Service Development Engineer (Machine Learning) - Recipe Business

Employment information

Job Description

About Cookpad

Cookpad is a recipe sharing and search service that was launched in Japan in March 1998 with the mission to ‘Make everyday cooking fun’. The service is currently available in 67 countries and regions and supports 26 languages (as of February 2024).

We believe that making everyday cooking fun gives rise to conversations and a sense of fulfillment around the dining table, which brings happiness to people’s lives. We also believe that the actions people take in order to cook—such as shopping for ingredients, gathering around the table, and thinking about recipes—create connections with producers, family members, and fellow cooks, and that these connections can enrich society by contributing to solutions for environmental issues and the development of food culture.

In September 2024, we unified our Japanese and global development platforms, enabling a single development structure that allows us to build from Japan for a global audience. This marked the beginning of a new phase, and we are now looking for motivated individuals to take on global challenges with us.

Current Challenges

• Accelerating service improvements and new feature development for our global audience
• Maintaining our development infrastructure following the unification of our platforms, and removing technical debt
• Rebuilding our global development organisation, including integration with members across different countries

What You’ll Be Doing

We are looking for a machine learning engineer who can help lead our service with the power of technology, in order to make everyday cooking fun for people around the world. As a member of our team, you will be responsible for driving end-to-end delivery of features and experiences powered by machine learning.

• Designing and developing services powered by machine learning
• Building prototype applications using machine learning techniques
• Supporting and promoting the effective use of generative AI and other advanced technologies

What Makes This Role Meaningful

• The opportunity to take on technical challenges unlike anything you’d encounter elsewhere, as you build applications for our global user base
• The joy and responsibility of receiving direct feedback from users across the world
• The chance to focus on the unique domain of cooking and dive deep into challenges you won’t encounter elsewhere

Qualifications

• Experience in developing services using machine learning, such as natural language processing or image processing
• Knowledge and experience in scientifically validating results
• Basic knowledge and development experience in web applications or databases
• Experience taking a service through to launch with end-to-end responsibility

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing recommendation features
• Contributions to open source software or active involvement in developer communities
• Experience speaking at conferences or academic events
• Knowledge or experience in developing multilingual or multi-region services
• Knowledge or experience in web frontend or mobile application development
• Knowledge or experience with infrastructure such as AWS
• Ability to communicate effectively in English
• Ability to communicate in Japanese at a basic level within the team, as well as a willingness to learn the language

What We Look For

• A sense of ownership not only in machine learning development but also in delivering user experiences in a B2C service
• An interest in and curiosity about building applications that are offered in multiple languages and used around the world
• An interest in cooking and the ability to proactively identify problems and propose solutions
• The leadership to define a clear direction for the service or technology and drive it forward