Key Takeaways
- Rakuten uses Workday as its ATS platform. Apply through rakuten.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/RakutenInc for global positions. Use clean, single-column resume formatting with standard section headers to ensure accurate parsing. Verify your parsed profile data after submission.
- English proficiency is non-negotiable for most roles. Rakuten adopted English as its official corporate language in 2012 under the Englishnization initiative. Regardless of office location, business is conducted in English. Highlight your language skills prominently on your resume.
- Learn Rakuten Shugi before your interview. The Five Principles for Success — Always Improve Always Advance, Hypothesize Practice Validate Shikumika, Maximize Customer Satisfaction, Speed Speed Speed, and Passionate Professionalism — are not wall posters. They are actively used in performance evaluation and interview assessment.
- Think in ecosystems, not products. Rakuten operates 70+ interconnected services across e-commerce, fintech, mobile, and digital content. Demonstrating that you understand platform strategy, cross-service engagement, and loyalty-driven retention will differentiate you from candidates who view Rakuten as just an e-commerce company.
- Technical interviews are moderate in difficulty compared to FAANG standards. Expect standard algorithm and data structure problems on Codility or HackerRank, followed by system design and project-based discussions. The emphasis is on solid fundamentals and practical problem-solving rather than competitive programming tricks.
- Rakuten offers strong benefits including a unique stock option program where selected employees can purchase 100 shares for 1 yen, an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, in-house daycare centers, comprehensive social insurance, and relocation plus visa support for international hires moving to Japan.
- The company is aggressively expanding in mobile telecommunications and Open RAN technology through Rakuten Symphony. If you have telecom, cloud-native networking, or network virtualization experience, this is one of the most innovative employers in the space globally.
- Employee referrals are a significant hiring channel. If you know someone at Rakuten, ask them to submit a referral through the internal program. Referral candidates typically receive faster screening and higher response rates.
- The average hiring timeline is approximately 35 days, though engineering roles often move faster. Some software engineering candidates report processes as short as 1-2 weeks, while senior leadership positions may take several months. Stay responsive to recruiter communications to keep momentum.
About Rakuten Group
Application Process
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Visit Rakuten's careers portal, which operates through Workday ATS at rakuten
Visit Rakuten's careers portal, which operates through Workday ATS at rakuten.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/RakutenInc for global positions. Separate regional portals exist at japan-job-en.rakuten.careers for Japan-based roles and global.rakuten.com/corp/careers for the main corporate careers page. Browse roles by location, department, business segment, or keyword. Create a Workday profile to save progress and track your application status.
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2
Submit your application through the Workday portal
Submit your application through the Workday portal. Upload a digital resume (PDF or Word format) and complete the required profile fields including work authorization, education history, and language proficiency. Rakuten's system parses resumes automatically, so use clean formatting with standard section headers. You may apply for up to three positions simultaneously. For Japan-based roles, having both an English and Japanese resume prepared is recommended.
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3
If your application passes the initial screening, a Rakuten recruiter will sched
If your application passes the initial screening, a Rakuten recruiter will schedule a phone or video screening call, typically lasting 30-45 minutes. This introductory conversation covers your background, motivation for joining Rakuten, understanding of the Rakuten Ecosystem, and basic qualification checks. For roles in Japan, the recruiter may assess your English proficiency during this call, as English is the company's official corporate language.
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Technical or functional interviews follow the recruiter screen and typically con
Technical or functional interviews follow the recruiter screen and typically consist of 2-3 rounds. For engineering roles, expect an online coding assessment on platforms like Codility or HackerRank covering algorithms and data structures, followed by live coding sessions and system design discussions. For business roles, expect case-study presentations or functional skill assessments relevant to the department.
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The final stage involves interviews with the hiring manager and senior leadershi
The final stage involves interviews with the hiring manager and senior leadership, often conducted as a panel or a series of one-on-one conversations over a half-day. This stage evaluates both technical depth and cultural alignment with Rakuten Shugi — the company's core values and principles. Be prepared to discuss how you embody concepts like 'Speed!! Speed!! Speed!!' and 'Always Improve, Always Advance' with concrete examples from your career.
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After the final interviews, the hiring committee reviews feedback and makes a de
After the final interviews, the hiring committee reviews feedback and makes a decision, typically communicated within 1-2 weeks. If an offer is extended, you will work with the recruiter on compensation details including base salary, stock options (Rakuten's Stock Option Program grants rights to purchase 100 shares at 1 yen based on performance), the Employee Stock Ownership Plan, relocation support for international candidates, and visa sponsorship for Japan-based roles.
Resume Tips for Rakuten Group
Demonstrate ecosystem-level thinking
Demonstrate ecosystem-level thinking. Rakuten is not a single-product company — it operates 70+ interconnected services. Show that you understand platform dynamics, cross-selling, and how different business units reinforce each other. Phrases like 'drove user engagement across multiple touchpoints' or 'designed systems supporting multi-service integration' resonate strongly with Rakuten hiring managers.
Highlight English proficiency prominently if applying to Japan-based roles
Highlight English proficiency prominently if applying to Japan-based roles. Since Rakuten adopted English as its official corporate language, fluency is a baseline requirement for most positions. Include TOEIC scores (800+ is the company benchmark), IELTS, or TOEFL results, and note any professional experience conducted primarily in English. For non-Japan roles, multilingual capabilities (especially Japanese) are a significant differentiator.
Quantify your impact with metrics relevant to Rakuten's business areas
Quantify your impact with metrics relevant to Rakuten's business areas. For e-commerce roles: 'increased marketplace GMV by 23% through personalized recommendation algorithms.' For fintech: 'processed 2M+ daily transactions with 99.99% uptime.' For mobile/telecom: 'reduced network latency by 35% through cloud-native architecture optimization.' Rakuten operates at massive consumer scale — demonstrate you can think in those terms.
Showcase experience with technologies central to Rakuten's stack
Showcase experience with technologies central to Rakuten's stack. The company uses Java and Python extensively, along with cloud infrastructure (AWS, Rakuten's own cloud), microservices architecture, Kubernetes, and modern data engineering tools. For mobile network roles, experience with Open RAN, network virtualization, or telecom protocols is highly valued. Mirror the job posting's technical requirements in your skills section.
Structure your resume with clean, ATS-friendly formatting for Workday parsing
Structure your resume with clean, ATS-friendly formatting for Workday parsing. Use standard section headers (Professional Experience, Education, Technical Skills, Certifications), avoid complex tables or multi-column layouts, and keep formatting simple. Workday handles PDF and Word documents well, but verify that parsed fields — especially dates, job titles, and company names — are accurate after submission.
Emphasize cross-cultural collaboration and global team experience
Emphasize cross-cultural collaboration and global team experience. With employees from 100+ countries and a workplace that operates in English despite being headquartered in Tokyo, Rakuten values candidates who thrive in multicultural environments. Highlight experience working with distributed international teams, living or working abroad, or managing projects across time zones.
Include any experience with loyalty programs, points systems, or membership plat
Include any experience with loyalty programs, points systems, or membership platforms. Rakuten Points is the connective tissue of the entire ecosystem, and understanding how loyalty mechanics drive user retention and cross-service engagement demonstrates immediate strategic alignment with the company's core business model.
Tailor your resume narrative to Rakuten Shugi's Five Principles for Success
Tailor your resume narrative to Rakuten Shugi's Five Principles for Success. Frame achievements using language that reflects 'Always Improve, Always Advance' (continuous improvement initiatives), 'Speed!! Speed!! Speed!!' (rapid delivery and agile execution), and 'Maximize Customer Satisfaction' (user-centric design or NPS improvements). This cultural alignment signals that you have researched the company deeply.
ATS System: Workday
Rakuten uses Workday as its primary applicant tracking system for global recruitment. The careers portal at rakuten.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/RakutenInc hosts all global job listings and handles application submission, resume parsing, candidate tracking, and interview scheduling. Workday is one of the most widely used enterprise ATS platforms globally, known for its structured data model and comprehensive HR integration.
- Upload your resume in PDF or Word format — both parse well in Workday, but PDF preserves formatting more reliably
- Use standard section headers (Professional Experience, Education, Skills) as Workday's parser expects conventional resume structure
- Avoid tables, multi-column layouts, headers/footers, and text boxes that can confuse Workday's parsing engine
- After submission, review your parsed Workday profile to verify that job titles, company names, dates, and education details were extracted correctly — manual corrections improve matching accuracy
- Create a Workday account to track application status across multiple positions and receive notifications about new openings
- You may apply to up to three positions simultaneously through the portal
Interview Culture
Rakuten's interview process blends Japanese corporate thoroughness with the energetic, fast-paced culture that CEO Hiroshi Mikitani has cultivated since the company's founding.
What Rakuten Group Looks For
- Strong alignment with Rakuten Shugi — the company's core philosophy comprising Brand Concepts and Five Principles for Success. Candidates who can articulate why empowerment, speed, continuous improvement, customer satisfaction, and professional passion matter to them personally will stand out over those with marginally stronger technical credentials.
- English language proficiency at a professional working level, especially for Japan-based positions. Rakuten's Englishnization initiative is not symbolic — all meetings, emails, and documentation are conducted in English. A TOEIC score of 800+ is the company benchmark, though demonstrated fluency through work experience carries equal weight.
- Technical depth appropriate to the role, with particular emphasis on scalable systems. Rakuten processes hundreds of millions of e-commerce transactions, financial operations, and mobile network events daily. Engineers must demonstrate experience building and maintaining systems at consumer internet scale, whether in backend services, data pipelines, mobile applications, or infrastructure.
- Entrepreneurial mindset and comfort with ambiguity. Despite being a large corporation, Rakuten encourages internal entrepreneurship and rapid experimentation across its business units. Candidates who have launched new products, led zero-to-one initiatives, or driven significant change within established organizations are valued.
- Cross-functional collaboration skills and the ability to work across diverse teams. Rakuten's ecosystem model means engineers regularly interact with product, marketing, finance, and partner teams. The company explicitly values people who can bridge technical and business domains, not just deep specialists who work in isolation.
- Global perspective and cultural adaptability. With employees from over 100 countries working together and a Japanese company that operates in English, Rakuten needs people who thrive in multicultural environments. Experience living abroad, working with distributed international teams, or managing cross-border projects is strongly preferred.
- A genuine passion for consumer internet services and how technology improves daily life. Rakuten's mission centers on empowering individuals and businesses — candidates who are motivated by user impact rather than pure technical challenge align best with the company's purpose.
- Growth mindset and commitment to continuous learning. Rakuten invests heavily in employee development through internal training programs, the Rakuten Technology Conference, and cross-departmental rotation opportunities. They want people who will take advantage of these resources and continuously expand their capabilities.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Rakuten require Japanese language skills for positions in Japan?
What is the Rakuten Shugi and why does it matter for interviews?
What is the compensation structure at Rakuten?
How does the technical interview differ between engineering and business roles?
Does Rakuten sponsor work visas for international candidates?
What is the Englishnization initiative and how does it affect daily work?
What career development opportunities does Rakuten offer?
How long does the Rakuten hiring process take from application to offer?
Can I apply to multiple positions at Rakuten simultaneously?
What makes Rakuten different from other Japanese tech companies to work for?
Open Positions
Rakuten Group currently has 211 open positions.
