Rakuten-trained engineer who joined AWS Toronto support after a 9-month search
Kota combined NLP research (Yahoo! Japan) and Rakuten app engineering with spouse-linked Canadian work authorization, then joined AWS Toronto Analytics support after ~9 months.
サポートエンジニア · Toronto · AWS
Profile
Kota is a support engineer at AWS in Toronto (Analytics), supporting Japanese customers. Age band: 20s. STEM graduate path with research and product engineering background.
Current role
Technical support engineer at AWS Toronto on an Analytics team, primarily helping Japanese enterprise customers (services such as OpenSearch and Amazon Redshift mentioned).
Japan experience
Prior experience. Science-track undergrad and graduate study in natural language processing; research internship ~1 year at Yahoo! Japan (now LINE Yahoo) lab via advisor, including a published paper. Joined Rakuten in 2020 as an application engineer (~3 months Java web training, then Rakuten Bic consumer e-commerce features) in a bilingual/English-heavy multinational team. Left after roughly two years at Rakuten to pursue overseas engineering (overseas PM path available there did not match his goal). Also contributed small PRs to the WeVote project during a San Francisco language study period.
Path to Canada / North America
Moved to Canada in July 2023 on an open work permit tied to his spouse’s public-college studies (rules have since changed). Continued remote contract work with Japanese web company Enigmo while job hunting locally. About nine months of search through a weak 2023–early 2024 market; expanded networking and received another offer via a CTO connection. AWS manager reached out on LinkedIn for a Japanese-capable support role; profile noted Canadian residence and work authorization.
Outcome
Offer from AWS after ~9 months in Canada (offer around March the following year). Continues in Analytics support with interest in later SRE/data paths.
Based on Frog’s Japanese-language interview. English summary for scanning (partners / employers). Original interview (Japanese)