Vice Manager, Container as a Service - Cloud Services Department (CLSD)

Job Description:

Department Overview

Rakuten Group, Inc. has 70+ services. Linking these diverse services through a common membership and loyalty program, Rakuten has created one of the world’s most unique and robust ecosystems. Cloud Services Department (CLSD) mission is to provide high quality services for application team. Our value is providing enough managed services such as Container Orchestration, Database, API Gateway, Load Balancers, CI/CD and Monitoring.

We empower Rakuten Group, Inc. by helping application team to focus on their business. We're waiting for persons who like to find new challenges, and who like to work together to resolve such new challenges.

The mission of the Container Platform Group is empowering each Rakuten business by providing reliable kubernetes/istio-based container platforms with self-service api and automation.

Position:

Why We Hire

The business of Rakuten Group, Inc. is rapidly growing and our private cloud is rapidly growing as well.

To support such growth, many ambitious and attractive projects are ongoing. We’re searching for a new vice manager who can enjoy challenges, and who can grow together. An ambitious person who thinks of promotion to a manager and even a senior manager in the future is welcomed.

Additionally, we welcome a person who can propose new ideas with thinking flexibly, by leveraging both internal and external technologies without being constrained by existing frameworks.

Position Details

### Overview

[1] Stable System Operation

[2] Task/Project Management

[3] Accounting Task and Server Resource Allocation

[4] Human Resources Tasks

[5] Product Strategy

[6] Other General Non-engineering Tasks

### Details

[1] Stable System Operation

You will be responsible for leading engineers and project managers to ensure the stable operation of the systems.

- Stable operation of the system infrastructure

- Quality management of release operations for the system’s App/Middleware/OS

[2] Task/Project Management

You will carry out the following tasks in collaboration with project managers:

- Planning, progress management, risk management, and reporting for each task and project

- Review and approval of release operation
- Support of getting senior manager approvals for release operations

- Communication with other departments and internal clients

[3] Accounting Task and Server Resource Allocation

You will carry out the following tasks in collaboration with project managers and mangers:

- (Monthly) Billing Report: Report usage of our services for each user to charge to the users. Also, investigate the usage detail and explain to the users when they make inquiries.

- (Monthly) Server Resource Adjustment: Summarize usage forecasts from users and calculate the necessary number of servers.

- (On Demand) Server Resource Allocation: Allocate the procured servers to users based on priority.

- (Monthly) Sales & Cost Analysis: Create KPI reports on the sales, costs, and profits of each of our services

- (Yearly) Budget Planning: Carry out the budget planning for next year, based on user usage forecasts and the plan of the group.

- (On Demand): Conduct sales and cost simulations and analyses when launching new services or products.

[4] Human Resources Tasks

You will carry out the following tasks in collaboration with managers and senior managers:

- Supporting employee evaluation and feedback: Conducting regular one-on-one meetings, setting goals, holding evaluation interviews, and providing feedback

- Supporting training and career development: Assisting in skill enhancement and career path planning for employees

- Planning and executing team-building activities

- Supporting recruitment activities: Creating job postings, evaluating candidates, coordinating and conducting interviews, and assessing candidates

[5] Product Strategy

You will carry out the following tasks in collaboration with product managers, managers, and senior managers:

- Formulating product vision and roadmap: Creating a long-term product vision and developing a concrete roadmap

- Understanding and reflecting user needs: Collecting feedback from users and incorporating it into the product

- Conducting industry research and competitive analysis: Investigating and analyzing industry trends and new technological developments

- Planning and executing new features: Planning and implementing new features and services

- Creating medium- to long-term project plans for each product

- Managing the product backlog

- Performing other tasks necessary for the maintenance and growth of the product

[6] Other General Non-engineering Tasks

You will carry out the following tasks in collaboration with project managers and managers:

- Responding to inquiries from users

- Managing surveys for users

- Managing daily engineering tasks (operational tasks) (prioritization, assignment, progress management)

- Performing other tasks that arise within the Group

Work Environment

20 members (7 nationalities)

1 manager, 1 vice manager, 3 team leaders, 1 product manager, 1 project manager, 13 engineers

3 teams

New grads: 15%

Mid-career: 85%

- language: Go, Python

- Infrastructure: Private Cloud (Baremetal, VM, Container)

- Provisioning/Operation: Ansible, multiple inhouse tools written in Go/python, operator framework (e.g. redhat operator framework), jenkins, helm

- Monitoring: prometheus, cortex, grafana, kibana, Datadog, PagerDuty

- CI/CD: Jenkins, in-house python tool

- Knowledge Tool : Confluence

- Project Management : JIRA

- Communication Tool : Slack, MS Teams, Viber

- Process framework : scrumban

Mandatory Qualifications:

(Managerial Experience) 3+ years of managerial experience, including budget-based personnel evaluation and system management

(Engineering Experience) 3+ years of experience as an engineer in the web industry (understanding of web technologies is required as this is a development department)

(Rakuten Shugi) Someone who empathizes with Rakuten's corporate philosophy and Rakuten Shugi, and wishes to work at Rakuten for a long time

(Product Management) Ability to cover necessary items in an RFP, create documents, and explain them

(Project Management) Experience with Scrum/Waterfall management, or experience being part of a Scrum/Waterfall development team and the ability to manage Scrum/Waterfall development

(Multitasking) (Supporting Engineers, Managers, and Clients) Ability to efficiently complete numerous tasks within limited time and enjoy doing so

(Deadline) (Project and Task Management) Someone who can take responsibility and deliver results by the deadline, and if there is a possibility of not meeting the deadline, can communicate and report to the appropriate person at the appropriate time

(Information Organization) Ability to compile information from multiple people, departments, and documents into written form, for project execution and problem-solving

(Information Organization and Reporting) Ability to clearly and timely report key points such as risks and critical paths of each task in a project

(Proactivity) Someone who can proactively think what needs to be done, what should be prioritized, and what should be improved, without being passive

(Communication Style) Ability to communicate in a way that does not create unnecessary conflicts, using soft communication and phrasing, and conveying information accurately to avoid misunderstandings

(Meetings) Ability to set up meetings, create agendas, facilitate meetings to stay on track with the objectives, and take minutes by touch-typing key points during the meeting while understanding the content

(Challenge) Someone who can take on new tasks and tools without hesitation

Desired Qualifications:

(PC Skills) Proficient in using shortcuts to efficiently complete tasks

(Communication) The vice manager of our group is required to communicate with the following individuals:

- (Daily) Discuss tasks and projects with approximately 20 group members

- (Weekly/Monthly) Coordinate tasks and projects with members of over 10 other service providers

- (1-5 times/day) Support inquiries from hundreds of tenants

Enjoy frequent conversations with these numerous individuals.

(Improvements) Enjoy proposing new mechanisms for team improvement.

(Excel) Understand basic Excel functions such as sumifs, xlookup, table, pivot table, and spill functions.

(Programming) Skills and experience in Go/Python

(Degree) Degree in Computer Science