AI Engineer - Platform QA

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 a leading shopping platform that offers Cash Back on purchases from all your favorite brands. By partnering with thousands of brands in apparel, health and beauty, dining, grocery, travel, on-demand services, subscription boxes and more, Rakuten helps members save and get more on everyday purchases. Since its founding in 1999, Rakuten has become the largest and most rewarding shopping experience, and its members have earned $4.6 billion in Cash Back just for shopping through Rakuten. For more information, visit Rakuten.com.

Job Summary:

Join us as a Platform Quality Engineer 1 and help lead the shift to an AI-first future in software testing. In this role, you’ll build and enhance AI-powered automation tools and intelligent testing frameworks that accelerate development, improve quality, and minimize manual effort. You'll collaborate with teams across the organization to embed AI into every stage of the testing lifecycle—gaining hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies and making a meaningful impact early in your career.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain AI-augmented test automation frameworks and services to accelerate and scale automated testing across the product development organization.
• Champion the adoption of AI-powered tools and intelligent workflows, becoming an agent of change for automation maturity and continuous improvement.
• Participate in code and architectural reviews, with an emphasis on identifying opportunities to embed AI-driven quality checks and predictive insights into the development lifecycle.
• Stay current with emerging AI technologies and trends in software testing, continuously seeking opportunities to apply machine learning, large language models (LLMs), and generative AI to improve quality practices.
• Collaborate with the Platform Services team to integrate AI-enabled testing capabilities into core developer tooling and infrastructure, enhancing usability and developer productivity.
• Contribute to training and enablement materials, helping engineering teams understand how to apply AI tools for test generation, defect triage, impact analysis, and risk-based testing.

Qualifications:

• Interest in AI and machine learning, especially in how they apply to software quality—such as generating test cases from requirements, summarizing test results, or identifying risky changes.
• Eagerness to grow, with examples (school, internships, side projects) of trying new tools, adopting automation, or exploring AI in coding or testing contexts.
• Basic understanding of software testing concepts and QA methodologies, including test case creation, defect reporting, and regression testing.
• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills, with curiosity about how AI tools can assist in identifying defects and improving test coverage.
• Proficiency in at least one programming language (e.g., Python, Java, JavaScript/TypeScript), with the ability to read, write, and debug test scripts.
• Familiarity with test automation frameworks and tools (e.g., Selenium, Playwright, PyTest, JUnit), and interest in learning AI-enhanced testing platforms.
• Exposure to or willingness to learn Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) systems and how automated tests fit into build pipelines.
• Collaborative mindset and effective communication skills, with the ability to work on cross-functional teams and learn from senior engineers.
• Interest in or exposure to AI/ML technologies, especially in the context of software quality—such as using AI tools for test case generation, test optimization, or intelligent defect analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to learn and apply new tools quickly, including AI-enabled platforms or APIs, and enthusiasm for exploring emerging technologies in quality automation.

Minimum Requirements:        

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 1+ years of hands-on experience in test automation or quality engineering, with a strong foundation in scripting, testing fundamentals, and software development lifecycle
• Basic understanding of containerization and orchestration tools (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), and how tests run within CI/CD pipelines in cloud-native environments.
• Exposure to cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud), especially related to test execution environments, observability tooling, or cost-aware testing strategies.

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

At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the base compensation 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 discretionary bonus, health, vision, dental insurance, 401k matching, PTO, Volunteer Time Off (VTO), and other employee benefits as the company implements.