Software Jobs in Shibuya, Japan (Now Hiring) — 49 open
SmartNews
Software Engineer or Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Delivery & ML Platform )
Shibuya, Japan · Hybrid
SeniorVisa sponsorship$410M raised
About SmartNews SmartNews is a leading global information and news discovery company dedicated to delivering quality information to the people who need it. Thanks to our unique machine-learning technology and relationshi…
Skills: Java, Kotlin, System design, Distributed systems, Machine learning
SmartNews
AI-First Product Designer 【AIファースト プロダクトデザイナー】
Shibuya, Japan · Hybrid
SeniorVisa sponsorship$410M raised
Note: Japanese text is followed by English in each section below. ※注: 本文書は全項目「日本語 ➔ 英語」の順で記載されています。 スマートニュース株式会社について スマートニュース株式会社は2012年6月15日の設立以来、「世界中の良質な情報を必要な人に送り届ける」をミッションに掲げ、日本と米国でニュースアプリ「SmartNews(スマートニュース)」を開発、国内のニ…
Skills: Product design, AI prototyping, Figma, Claude Code, Cursor
Job Profile Description The Head of Japan Data Office is responsible for leading the organization’s data strategy, governance, and data management capabilities to enable trusted, high-quality, and business-driven use of …
Skills: Data Strategy, Data Governance, Data Management, Data Engineering, Azure Data Platform
The Opportunity The customer is the focus of everything we do, and millions of end users rely on our products daily. We believe in the value of empowering Junior Cloud Architect (Java & AI) with the resources to solve cr…
Skills: Core Java, J2EE, Spring Boot, Microsoft Azure, Azure App Services
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Full-time
Health insurance, Social insurance, Annual health check, Visa sponsorship, Overseas relocation support
Visa sponsorship available
Posted 1d ago
~40 hrs/week
Responsibilities
Design, build, and operate scalable backend and platform services for delivery, ranking, and machine learning workflows. Collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve system reliability, observability, and operational efficiency through self-service tools and automation.
Requirements
Requires strong backend engineering experience with large-scale, high-traffic production systems using Java or Kotlin. Candidates must possess solid system design skills and proven experience in production ownership, including incident response and performance tuning.
Full job description
About SmartNews
SmartNews is a leading global information and news discovery company dedicated to delivering quality information to the people who need it. Thanks to our unique machine-learning technology and relationships with more than 3,000 global publisher partners, we provide news that matters to millions of users.
Founded in 2012 in Tokyo, SmartNews also has offices in Osaka (Kansai Office), Palo Alto, New York and Singapore.
If you share our vision and are passionate about our mission, we encourage you to apply!
Team Mission
The Delivery & ML Platform team builds and operates the delivery, ranking, experimentation, and machine learning platforms that enable SmartNews to deliver quality information reliably, efficiently, and at scale.
Our systems sit on the critical path between content, users, product experiences, ads, and machine learning. We own and evolve high-traffic backend services and platform capabilities such as delivery systems, ranking and mixing infrastructure, experimentation, ML feature and feedback pipelines, real-time training, ML serving integration, and AI-assisted operational tooling.
Our work directly affects how reliably users receive relevant content, how quickly product and ads teams can run experiments, and how effectively machine learning teams can improve ranking and personalization. We help product, ads, content, and machine learning teams move faster by providing platform capabilities that are scalable, observable, easy to operate, and safe to change.
We value end-to-end ownership. Our work is not only to build features, but also to make production systems more reliable, make changes easier to trace and roll back, reduce operational toil, and create self-service tools that help other teams solve problems without waiting on platform engineers.
About the Role
In this role, you will design, build, and operate platform systems that improve SmartNews' delivery, ranking, experimentation, and ML workflows.
You will turn ambiguous business and platform needs into practical engineering solutions: clarifying requirements, proposing designs, implementing backend services and internal tools, rolling them out safely, monitoring production impact, and iterating based on data and stakeholder feedback.
You will work closely with Product, Ads, Content, ML, and infrastructure teams to improve user-facing delivery reliability, accelerate ML and experimentation workflows, and strengthen the feedback loops between delivery systems and machine learning systems.
This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who enjoys high-scale backend systems, production ownership, cross-functional collaboration, and platform work that creates leverage for many other teams.
Responsibilities
Design, implement, test, deploy, and operate backend/platform services for delivery, ranking, experimentation, ML feature and feedback pipelines, real-time training, and ML platform workflows.
Improve reliability and operability of high-traffic production systems through observability, SLOs, alert quality, runbooks, performance tuning, capacity planning, and incident follow-up.
Lead end-to-end engineering projects from problem definition and system design through implementation, rollout, monitoring, maintenance, and documentation.
Partner with Product, Ads, Content, ML, and infrastructure stakeholders to translate business or ML needs into scalable platform capabilities.
Build or improve internal tools and self-service workflows, including AI-assisted debugging, operations, and platform support where they create real leverage.
Contribute to a healthy engineering culture by sharing context, reviewing designs and code, supporting on-call operations, and taking ownership beyond narrow component boundaries.
Minimum requirements
Strong backend engineering experience with large-scale, high-traffic, or low-latency production systems, using Java/Kotlin or comparable server-side languages.
Solid system design skills for distributed services, APIs, data pipelines, and platform components, with clear reasoning about scalability, reliability, latency, cost, and maintainability trade-offs.
Production ownership experience, including observability, monitoring, SLOs, incident response, performance tuning, deployment safety, and operating services after launch.
Ability to navigate complex codebases and ambiguous requirements, break down problems, communicate design choices clearly, and deliver maintainable solutions end to end.
Strong collaboration skills in English, with a team-oriented mindset, and openness to feedback.
Nice to have experiences/skills
Experience with recommendation, ranking, feed delivery, ads delivery, personalization, or other user-facing decisioning systems.
Experience with ML platform areas such as feature pipelines, real-time or batch training pipelines, ML serving, model monitoring, or online/offline experimentation.
Experience with experimentation platforms, A/B testing infrastructure, metrics pipelines, or data-driven product iteration.
Experience with cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes, Terraform, Datadog, SRE practices, or on-call operations for high-scale services.
Japanese proficiency, frontend/internal-admin tool experience such as React, or open-source contributions.
Related Links
"Build It Together" ― How Engineers, Designers, and PMs Shape Products at SmartNews.
Why Shin Murakami Chose "SmartNews Now"
Working condition
Office Location: Tokyo
Click here or visit our careers site for more info.
Benefits available at the SmartNews Tokyo Office
All healthcare and social insurance required by the Japanese labor law, plus annual health check
Visa sponsorship and overseas relocation support available for eligible candidates
Click here or visit our careers site for more info about our benefits.
Delivering the world's quality information to the people who need it.
Industry
Technology, Information and Media
Company size
201-500 employees
Founded
2012
Headquarters
Tokyo, Japan
LinkedIn followers
39,417
Total funding
$410M
Quality information. Better informed. Smarter living.
At SmartNews, we believe access to high-quality journalism is essential. We’ve built a world-class platform that bridges the gap between technology and trusted reporting, helping millions of daily readers feel good about being informed.
Our Mission
We deliver the world’s quality information to the people who need it. By utilizing cutting-edge AI alongside the expertise of seasoned professionals, our team ensures that every story—from local updates to global headlines—is timely, relevant, and reliable.
The SmartNews Ecosystem:
› For Readers: A seamless discovery tool designed to respect your attention. We provide a 360-degree view of the stories shaping our world, balancing breaking news with deep-dive analysis.
› For Publishers & Advertisers: A high-performance growth engine. We connect the world’s most respected publishers and brands with a highly engaged audience, delivering measurable results through a data-driven, unified platform.
› For Our Team: A global culture of collaboration. From Tokyo to San Francisco and New York, we prioritize simplicity and technical excellence as we navigate the evolving media landscape together.
Building the Future of Media
Behind the app is a diverse team of thinkers and creators committed to making the media landscape more agile and transparent. We aren't just aggregating news; we're refining how the world stays connected to the truth.
Behind our success stands a passionate global team working to provide a well-rounded news experience for every reader. Earning thousands of 5-star ratings, we continue to grow by staying true to our mission of accessibility and value.
Experience the future of news: about.smartnews.com
Offices: 2F Ichigo Jingumae Building, 6-25-16 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan 1500001, JP · 110 E 25th St, New York, NY 10010, US · 291 Alma St, Palo Alto, California 94301, US · Nishiumeda Breeze Tower SYNTH, 2-4-9 Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka, 530-0001, JP · 109 North Bridge Road, Funan, #05-21, Singapore, 179097, SG
How many Software jobs are open in Shibuya, Japan right now?
There are currently 49 open software positions in Shibuya, Japan listed on Clera. New openings are added daily as companies post roles.
Which companies are hiring for Software roles in Shibuya, Japan?
Companies currently hiring include HENNGE, SmartNews, Manulife, CoStar Group, CyberU, Inc., among others. Browse the listings above to see every active employer.
Are there remote or hybrid Software jobs in Shibuya, Japan?
Yes — 42 of the 49 open software positions offer remote or hybrid work (18 remote, 24 hybrid).
How do I apply for Software jobs in Shibuya, Japan?
Each listing links directly to the employer's application page. Apply early — fresh listings get the most recruiter attention in the first two weeks.