Machine Learning Engineer, Search ML (Tokyo – Visa & Relocation Provided)

Mercari is Japan's first unicorn startup and the country's most widely used peer-to-peer marketplace. The group spans Mercari, Merpay (fintech) and Mercoin (crypto), and is one of the most established routes into Japanese tech for international engineers.

This position sits on the Search ML team — machine learning applied to search and discovery across a marketplace used at national scale, where relevance directly drives whether millions of listings find buyers.

Why this matters for anyone considering Japan

Mercari runs a documented relocation programme rather than an informal willingness to sponsor. Their careers site states the package covers obtaining your visa, shipping your belongings, booking your flight, and finding somewhere to live, with specifics confirmed at the offer stage.

Two points stand out:

• The package extends to partners and dependents aged 18 or under
• Mercari explicitly provides visa support for those in same-sex marriages and de-facto relationships, asking candidates to raise it early so it can be accommodated

That second point is unusually clear for Japan, where such recognition is not guaranteed.

New joiners are onboarded in English, and engineers go through DevDojo, Mercari's in-house technical training covering the group's development practices and tech stack.

Confirmed working conditions

• Employment status: full-time
• Work hours: full flextime, with no core time and no flexible time band
• Office: Roppongi, Tokyo
• Probationary period: first three months, on the same contract conditions as a permanent employee
• Mercari operates a work style policy called "Your Choice," under which members choose between working in the office or fully remotely, with exceptions for certain kinds of work

On the role detail

Mercari publishes full job descriptions through a careers page that loads dynamically, so the specific responsibilities, requirements and tech stack for this position are not reproducible here. Read the full description on the apply page before applying rather than relying on this summary.

What is confirmed: this is a machine learning engineering role focused on search, within a group operating consumer marketplace and fintech products at national scale.

Honest caveats

This is a Tokyo-based role, not remote-from-anywhere. It is filed under visa-sponsored rather than remote for that reason — the value is the route into living and working in Japan.

No salary figures are published. Japanese language ability is not stated as a requirement, and Mercari is among the more English-friendly employers in Tokyo, but confirm language expectations for your specific team during the process.

A note on the listings

This posting carries both English and Japanese job descriptions on the same page, with the English version first. If a Mercari listing opens in Japanese, scroll down — the English description usually follows.

Applications go through Mercari's own Workable careers system.