Title: Senior Software Engineer
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Reporting To: Group Technology Director, R/GA Japan
Direct Reports: None initially / potential future line management responsibilities
Other Key Relationships:
- Japan Production Team,
- Japan Design and UX Team
- Japan Strategy, Creative, Experience Design, Technology and Production Leads
- APAC and Global Technology Team
About the Role
R/GA Tokyo is looking for a Senior Software Engineer to join our team of engineers who are passionate about frontend development and innovative digital consumer experiences.
As Senior Software Engineer, you will work closely with multi-disciplinary teams including technology, production, experience and visual design, strategy and client services to help architect, design, estimate, build and deliver technology-based experiences and solutions for our clients.
Your role is hands-on, with a focus on bringing concepts and experiences to life through world-class coding, working in close collaboration with teams to build and deliver successfully (meaning in time, within budget and according to team and client expectations). You are expected to stay up to date on the latest technologies, frameworks, patterns, tools and approaches and follow a modern, lean and smart approach.
The Ideal Candidate
You are a pro-active problem solver, able to work independently to figure out the best possible solution within established constraints and requirements, as well as a collaborative team player. You want to be part of a strong senior team tackling innovative and high performing consumer experiences. You are comfortable working within an international team, collaborating across disciplines.
Key qualifications we will be looking for
- Someone who is knowledgeable about HTML and CSS/SASS and JavaScript/TypeScript and can educate the team on new and emerging features. You are someone who is knowledgeable about libraries and frameworks but is also comfortable hand crafting HTML/CSS/JavaScript.
- Someone who works well with others, including designers and project managers and clients. We are a small and highly collaborative team and open communication and respect for one another is very important to us.
- Someone who loves the process of defining and building web experiences and solving complex problems. The job entails building web experiences every day of every week, sometimes starting from scratch and sometimes maintaining an existing site. It’s important to enjoy every step of the process, from learning what problems we want to solve, to brainstorming and prototyping ideas on how to solve them, to the actual implementation.
- Someone who is comfortable with Typescript and understands single-page app architecture and enjoys learning new frameworks and technologies.
- Someone who can take charge when necessary and find the right person to answer questions, can document processes to handover to other developers, and can work independently when required.
- Someone who is always experimenting and doesn’t wait to be told what to do. Someone who strives to find opportunities to introduce new ideas, and works with the team to come up with clever solutions.
Anything else you need to know, we will teach you.
We want you to succeed in this role. Over the years we’ve observed some qualities that will improve your chances of liking your job:
- You are comfortable with English. We’re a diverse team, each member is from a different country, and English is our common language, and most of our clients are English speaking. Not everyone understands every word, but you will want to be comfortable sharing your opinion on a topic in English.
- You are already living in Japan and have permission to work in Japan.
- You prefer a challenge over doing the same thing every day. You get satisfaction from going from not knowing how to solve a task to solving it in a way that your fellow devs will admire.
- You like being someone people can depend on, whether it’s taking on a task by yourself, or being someone people can go to for an answer, or being someone who can explore different approaches and report back to the team.
- You are able to commute to our office in Ebisu. We have a flexible hybrid working system allowing our teams to partially work from home at the discretion of the company.
- You have an active github account or can show us code that you’re written yourself. Showing us the kind of work you can do without AI assistance will show us your skills and avoid needing to have a technical test.
- You can speak at length about a technology that you are currently interested in and are passionate about.
- Japanese speaking/reading ability is a plus.
WHY R/GA
R/GA Japan offers the chance to do work that sits where creativity, technology and business growth meet, shaping meaningful partnerships and commercially impactful experiences for some of the world’s most iconic Japanese and global brands. It is a place for ambitious, bilingual professionals who want more than mechanical software programming: the opportunity to drive growth, solve complex client challenges, and work across strategy, design, experience, technology and production in a truly international environment. With close collaboration across Japan and our global network, R/GA gives our teams the platform, trust and range to make a real mark.
At R/GA, how we work is as important as what we build. Regardless of title, every team member brings these Signature Behaviours to life.
Make Things Happen — Ownership, momentum, and adaptability.
Make Things Together — Cross-functional collaboration, openness to feedback, and building on shared ideas.
Make Things New — Experimentation, fresh perspectives, and questioning the default.
Make Things Matter — Intentionality, craft, precision, and delivering lasting impact.
No-matter who you are, where you’re from, who you love, follow in faith, disability (or superpower) status, ethnicity or the gender you identify with (please do tell us your pronouns), you're welcome at R/GA. If you have any requests or requirements to support you throughout any interview process, please do let us know.