Lead Product Designer

Job Description:

Rakuten International is a division of Rakuten Group, Inc., a Japanese global technology leader in services that empower individuals, communities, businesses and society. Headquartered in San Mateo, California with more than 4,000 employees worldwide, the Rakuten International business portfolio includes market leaders in e-commerce, digital marketing, advertising, communications and entertainment. We create products and services that provide exceptional value by aligning members and the businesses that want to engage them in a shared community.

Rakuten is the most rewarding way to shop, giving millions of members Cash Back when they buy from their favorite brands. As a leading shopping platform, Rakuten partners with thousands of top brands across apparel, beauty and wellness, grocery, travel, on-demand services, subscriptions, and dining, helping members save on everyday purchases. Since 1999, Rakuten members have earned more than $4.6 billion in Cash Back, making it the largest Cash Back platform of its kind. Learn more at Rakuten.com

Job Summary:

We're looking for a Lead Product Designer to join the Vertical Squad - a team focused on product experiences that expand how and where members earn Cash Back, beyond the core online shopping flow. You'll set the design direction for the squad's portfolio of surfaces - gift card redemption, dining, and in-store shopping - experiences that bring Rakuten's value proposition into new contexts, integrate with third-party systems, and require translating operational complexity into something that feels simple and rewarding for members. You'll define what good looks like across all of these experiences.

This role is well suited for a designer who goes broad when exploring a new problem space - drawing from analogous experiences across industries, synthesizing quickly, and bringing a considered point of view back to the work. You pick up new domains fast and can context-switch fluidly between the squad's different surfaces - gift cards, dining, in-store - without losing craft or care in any of them.

As a design team, we operate at the intersection of high craft and high impact. We rely on research to de-risk solutions, experimentation to measure what works, and AI to enhance creativity and amplify the impact of our work. We encourage designers to use AI freely in their process and to help shape new ways of working with this emergent technology.

This role reports to the Director of Product Design and works directly with a product manager, researcher, UX writer, and engineers embedded in your squad.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Design Ownership: Own end-to-end design for your product areas - from problem framing through shipped product. You set the design direction, not just execute on it - and you're a voice in shaping what the squad works on and why.

2. Squad Vision: Develop and communicate a design vision for the squad's product areas - one that gives your cross-functional partners a clear sense of where things are heading and why it matters.

3. Problem Definition: Know how to frame and scope work before applying UI. With a portfolio that spans distinct surfaces, the ability to ask the right questions upfront - and identify what actually needs to be solved - matters as much as the design itself.

4. Systems Thinking: Design with awareness of how the vertical surfaces connect to Rakuten's core shopping experience - building on established design patterns so the work feels cohesive and expected.

5. Research & Validation: Partner with your embedded researcher or drive research yourself to validate direction early, identify friction, and de-risk before development. Job Description: Lead Product Designer, Vertical 2

• 6+ years of professional design experience with significant experience working with complex systems
• Bachelor's or Master's degree (or equivalent) in design, Human- Computer Interaction (HCI), Industrial Design, Computer Science, or related field
• Portfolio demonstrating end-to-end product design with clear evidence of process, decision-making, and measurable outcomes
• Proficiency with design and prototyping tools, e.g., Figma, Claude Code
• A strong sense of visual and interaction design, with a track record of raising the bar

• Experience working in e-commerce, marketplaces, or consumer-scale products
• Active use of AI tools as part of a design workflow, ideally including AI coding tools for rapid prototyping
• Track record of influencing design quality and culture beyond your immediate squad - through critiques, mentorship, or team-level initiatives.