Job Description:
Business Overview
The Ad & Media Company provides advertising and marketing services, including digital advertising, market research, and influencer marketing.
A key strength of the company is its ability to offer end-to-end solutions covering every aspect of marketing - from upstream strategic planning to downstream execution, such as ad operations, performance measurement, and data analysis.
Our marketing-related operations encompass a wide range of businesses, including "Rakuten Marketing/LinkShare" (providing comprehensive digital marketing solutions), "Rakuten Data Marketing" (offering solutions that leverage Rakuten’s proprietary big data), and "Rakuten Insight" (providing market research services).
This environment allows you to work within a core division of the Rakuten Group while fostering your own professional growth and career advancement.
Department Overview
Backed by the extensive resources of the Rakuten Group, Rakuten Insight Global provides online research services to companies worldwide. Operating as the global headquarters overseeing 11 locations across the globe, the company is aggressively driving expansion from Japan into international markets.
Our greatest strength lies in possessing one of Asia’s largest proprietary panel data infrastructures; moving forward, we intend to accelerate the development of next-generation research products by fully leveraging this asset.
To achieve further global market expansion, we are accelerating the growth of our network panels and intensifying strategic procurement efforts. This team serves as the core organization driving these initiatives.
Position:
Why We Hire
As the demand for research in global markets grows, our reliance on "external panels" to complement our proprietary panels has increased year by year. However, our current method of individual, ad-hoc purchasing fails to optimize procurement costs, creating a factor that puts pressure on business profitability.
We are now entering a phase where we aim to resolve these procurement inefficiencies and fundamentally overhaul our supplier strategy. We are seeking a manager candidate capable of leading "strategic sourcing" - an approach that goes beyond mere cost reduction to optimize the balance between quality and cost - thereby strengthening the medium - to long-term revenue foundation of Rakuten Insight Global.
・Lead sourcing strategies that drive business profitability
Sourcing costs and quality directly impact business profitability. You will have significant autonomy to handle everything from strategy formulation to negotiation and execution.
・Career growth from sourcing strategy to business development
After achieving results in improving existing sourcing operations, you can take on challenges such as automating API-based sourcing or launching new respondent supply models (aggregated panels) through partnerships with external services.
・Leverage Rakuten’s extensive assets and technology
You can create new sourcing mechanisms by utilizing the Rakuten Group’s assets and technologies, such as AI.
・Access to one of Asia’s largest research panels
You can design an optimal supply portfolio by combining our proprietary panels - among the largest in Asia - with external panels.
Position Details
You will lead the end-to-end process of external panel sourcing-from strategy formulation to execution - aiming to optimize the balance of cost, quality, and speed.
While current operations focus on individual procurement per project, you will be responsible for building a "strategic sourcing framework" that achieves both cost reduction and quality improvement through data analysis and internal collaboration.
・Analyze unit prices, usage volumes, and quality by supplier to optimize procurement costs
・Supplier selection and evaluation (credit management, structuring terms of trade, Salesforce registration)
・Negotiation and progress management of annual contracts with major suppliers
・Establishing quality…