Solution Architect, Cloud

Why should you choose us? Rakuten Symphony is reimagining telecom, changing supply chain norms and disrupting outmoded thinking that threatens the industry’s pursuit of rapid innovation and growth. Based on proven modern infrastructure practices, its open interface platforms make it possible to launch and operate advanced mobile services in a fraction of the time and cost of conventional approaches, with no compromise to network quality or security.

Rakuten Symphony has operations in Japan, the United States, Singapore, India, South Korea, Europe, and the Middle East Africa region. For more information, visit: https://symphony.rakuten.com

Building on the technology Rakuten used to launch Japan’s newest mobile network, we are taking our mobile offering global.

To support our ambitions to provide an innovative cloud-native telco platform for our customers, Rakuten Symphony is looking to recruit and develop top talent from around the globe. We are looking for individuals to join our team across all functional areas of our business – from sales to engineering, support functions to product development.

Let’s build the future of mobile telecommunications together!

About Rakuten Group, Inc. (TSE: 4755) is a global leader in internet services that empower individuals, communities, businesses and society. Founded in Tokyo in 1997 as an online marketplace, Rakuten has expanded to offer services in e-commerce, fintech, digital content and communications to 2 billion members around the world. The Rakuten Group has over 30,000 employees, and operations in 30 countries and regions. For more information visit

https://global.rakuten.com/corp/ .

Role Summary: We are seeking an experienced Solution Design Engineer with strong hands-on expertise in Kubernetes, Linux systems, and Virtual Networking. The candidate will be responsible for designing scalable, secure, and high-availability infrastructure solutions across on-prem and cloud environments. The ideal candidate combines architecture design capability with deep technical troubleshooting skills.

Key Responsibilities Design end-to-end infrastructure and platform solutions based on business and technical requirements. Architect and implement Kubernetes clusters (on-prem / cloud). Design container orchestration strategies, namespace isolation, RBAC, and multi-tenant environments. Work on Linux server configuration, hardening, performance tuning, and troubleshooting. Design and implement virtual networking solutions (VPC, VXLAN, IP-in-IP, overlay networking). Develop high availability, disaster recovery, and scaling strategies. Work with DevOps teams on CI/CD integration. Conduct design reviews, documentation, and architecture validation. Provide L3 support for complex infrastructure issues. Collaborate with security and network teams for compliance and governance.

Required Technical Skills

Kubernetes Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes cluster setup and management Experience with: Ingress Controllers. CNI plugins (Calico, Flannel, etc.). Helm. StatefulSets, Deployments, DaemonSets. Storage classes and persistent volumes. Troubleshooting networking and pod-level issues.

Linux Strong command-line expertise. System administration (RHEL/CentOS/Ubuntu). Process management, memory tuning, kernel parameters. Shell scripting. Log analysis and performance debugging.

Virtual Networking Deep understanding of: TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP. VLAN, VXLAN, IP-in-IP. Routing, NAT, firewall rules. Load balancers. Experience with SDN concepts.

Good to have Container security practices. Monitoring tools (Prometheus, Grafana). Service Mesh (Istio). Knowledge of hybrid cloud architecture.

Qualifications & Experience Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent experience. 7+ years of infrastructure/platform engineering experience. 2+ years of Kubernetes production experience.

RAKUTEN SHUGI PRINCIPLES: Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviours 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. Be 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 success in unknown territory. Maximize Customer Satisfaction.

The greatest satisfaction for workers in a service industry is to see their customers smile. Speed!! Speed!! Speed!!

Always be conscious of time. Take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team.