributions to open-source projects related to MLOps or autonomous systems.

The Perks: 

• Flexible hours and working environment  
• 4 extended summer long weekends 
• Full benefits starting from your first day  
• Paid Volunteer days, unlimited sick days, and 3% RRSP matching  
• Monthly commuting allowance for hybrid employees  
• Flexible health spending account  
• Training budget + Udemy account  
• Free Kobo device + free weekly e-book or audiobook  
• Weekly Kobo Tech University sessions  
• Maternity/paternity leave top up  
• 90 Day Work from Anywhere program  
• Daily lunch credit when in-office and in-office snacks  
• Dog friendly office 
   

About Rakuten Kobo Inc. 

Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo Inc. is one of the most advanced global ecommerce companies, with the world’s most innovative eReading services offering more than 6 million eBooks and audiobooks to 30 million + customers in 190 countries. Kobo delivers the best digital reading experience through creative innovation, award-winning eReaders, and top-ranking mobile apps. Kobo is a part of the Rakuten group of companies. 

Rakuten Kobo Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Accessibility accommodations for candidates with disabilities participating in the selection process are available on request. Any information received related to accommodation needs of applicants will be addressed confidentially. 
 

Rakuten Kobo would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this role however only qualified candidates will be shortlisted. 

 #RKIND

Five Principles for Success
Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors that make Rakuten unique and united across the world. We expect Rakuten employees to model these 5 Shugi Principles of Success.
Always improve, Always Advance - Only be satisfied with complete success - Kaizen
Passionately Professional - Take an uncompromising approach to your work and be determined to be the best
Hypothesize - Practice - Validate – Shikumika - Use the Rakuten Cycle to succeed in unknown territory
Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team

Rakuten is an equal opportunity employer. Accessibility accommodations for candidates with disabilities participating in the selection process are available on request. Any information received related to accommodation needs of applicants will be addressed confidentially. 

Rakuten would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this role however only qualified candidates will be shortlisted.

Beware of fraudulent job offers claiming to be from Rakuten. Rakuten does not send unsolicited job offers or request money during the recruitment process. Learn more: https://rakutenemploymentalert.com/

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the Compensation (base salary + discretionary bonus) for this role to be within the range shown below. Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors, including the skills, qualifications, and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location. The successful applicant for this role will be eligible for stock options, health, vision, dental insurance, RRSP matching, Personal Time Off (PTO), Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements.