Takuya Kitazawa

I build data-driven products end-to-end, from user research to production, across Amazon-scale global platforms and low-resource environments in Sub-Saharan Africa.

  • 9+ years across B2C, B2B, and non-profit sectors worldwide
  • Published specialist in recommender systems and applied machine learning
  • Proven ability to translate real-world constraints into scalable system design

Work

2022/09 – Present

Product Developer (Independent)

Self-employed in Canada

Design and build AI/data products with diverse clients.

Selected engagements:

  • Mobile learning product in Sub-Saharan Africa: Led end-to-end Android app development from research to deployment, shaping UX for low-literacy and offline usage
  • ML/NLP pipelines for enterprise SaaS: Designed scalable data pipelines supporting large-scale analytics and product integration
  • Startup data-driven decision support: Optimized analytics infrastructure for dynamic pricing and supply chain management
  • Mentorship in product development: Partnered with mid-career professionals transitioning to data/product roles

2023/08 – 2025/12

ICT Advisor & Acting Director

Emerge Livelihoods (formerly Mzuzu E-Hub), Mzuzu, Malawi

Led digital product and infrastructure strategy in a limited-resource environment.

  • Owned mobile e-learning product prioritizing rapid iteration, local adaptation, and sustainability
  • Conducted in-field user research → translated into service design under real-world constraints
  • Improved website performance by 50% (Lighthouse) via data-driven optimization
  • Led capability assessment → defined multi-year roadmap aligned with mission and operational realities
  • Managed team of 5-10 local professionals, coordinating technical and program stakeholders

2021/08 – 2022/08

Software Development Engineer - Personalization

Amazon, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Worked on large-scale personalization systems in e-commerce.

  • Contributed to "Buy Again" recommendation system used by millions of customers globally
  • Built production-grade data pipelines and frontend components for repeat-purchase personalization
  • Conducted cross-regional A/B testing in high-scale production environments

2020/10 – 2021/08

Senior Product Manager

Treasure Data, Tokyo, Japan → Vancouver, BC, Canada

Led product development for enterprise customer data platform (B2B).

  • Delivered no-code tools for data visualization, A/B testing, and predictive modeling
  • Conducted user interviews and analyzed usage data → prioritized features by business impact
  • Developed reusable product templates enabling scalable data utilization

2020/02 – 2020/09

Product Manager

2019/04 – 2020/01

Staff Engineer

2018/08 – 2019/03

Senior Engineer

Arm (Treasure Data), Tokyo, Japan

Bridged product and engineering across global enterprise clients.

  • Led ML/IoT solutions for retail, gaming, manufacturing, and public sector across 3 regions
  • Co-developed multi-touch attribution product with researchers (concept → validation → delivery)
  • Coordinated cross-functional teams across regions (engineering, design, customer success)
  • Contributed to Forrester Wave™ recognition (Customer Analytics Technologies, Q3 2020)
  • Owned developer tool used by hundreds of data scientists, driving rapid adoption

2017/02 – 2018/07

Data Science Engineer

Treasure Data (acquired by Arm; later spun out), Tokyo, Japan

  • Led OSS-based ML integration into enterprise analytics platform
  • Owned full lifecycle: requirements → implementation → onboarding → iteration
  • Worked with sales and customer success to align product with real-world needs

2015/08 – 2016/06

Part-time Software Engineer

Rakuten Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

Python PHP Recommender Systems

Algorithm research in e-commerce personalization: Developed recommendation algorithms for online golf booking service. Conducted assessments and proposed improvements based on baseline study.

2012/02 – 2013/02

Part-time Software Engineer

HANASAKE PICTURES, Fukushima, Japan

Objective-C PHP Image Processing

Multi-platform B2C software development: Developed PHP applications for avatar-based social networking and iOS app for virtual trial fitting using Poisson Image Blending.

2011/10 – 2013/03

Part-time Research Assistant / Web Developer

The University of Aizu, Fukushima, Japan

Ruby on Rails Data Visualization GIS

Research tool development: Led development of Ruby on Rails web application for regional weather monitoring with interactive geospatial data visualization using d3.js.

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Education

2015/04 – 2017/03

Master of Information Science and Technology

The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Thesis: Persistently Cold-Starting Online Item Recommendation for Implicit Feedback Data | GPA: 4.0 | Credential: WES Verified

Experience: ML Summer School Kyoto 2015, student volunteer at RecSys 2016

R&D intern at Silver Egg Technology: Developed online recommendation algorithm

ML intern at Treasure Data: OSS for scalable ML, anomaly detection system

2011/04 – 2015/03

B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering

The University of Aizu, Fukushima, Japan

Thesis: User Modeling in Folksonomies: Relational Clustering and Tag Weighting | GPA: 3.97

Honors: President's Award (Summa Cum Laude, 2015), Dean's List (2012–2015), Best Paper Prize IEEE Sendai (2014), Innovative Award Business Plan Competition (2012)

Activities: TA Numerical Analysis (20+ students), Security & Programming Camp (2011)