AI Architect

About the Company:
Rakuten India is the Development Centre and key technology hub of the Rakuten Group, Inc. We enable our businesses with our depth of knowledge in multiple streams of technology such as Mobile and Web Development, Web Analytics, Platform Development, Backend Engineering, Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and much more. Our unique 24/7 support center ensures reliability and sustenance of the Rakuten Ecosystem. With dedicated centres of excellence for Mobile Application Development, Data Analytics, Engineering, DevOps and Information Security, we ensure the success of multiple units of Rakuten Group, Inc. With 1700+ employees and growing, Rakuten India is housed in Crimson House Bangalore in the heart of the city.
About Rakuten's BSS Engineering Team:
Rakuten is at the forefront of innovation, and our in-house BSS engineering team is driving the future of telecommunications and digital services. We operate a cutting-edge, cloud-native microservices-based BSS platform serving both B2B and B2C customers globally. Our ambitious vision is to achieve Agentic SDLC and Agentic BSS, transforming our entire value chain through intelligent, autonomous agents. We're looking for a visionary and hands-on AI Architect to lead this charge.
The Opportunity:
This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of how we build, deploy, and operate our mission-critical BSS platform. You will be instrumental in designing and implementing the architecture for our next generation of AI-powered autonomous agents, driving efficiency, innovation, and agility across our Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and Business Support Systems (BSS). While BSS domain knowledge is a plus, your deep expertise in AI/ML, distributed systems, and a hands-on approach are paramount.
What You'll Do:
As our AI Architect (Agentic Systems), you will:
Architect Agentic Systems: Design end-to-end architectures for intelligent agents that automate complex tasks within our SDLC (e.g., code generation, testing, deployment, security) and BSS (e.g., order fulfillment, customer support, service assurance, billing).
Drive Strategy & Roadmap: Lead the technical strategy and roadmap for our Agentic SDLC and Agentic BSS initiatives, translating business needs into actionable AI/ML solutions.
Hands-on Prototyping & Development: Be a hands-on contributor, developing proof-of-concepts, building core agent components, and guiding the implementation of AI solutions. You won't just design; you'll build.
LLM & AI Model Integration: Architect the integration and orchestration of various AI models, including Large Language Models (LLMs) like Claude Code, Codex, and potentially open-source alternatives, into our agentic frameworks.
Data & MLOps Infrastructure: Design and implement robust data pipelines, feature stores, and MLOps practices essential for agent training, deployment, monitoring, and continuous learning within our cloud-native environment.
Microservices & Cloud-Native Integration: Ensure seamless integration of agentic systems with our existing cloud-native microservices architecture, leveraging Kubernetes, service meshes, and event-driven patterns.
Define Agent Interaction & Collaboration: Design how agents interact with each other, with human users, and with external systems, focusing on robust communication protocols, feedback mechanisms, and human-in-the-loop processes.
Performance & Scalability: Ensure agentic solutions are designed for high performance, scalability, and reliability in a production environment serving millions of B2B and B2C customers.
Security, Governance & Ethics: Incorporate security best practices, data privacy, and ethical AI principles into the design and implementation of all agentic systems.
Mentor & Evangelize: Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and foster a culture of AI-driven innovation within the engineering team. Evangelize the vision and benefits of agentic systems across the organization.
What We're Looking For:
8+ years of experience in software engineering, with at least 3-5 years in a dedicated AI/ML Architect or Lead ML Engineer role.
Deep hands-on expertise in designing, building, and deploying complex AI/ML systems into production.
Proficiency in Python and relevant AI/ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn).
Extensive experience with Large Language Models (LLMs): Understanding of LLM architectures, fine-tuning, prompt engineering, RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation), and integrating LLMs via APIs (e.g., OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini) or open-source models.
Proven experience with agentic frameworks or multi-agent systems (e.g., LangChain, LangGraph, AutoGen, or custom implementations). Demonstrated ability to build and orchestrate autonomous agents.
Strong understanding and hands-on experience with Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) automation tools and practices: Including Git, CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitLab CI, Jenkins, Argo CD), static code analysis, and automated testing frameworks.
Strong understanding of cloud-native architectures: Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, microservices, APIs, and event-driven systems (e.g., Kafka) in a major cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure).
Experience with MLOps principles and tools: Model versioning, CI/CD for ML, monitoring, data pipelines for ML workflows.
Proven ability to architect and implement robust, scalable, and secure distributed systems.
Excellent problem-solving skills, with a pragmatic and outcome-oriented approach.
Strong communication and collaboration skills: Ability to articulate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences and work effectively with cross-functional teams.
Bonus Points (Nice-to-Haves):
Experience in the BSS (Business Support Systems) or telecommunications domain.
Contributions to open-source AI/ML projects or relevant publications.
“Rakuten is committed to cultivating and preserving a culture of inclusion and connectedness. We are able to grow and learn better together with a diverse team and inclusive workforce. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, innovation, self-expression, and talent that our employees invest in their work represents not only part of our culture, but our reputation and Rakuten’s achievement as well. In recruiting for our team, we welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of their education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, color, religion, disability, sexual orientation and beliefs”

Work arrangement
No