Applied AI Engineer

IGSA is an AI company born out of the Matsuo-Iwasawa Lab at the University of Tokyo. Like tatami woven from igusa rushes, we pursue sustainable happiness through AI systems that support society warmly, softly, and from beneath.

This position joins IGSA X, a hands-on transformation program that redesigns how businesses and organizations work, with AI as the premise. We do not stop at introducing tools: from rapid implementation with AI coding to embedding the change into daily operations and the organization, we take charge end to end. We are neither a business-transformation consultancy nor a system development vendor. By designing operations and systems to evolve together, and accompanying clients through to internalization, an AI-native organization and its processes remain inside the client even after the project ends.

IGSA itself runs its own management and development AI-natively, and transplants that expertise to clients. Learn more about IGSA X: https://x.igsa.co.jp/

IGSA is looking for an Applied AI Engineer to rebuild the development process of our enterprise system projects into an AI-native one. You will lead the upstream phase — turning ambiguous client requests into requirements and experience design — to reduce back-and-forth and raise both delivery quality and speed.

The initial scope is the upstream phase (verbalizing requests, defining requirements, and designing the experience) of a specific project. As results come in, the role expands into AI-enabling the development process itself with Claude Code skills and harnesses and transplanting those workflows to the team, and potentially leading the IGSA X business down the road.

• Lead the upstream phase of client projects: turning requests into requirements and experience design
• Own delivery quality, including the UX perspective
• AI-enable the development process with Claude Code skills and harnesses (expanding in stages based on results)
• Transplant the workflows you build to team members (expanding in stages based on results)

• Experience shipping a product and running the post-release improvement loop yourself
• Experience in requirements definition turning ambiguous requests into specs and screens (including client-facing negotiation and consensus-building on the user experience)
• A track record of embedding LLM agents (such as Claude Code) into your own development process — we will ask you to show the real thing in the interview
• Practical web application development skills (TypeScript / React, etc.)

• Experience moving things forward past objections from clients or internal stakeholders
• Experience with design systems and UX design
• Experience working with consensus-heavy clients such as enterprises and local governments
• Interest in eventually going full-time or leading the business

• You know where the last mile of development gets stuck, and can design workflows that eliminate those bottlenecks
• You use AI not just as a tool to try out, but as a means of production embedded in your own process
• You can persuade and convince people, and move things forward
• You resonate with our purpose of pursuing sustainable happiness

• Casual chat (please show us real examples of how you have AI-enabled your own development process)
• Paid trial (starting from an ambiguous, real-project-like request, you will produce clarifying questions, requirements, and a working prototype)
• The first month starts as a tightly scoped contract engagement, expanding in stages

If you are interested, feel free to start with a casual chat. It helps if you can bring skills, harnesses, or development workflows you have built and can talk through.