BJAK is seeking a Founding Lead AI Engineer to join our team in Japan. In this hands-on technical leadership role, you will design, build, and deploy core AI systems that power financial services across Southeast Asia. You will report directly to the Head of AI, contributing to strategic direction, mentoring engineers, and shipping production code.
What You'll Do
- Design, build, and ship production-grade ML models for high-impact use cases.
- Lead model architecture, data pipeline design, and deployment strategies.
- Collaborate across product, engineering, and data teams to drive AI initiatives.
- Own the end-to-end ML lifecycle from data preparation to deployment and monitoring.
- Review code, guide projects, and mentor engineers through technical challenges.
- Champion experimentation, continuous learning, and AI best practices.
- Interview and evaluate candidates, contributing to technical hiring and team building.
- Stay ahead of ML advancements and bring cutting-edge solutions into production.
What We're Looking For
- Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
- 4–6 years of experience in AI/ML engineering with real-world deployment experience.
- Strong Python skills and deep familiarity with ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn).
- Solid understanding of the end-to-end ML lifecycle: data pipelines, training, validation, monitoring.
- Experience working on applied AI problems (e.g., recommendation, fraud, risk, NLP, etc.).
- Track record of technical leadership and mentoring engineers.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
- Must be based in Japan and open to working remotely with regional teams.
Nice to Have
- Experience with MLOps tooling (e.g., MLflow, Airflow, Docker, GCP/AWS).
- Familiarity with responsible AI practices (fairness, interpretability, model governance).
- Startup or scale-up environment experience.
- Exposure to building internal tools, reusable ML components, or AI platforms.
Technical Stack
- Languages & Frameworks: Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn
- MLOps & Infrastructure: MLflow, Airflow, Docker, GCP, AWS
Team & Environment
You will report directly to the Head of AI. The team operates within a collaborative, flat culture where ideas move fast and great work gets noticed.
Benefits & Compensation
- Competitive salary and performance-based bonuses.
- Fully remote and flexible work arrangement from anywhere in Japan.
- High ownership role with impact visible at a regional scale.
- Direct reporting line to Head of AI with exposure to senior leadership.
- Opportunity to lead and shape a growing AI engineering team.
- Fast-track career growth and learning opportunities in a high-speed environment.
- Collaborative, flat culture where ideas move fast and great work gets noticed.
Work Mode
This is a fully remote position for candidates based in Japan. You will work remotely with teams across the Southeast Asia region.
BJAK is an equal opportunity employer.