Bilingual Data Scientist / MLE

Description

About This Position

Job Description

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will leverage advanced analytics, machine learning, and statistical modeling to solve complex, data-driven business challenges. This role requires high expertise in translating data insights into actionable strategies, as well as communication skills to collaborate smoothly with cross-functional teams. We welcome candidates with extensive experience in the analytics field, as well as the IT/tech industry and cutting-edge technology domains.

Specific Job Responsibilities

• Optimization of Ad Message Delivery: Responsible for the development and operation of machine learning (ML) models for optimizing personalized ad delivery content and timing to maximize performance, predicting customer lifetime value (CLV), multi-channel customer modeling, customer segmentation, and extracting insights from delivery results.

• Personalization & Recommendations: Design and implement recommendation engines using various methods such as rule-based, machine learning, and deep learning, aiming to improve user engagement and brand trust.

• Advanced Customer Segmentation: Lead customer behavior analysis using clustering methods to drive brand enhancement strategies optimized for each individual customer.

• Data Engineering & Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA): Perform cleansing, preprocessing, and validation of large and complex datasets (structured and unstructured data). In addition, identify patterns within data through exploratory data analysis (EDA), ensure data quality, and formulate initial strategies for analysis.

• KPI Design and Proposals to Stakeholders: Define and propose logical yet ambitious business KPIs that are easy to understand for non-specialist teams, in collaboration with internal departments (such as sales and customer success) and client marketing managers.

• Establishment of Continuous Improvement Loops: Systematically identify and pinpoint model accuracy challenges through multifaceted verification and error analysis, and continuously refine (iterate on) model structures and feature engineering toward achieving target KPIs.

• Collaborative Development Process and Privacy Considerations: Manage production-level code repositories using GitHub, thoroughly enforcing version control and documentation starting from the R&D stage. Additionally, ensure development adheres to data privacy protection and AI ethics.

• Research and Application of Cutting-Edge Technology: Research and implement state-of-the-art technologies such as deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), LLMs, and generative AI to advance business strategies and solve problems aimed at enhancing brand value.

Assigned Team

Assigned to the Data/AI Team

What Is Expected in This Position

• Lead the entire ML lifecycle-from data exploration to model implementation, operation, and maintenance-for core algorithms such as recommendation engines and ad delivery optimization.
• Continuously enhance model accuracy and value in a way directly linked to business KPIs, delivering a data-driven impact on sales and business growth.
• Collaborate with business and executive stakeholders to translate business challenges into data-driven approaches, taking the lead from KPI design to initiative proposals.
• Maximize overall team performance by mentoring junior members in both technical and non-technical aspects, and establishing development standards and a documentation culture.

What You Can Gain in This Position

• Business-Direct Value Creation Utilizing Large-Scale and Unique Datasets

  • Build and utilize a unique, unmatched dataset combining Mico's 1st-party data with client Zero-party data. By leveraging this enriched data environment, you can build high-precision models and gain dynamic development experience directly impacting business problem-solving and revenue.

• Production Operation of Advanced Algorithms and MLOps Practice

  • In core algorithms such as recommendation engines and ad delivery optimization, gain practical expertise in handling not only development but also end-to-end MLOps setup-including feature pipeline construction, retraining, and monitoring-to sustainably improve model precision and value.

• Experience in High-Level Decision-Making and Strategy Formulation Driving Business Growth via Data

  • Beyond model development, experience the satisfaction of establishing business KPIs alongside business and executive stakeholders, and steering data-driven business growth (formulating data strategies).

• Technical Leadership and Organizational Development Track Record on a Global Scale

  • Build a track record as a globally competent tech leader by taking technical initiatives within an English-centric global team, while leading junior member development and the establishment of engineering standards.

Target Career Paths

• Step Up to Tech Lead / Manager of Data Science / ML Team

  • Leverage technical leadership and mentorship experience to step up into a leader or managerial role guiding data science departments or ML engineering teams.

• Deepening Expertise Towards ML Architect / Principal Data Scientist

  • Master large-scale data processing, advanced MLOps, and cutting-edge AI domains to become a top technical specialist determining company-wide data platforms and model architecture directions.

• Expanding Scope to Data Product Manager (PdM) or AI Consultant

  • Utilize achievements in business problem definition, KPI design, and stakeholder proposals to expand into roles driving data product strategy formulation and business growth itself.

• Overseeing Global AI & Data Projects

  • Pave a career path as global talent leading global market or cross-border AI projects, leveraging technical discussion capabilities in English and a solid track record in large-scale machine learning.

About Mico

We aim to create an enriched living environment by achieving Lifetime Trust through conversations between brands and consumers.

Our medium-to-long-term vision is to provide Asia's most trusted brand service, and we are advancing business development with an eye toward global expansion.

To achieve this goal, there are many challenges to embrace and obstacles to overcome.

Here, you will find an environment where you can maximize your past experience.

Mico's greatest appeal is that each individual possesses autonomy and can thrive as a lead actor.

Mission

Empower every brand by building lifetime trust through humanlike technology

Create captivating moments for every brand.

Under the above mission, Mico is a company building sustainable trust relationships (Lifetime Trust) between brands and customers through AI-powered, humanlike technology. We support brand competitiveness and business growth through diverse AI-powered features.

Vision

Asia No.1 Brand Empowerment Company

We believe in the immeasurable potential of every single brand in this world and contribute to society by maximizing their brilliance. "Empower every brand by contributing to the business growth of all existing client companies and lending them a helping hand"-that is our purpose of existence.

Furthermore, what we pursue is not merely creating fleeting encounters common in conventional marketing. Beyond communication that connects hearts, we believe in "bringing 'sustainable trust' to businesses and consumers to enhance brand value (by building lifetime trust)." We believe this is the path to unlocking the true value of a brand and elevating it into an enduring bond.

To realize this vision, we create a future where we "realize technology that enhances brand competitiveness with user-centric UI/UX (through humanlike technology)." Instead of cold machine logic, we weave moving moments between brands and customers using warm, deeply user-centric UI/UX.

Product

Mico Engage AI

Mico Engage AI is a communication platform integrated with Japan's largest platforms. It comprehensively solves corporate marketing challenges and maximizes outcomes through website customer retention, personalized message delivery using data, 1-on-1 customer interaction, and system integrations. Its key strength lies in end-to-end support, from customer acquisition to fan conversion.

Mico Voice AI

Mico Voice AI is a service that dramatically improves the quality and efficiency of customer communication through humanlike AI voice automated calling. Beyond simple automation, its biggest charm lies in creating "captivating moments" with customers while achieving both productivity improvements and customer engagement enhancement for enterprises.

Biz Clo

BizClo is a unique solution that transforms "LINE" into a true business asset for enterprise companies. It achieves "free-of-charge" LINE 1-on-1 chats and "resolves chat handover issues"-things impossible with existing business chats. It builds deep, organizational customer relationships, simultaneously fulfilling business growth and customer loyalty maximization.

Micomii

Micomii is a LINE membership card service for store operators. Easily implemented via smartphone, it enables member tiering based on visit counts, stamp rallies, and reward grants. By managing and analyzing customer data on LINE, it supports customer acquisition and repeat visits without relying on restaurant listing sites.

We will continue to create new products going forward.

Mico AI's Strengths

Overwhelming Data Volume and High Quality

Mico accumulates massive, highly accurate data, including ad clicks, page views, and user behavior history.

By having AI learn from this data, it can accurately predict user interests and behaviors, determining "to whom, what content, and at what timing to deliver" with high precision.

Mico's AI is one step ahead of competitors in both data quality and volume.

Speed and Flexibility Through In-House Data Development

At Mico, we develop and manage dataset foundations for AI in-house.

While relying on external data generally takes time for preparation and updates, Mico's in-house structure allows for faster and more flexible AI improvements.

Because we build our own data, new feature development and iteration speed are overwhelmingly fast.

World-Class Data Science Team

We house numerous talented engineers active globally-not only in Japan, but also in India, the Philippines, Taiwan, and beyond. They analyze user behavior data to make our AI even smarter. Experts from around the world collaborate as a team to enhance AI accuracy daily.

Attractions of Working at Mico

Growth Market × Growth Company"

• C-commerce market with a global size approaching 30 trillion yen, projected to overtake the EC market in certain countries by 2025
• Achieved 1100% business growth over 4 years in the Marketing SaaS domain
• Secured cumulative funding of 6.3 billion yen (Series B: 3.5 billion yen)
• Achieved No.1 in Japan for LINE marketing

Thorough Customer-Centricity"

• Our Mission is to expand the possibilities of all businesses and create a future where brands and consumers live more enriched lives
• Upholding "Wow the Customer" as a Value, we view everything from the customer's perspective, addressing true issues beyond surface-level needs to deliver overwhelming results that exceed expectations
• Without compromising on value delivered to customers, we maintain a commitment to results through an "Invest in Passion" mindset-executing with passion and tenacity

Global Organization Gathering Diverse Professionals"

• Under the "Beyond Borders" Value, we transcend barriers of language, job function, and culture to combine strengths and generate great team results
• We operate 3 overseas bases and currently house members representing 20 nationalities in a global organization
• Each individual possesses high expertise and professional awareness, collaborating while respecting different backgrounds and strengths

Environment to Enjoy Challenges/Changes and Grow"

• Under the "Invest in Passion" Value, our culture encourages passionate challengers and turns failures after full effort into fuel for the next challenge
• We value "Be the Change," encouraging team members not to wait for change, but to proactively anticipate the future and take the next step
• By testing small with hypotheses and leveraging lessons learned for subsequent attempts, both individuals and the organization continuously evolve
• Surrounded by members with high growth motivation and drive, you can grow daily in a stimulating environment

Requirements

4+ years of practical experience in the data science field, along with deep expertise in the following areas:

• Machine Learning & Statistics Expertise and Practical Experience

  • Foundational theory (prediction, classification, regression, clustering) of machine learning and statistics for tabular and time-series data. Practical experience solving business challenges using major libraries such as NumPy, Scikit-learn, and PyTorch.

• Programming & Code Quality

  • Skills in Python and SQL. Coding capabilities with attention to code quality, readability, and maintainability.

• Analysis & Validation Methods

  • Skills in iterative hypothesis verification processes and offline evaluation (model precision verification) using techniques like cross-validation. Practical knowledge of A/B testing and basic statistical analysis methods.

• End-to-End ML Lifecycle Leadership

  • Experience participating across the full ML development lifecycle: data exploration, feature engineering, KPI definition, model training/validation, system implementation, performance evaluation, and production ML system operation/maintenance.

• Development Environment & Team Collaboration

  • Skills utilizing Linux environments, VS Code, version control (Git/GitHub), containerization (Docker, etc.), and CI/CD (GitHub Actions, etc.). Proven track record of integrating ML models into production environments in collaboration with engineering teams.

• Language Skills

  • Japanese: Business level or higher (capable of smooth communication including business conversations, writing, and reading comprehension, not just daily conversation)

  • English: Comfortable with technical conversations and motivated to catch up going forward (speaking, writing, reading comprehension)

Preferred Experiences

• Data & Analytics Tools

  • Practical knowledge of SQL databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.), data warehouses, and OLAP (Snowflake, Redshift, etc.).

• Cloud Platforms

  • Practical experience in major cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), primarily AWS.

• Deep Expertise in Recommender System Construction

  • Practical knowledge and experience building models using Collaborative Filtering, Content-Based Filtering, Matrix Factorization, NCF (Neural Collaborative Filtering), Two-Tower models, etc.

• Advanced ML Engineering

  • Experience and knowledge in online serving, model deployment, production ML workflows (feature pipeline setup, monitoring, model retraining/improvement loops), and MLOps.
  • Microservice architecture design/development experience (e.g., FastAPI, Flask).
  • Ability to fine-tune open-source deep learning models (e.g., optimization/additional training in embeddings, sequential models, multi-task learning).
  • Experience developing and operating high QPS (Query Per Second), low-latency machine learning APIs.

• Data Engineering & Orchestration

  • Practical experience with workflow/DAG management tools (Apache Airflow, AWS Step Functions, etc.) for building and operating scalable data pipelines.
  • Development/operation experience using streaming and messaging technologies (AWS Kinesis, Apache Kafka, etc.).
  • Practical experience with distributed training environments and large-scale data processing frameworks (Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, MPI, etc.).

• Domain Expertise & Business Understanding / Insights

  • Project experience in relevant domains such as ranking, search, ad delivery, and personalization systems.
  • Ability to propose data analytics and improvement initiatives based on a deep understanding of business goals and domain knowledge.
  • Understanding of user behavior analysis, business growth metrics, and business-perspective optimizations.

• Community Activities & Research Track Record

  • Strong drive and supporting record of activities in applied machine learning, including OSS (open-source) contributions, research paper publications, and Kaggle competition achievements.

We Are Looking For

• Individuals who can smoothly reach consensus with internal and external stakeholders and collaborate cross-functionally.
• Individuals who can translate complex data analysis results into easy-to-understand stories for non-technical members.
• Individuals who can translate business challenges into data-driven approaches and persistently tackle problem-solving.
• Individuals with professional time management skills who can independently drive work forward.
• Individuals motivated to mentor junior members in both technical and non-technical aspects to deliver team results.
• Individuals with high motivation to learn and implement cutting-edge AI and data technologies.