Job Description:
LOCATION:
This internship can be based in San Francisco, San Mateo, or NYC, but it is also eligible for remote employment in the following states: CA and NY
SUMMARY
At Rakuten Advertising, we're on a mission to revolutionize the Ad Tech and Affiliate business using cutting-edge technology.
As a Data Scientist with us, you'll have the unique opportunity to work with an ocean of data - think hundreds of millions of data events daily! Your creativity and skills will help keep us at the forefront of the online advertising world.
The objective of our team is to suggest solutions to the problematics inherently linked to the online advertising ecosystem with a priority on affiliate advertising.
Coupling a willingness to understand the business’ inner-workings to the use of the latest technologies, we have worked on topics that range from forecasting to recommendation systems, and from anomaly detection to regression, all with the purpose of solidifying Rakuten Advertising’s position as a leader in online advertising.
The development of these solutions is closely related to several fields of study:
Machine Learning and Statistics.
Customer behavior analysis and performance prediction.
Data Analytics.
Big Data Management.
Rakuten Advertising is looking for a Data Science Intern to join its teams in its US offices for a 2-month internship.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Explore Machine Learning and Deep Learning methods to build and improve our in-house tools and models.
Develop prompts for text generative AI to use their full potential for our needs.
Mine text and image content in our internal advertising datasets and perform practical statistical analysis to identify new relevant indicators and business trends.
Design (and supervise) experiments and draw significant conclusions aimed at improving our understanding of the affiliate business.
Collaborate companywide on product requirements to maximize customer satisfaction and to build prototypes and features for models while maintaining a clean codebase.
Effectively communicate your analysis and findings through interactive visualizations, documents and presentations.
Write detailed and precise documentation of your work.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities)
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.
The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Interest in e-commerce and new technologies.
Experience in using Machine Learning methods (NLP, LLM, Image Recognition, Prompt Engineering is preferred).
Good knowledge of Python and SQL.
Strong statistics and mathematical skills.
Good conversational and written English skills for presentation, documentation and discussion.
QUALIFICATIONS
Currently pursuing a degree in Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics or Applied Mathematics, or a related field graduating in 2026.
Eligible to a 2-month internship with an internship agreement.
Relevant prior internship experience (preferred).
At the time of posting, Rakuten expects the hourly rate for this role will be between $25 - $35 per hour.
Individual compensation will vary based on job-related factors, including the skills, qualifications, and experience of the successful candidate as well as business need and geographic location.
Five Principles for Success
Our worldwide practices describe specific behaviors 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
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 succeed in unknown territory
Maximize Customer Satisfaction - The greatest satisfaction for our teams is seeing their customers smile
Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! - Always be conscious of time - take charge, set clear goals, and engage your team
Rakuten provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type.
Rakuten considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, provincial or local laws.