Meet the people at CADDi. Discover their diverse backgrounds, why they joined, and the work they do at CADDi.

Naoki Yasumoto

I worked at a chemical manufacturer, where I was involved in manufacturing process development. My work included scaling up research成果 for production, applying them to mass-production processes, and improving manufacturing processes based on production data. I joined CADDi in 2022, and I am currently involved in product development for the manufacturing industry as an AI engineer.

Background

In my previous role, while working on process development in manufacturing settings, I came to want to be involved in services that could deliver value not just to a single company, but to a much broader range of manufacturers. I was also drawn to the idea of combining rapidly advancing AI technologies with manufacturing expertise to create entirely new mechanisms and value. I felt that CADDi offered an environment where I could leverage both my understanding of manufacturing and my software skills to make an impact on the industry as a whole, which is why I joined the company in 2022.

Why I joined CADDi

I have been engaged in application development and machine learning model development using manufacturing data. Currently, I am responsible for developing features that leverage LLMs, as well as designing their operational workflows. I work with unstructured data such as technical drawings and focus on designing and implementing workflows that use AI to structure that data and connect it to business value. Drawing on my previous experience in manufacturing, I continuously evaluate and improve products in the context of customers’ actual operations, while working on product development that can be used sustainably in the field.

My work at CADDi

Kanako Shimizu

After transitioning from a career in hairstyling to the IT industry, I began working in testing and quality assurance. I have a strong interest in Agile and Scrum and have participated in and helped organize related conferences.I joined CADDi in March 2024 as a QA engineer.

I joined CADDi because I was strongly drawn to its mission to unleash the potential of manufacturing. I believe everyone has potential within them, and that the desire to grow is what connects to that potential. I was excited by the idea of working on a product that can engage with that desire for growth and help turn it into real execution power.

Takeshi Matsuda

I spent more than 10 years at NTT Communications, where I was involved in the Internet Service Provider (ISP) business. During that time, I took on a variety of roles, including network, infrastructure, and software engineer, as well as Product Manager (PdM), Project Manager (PjM), and Engineering Manager (EM). I joined CADDi as a member of the Platform Group and currently serve as the Engineering Manager for multiple teams, including SRE and QA. Outside of work, I enjoy a fulfilling life in the countryside with my wife and children. Since I commute to the office by Shinkansen, my biggest dilemma is having to leave drinking gatherings early to catch the last train, even though I love drinking.

I spent more than 10 years at the same company while taking on a variety of roles and responsibilities. As I started looking for a new challenge and opportunities for growth, a recruitment agency introduced me to CADDi. At first, I had only heard of CADDi by name. However, after learning about its ambitious mission to transform what could be considered a legacy industry and seeing that it had attracted many highly motivated and talented people, I found the company extremely appealing. Another key factor in my decision was that I saw many parallels with my previous experience. At my former company, a well-established ISP with more than 25 years of history, I worked to drive change by introducing in-house software development. Although the industries are different, I felt that the challenge and mindset were very similar.

I currently serve as the Engineering Manager for several teams, including the Workflow Engine team (which powers large-scale data processing behind Drawer), SRE, and QA. While I occasionally get involved in hands-on technical work—such as troubleshooting network issues, managing infrastructure capacity, or maintaining shared CI/CD assets—I primarily focus on people management, setting strategic direction for teams, and driving cross-functional collaboration. My role is centered on taking a broader perspective to help both the business and the engineering organization grow. On a related note, one thing I truly appreciated after joining CADDi was the thoughtful onboarding process. I was given about three months to ramp up as an Engineering Manager, which was an invaluable experience. Although I had prior experience with technologies such as cloud infrastructure and CI/CD, there was still a great deal to learn—both technically and in terms of how the teams operated. Working alongside the team on the same day-to-day tasks also allowed me to build trust with my teammates, and looking back, I believe that was an essential part of becoming an effective Engineering Manager.

Yuji Kishimoto

I majored in Management Engineering at the Graduate School of Waseda University. After joining DeNA as a new graduate, I worked as a mobile game director and producer before moving into corporate strategy, where I was involved in projects including M&A such as the acquisition of Yokohama Stadium. I then took on a wide range of roles across different organizations, including serving as an executive officer at a startup, driving new business initiatives and corporate planning at a private equity fund, and later working as CSO at the product comparison service mybest. Driven by a desire to create deeper value for the manufacturing industry, I joined CADDi in 2025 as VP of Product Strategy.

I majored in Management Engineering at the Graduate School of Waseda University. After joining DeNA as a new graduate, I worked as a mobile game director and producer before moving into corporate strategy, where I was involved in projects including M&amp;A such as the acquisition of Yokohama Stadium. I then took on a wide range of roles across different organizations, including serving as an executive officer at a startup, driving new business initiatives and corporate planning at a private equity fund, and later working as CSO at the product comparison service mybest. Driven by a desire to create deeper value for the manufacturing industry, I joined CADDi in 2025 as VP of Product Strategy.

I felt it was worth dedicating my time to an environment where I could pursue both CADDi’s mission of “unlocking the potential of the manufacturing industry” and a high standard of business results in the global market. I was also drawn to a place where the company makes tough decisions for management and the organization, such as business integration, while at the same time facing every client with sincerity and moving boldly as one team to deliver outstanding results. I felt that this environment would allow me to see a landscape I could not yet see on my own.

The first project I took on after joining was updating our product strategy. As we worked to shape it for presentation at the company kickoff three months later, through discussions not only with the executive team but also with members involved in the product, I found it refreshing to be in an environment where people can engage in open, flat discussions focused on the issue at hand, regardless of when they joined or what their background is. Right now, I am working on two fronts: driving execution and monitoring of the strategy, while also exploring elements for future updates. At the same time, I stay close to customer touchpoints and work in a hands-on way to ensure the strategy does not remain just a plan on paper.

Akito Kobayashi

I joined a telecommunications systems integrator in 2010 and worked as an engineering lead mainly in infrastructure, backend, and DevOps. In July 2020, I joined the Platform SRE team at a fashion e-commerce company, where I worked on a system replacement while also serving as an SRE responsible for developing and operating the microservices platform. From 2021, I also served as an engineering manager, leading initiatives such as team splitting and team building as the organization grew. I joined CADDi's Platform Team in 2024.

I joined a telecommunications systems integrator in 2010 and worked as an engineering lead mainly in infrastructure, backend, and DevOps. In July 2020, I joined the Platform SRE team at a fashion e-commerce company, where I worked on a system replacement while also serving as an SRE responsible for developing and operating the microservices platform. From 2021, I also served as an engineering manager, leading initiatives such as team splitting and team building as the organization grew. I joined CADDi&#39;s Platform Team in 2024.

After working for several years at my previous company, I began to feel that my own level of enthusiasm was lacking compared with the people around me. That led me to start looking for a place with more chaos—in the best possible sense—and full of challenges, somewhere I could truly immerse myself. The first trigger was being approached by the then leader of the CADDi Platform Team during that search. What ultimately convinced me, though, was my deep empathy for both the mission and the product. CADDi's mission is to unleash the potential of manufacturing, and since I have long enjoyed working on improving developer productivity—essentially, unleashing the potential of developers themselves—it resonated with me strongly. I was also deeply moved by a note article by product leader Shirai that I read during the interview process. That strong sense of alignment is what finally led me to join CADDi.

After working for several years at my previous company, I began to feel that my own level of enthusiasm was lacking compared with the people around me. That led me to start looking for a place with more chaos—in the best possible sense—and full of challenges, somewhere I could truly immerse myself. The first trigger was being approached by the then leader of the CADDi Platform Team during that search. What ultimately convinced me, though, was my deep empathy for both the mission and the product. CADDi&#39;s mission is to unleash the potential of manufacturing, and since I have long enjoyed working on improving developer productivity—essentially, unleashing the potential of developers themselves—it resonated with me strongly. I was also deeply moved by a note article by product leader Shirai that I read during the interview process. That strong sense of alignment is what finally led me to join CADDi.

Since joining CADDi, I have worked as a member of the Platform Team on initiatives such as reviewing the Production Readiness Checklist, improving incident response, monitoring and runbooks, introducing Datadog DBM, and improving documentation for developers. Since July 2024, I have been focusing on the reliability of Drawer as an SRE.

Yusuke Yamamoto

I started my career as a programmer and went on to build experience as a full-stack engineer across infrastructure, information systems, and front-end engineering. I spent ten years planning, designing, building, and operating B2B cloud services. I also established a security organization, leading initiatives in security measures, CSIRT setup and operations, risk management, privacy management, and DevSecOps. After joining CADDi in 2024, I have primarily focused on strengthening security.

Through casual meetings and formal interviews, I came to clearly understand how CADDi is positioned to address the structural challenges facing Japan's manufacturing industry. This generated genuine excitement about the service, and I became convinced that I could play a meaningful role in enhancing the company's security posture by applying my experience. Although I had received offers from other companies and gave the decision careful consideration, I ultimately chose to prioritize the excitement I felt about CADDi's mission and decided to join.

Through casual meetings and formal interviews, I came to clearly understand how CADDi is positioned to address the structural challenges facing Japan&#39;s manufacturing industry. This generated genuine excitement about the service, and I became convinced that I could play a meaningful role in enhancing the company&#39;s security posture by applying my experience. Although I had received offers from other companies and gave the decision careful consideration, I ultimately chose to prioritize the excitement I felt about CADDi&#39;s mission and decided to join.

I'm responsible for strengthening security at CADDi. To address the security challenges we face, I aim to identify and visualize these issues, develop concrete plans, and execute them. My goal is to enhance security across the entire organization and elevate security awareness throughout CADDi.

I&#39;m responsible for strengthening security at CADDi. To address the security challenges we face, I aim to identify and visualize these issues, develop concrete plans, and execute them. My goal is to enhance security across the entire organization and elevate security awareness throughout CADDi.

Hiroshi Yamaki

I started my career at Mitsubishi Chemical Systems, where I was primarily involved in the development and operation of production management systems. After gaining further experience at a systems integrator (SIer), I joined White Plus as a backend engineer and Engineering Manager, contributing to the development and operation of "Linet." Since joining CADDi in 2021, I have led the renewal of the order management system and the development of accounting modules for core system integration. Following a role as development leader for CADDi Drawer, I currently serve as the Head of Development for the AI-powered costing cloud, CADDi Quote.

I started my career at Mitsubishi Chemical Systems, where I was primarily involved in the development and operation of production management systems. After gaining further experience at a systems integrator (SIer), I joined White Plus as a backend engineer and Engineering Manager, contributing to the development and operation of &quot;Linet.&quot; Since joining CADDi in 2021, I have led the renewal of the order management system and the development of accounting modules for core system integration. Following a role as development leader for CADDi Drawer, I currently serve as the Head of Development for the AI-powered costing cloud, CADDi Quote.

Since the start of my career, I have been consistently involved in system development for the manufacturing industry and core systems for web services. A turning point came at my previous job when, despite an increase in management responsibilities, I realized I wanted to dedicate my technical skills and expertise more deeply to hands-on development. I chose CADDi because I am confident it is an environment where I can fully leverage my knowledge of both business systems and web technologies. In addition to my interest in modern technologies like Rust, I was strongly drawn to the scale of the mission: ""transforming the massive manufacturing industry."" The primary reason for my decision to join was my desire to apply my career experience to solving the challenges facing this vast industrial sector.

Since the start of my career, I have been consistently involved in system development for the manufacturing industry and core systems for web services. A turning point came at my previous job when, despite an increase in management responsibilities, I realized I wanted to dedicate my technical skills and expertise more deeply to hands-on development. I chose CADDi because I am confident it is an environment where I can fully leverage my knowledge of both business systems and web technologies. In addition to my interest in modern technologies like Rust, I was strongly drawn to the scale of the mission: &quot;&quot;transforming the massive manufacturing industry.&quot;&quot; The primary reason for my decision to join was my desire to apply my career experience to solving the challenges facing this vast industrial sector.

During my first year, I led the backend design and development for an order management system replacement project. Following this, I served as a team leader for the Warehouse Management System (WMS), where I drove product development to improve the integration between inventory and accounting. Ultimately, I led the development of the entire production management system, covering everything from order processing to accounting connectivity. In 2023, I transitioned into a management role as a Group Leader for "CADDi Drawer,""a manufacturing data utilization cloud. Currently, I serve as the Head of Development for "CADDi Quote," an AI-based estimating cloud launched in 2024. I have been consistently responsible for everything from technology selection to organizational management, adapting to system evolution as the business scales.

During my first year, I led the backend design and development for an order management system replacement project. Following this, I served as a team leader for the Warehouse Management System (WMS), where I drove product development to improve the integration between inventory and accounting. Ultimately, I led the development of the entire production management system, covering everything from order processing to accounting connectivity. In 2023, I transitioned into a management role as a Group Leader for &quot;CADDi Drawer,&quot;&quot;a manufacturing data utilization cloud. Currently, I serve as the Head of Development for &quot;CADDi Quote,&quot; an AI-based estimating cloud launched in 2024. I have been consistently responsible for everything from technology selection to organizational management, adapting to system evolution as the business scales.

Takayuki Fukuda

I started my career at Yahoo Japan as a backend engineer for mobile web services. From 2012, I led the development and operation of data platforms as a data engineer at Colopl, where I also gained team management experience. I later worked in data engineering at several SaaS companies. Beginning in 2021, I served as a solutions architect at Treasure Data, proposing the development and operation of customer data platforms. In 2024, I joined CADDi’s Data Management Team.

The birth of a new family member prompted me to rethink my career and strengthened my desire to do work that contributes to society. Around that time, I heard about CADDi from an acquaintance from my Colopl days and had a casual interview. I was deeply impressed by the challenge CADDi is taking on: transforming manufacturing, a field that is extremely difficult but also highly meaningful from a societal perspective. That made me feel strongly that this was the environment where I wanted to work.

I am responsible for the development and operation of the data platform, using tools and technologies such as dbt and BigQuery to design, build, and run a large-scale data foundation in a stable way. I also work to promote data utilization internally, actively supporting teams across the company so they can make effective use of the platform rather than simply building it. At the same time, I focus on delivering value to customers through data so that it can help solve their problems and drive business growth.

Hiroki Yamamoto

At GREE, Inc., I worked on the social gaming platform and later moved to Vietnam to help launch its development hub, eventually becoming the representative director of the local subsidiary.
Back in Japan, I joined UMITRON K.K., leading a team developing IoT services for the domestic aquaculture industry.
In 2022, I was inspired by CADDi’s fast-paced and large-scale expansion into Vietnam, which inspired me to take on a new challenge in the country once again. I now serve as Engineering Manager, overseeing the development organization at CADDi Vietnam.
Not a fan of cold weather—definitely Team Ho Chi Minh over Hanoi!

During my first assignment in Vietnam, I was involved in offshore development for clients in Japan. From launching the organization to managing development and business operations, I felt I had done everything I could in Vietnam at the time. However, when I learned about CADDi Vietnam, I realized there was still something I hadn’t accomplished.
In outsourcing development, our role typically ends at the implementation stage, the actual business challenges lie with the client. My experience had remained within that boundary, but I came to see the value in stepping beyond it.
Vietnamese software engineers contributing to their own company’s business through technology.
Building a development organization that maximizes that impact.
And doing all this in manufacturing, an industry where Vietnam has a competitive edge.
It felt like an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, and that’s why I decided to join CADDi.

I’m currently based in Ho Chi Minh City, overseeing the development organization of CADDi Vietnam, our local subsidiary. When I first joined CADDi, I focused on ramping up my technical skills as a Backend Engineer. However, my focus has since shifted toward management.
I want to build a global development organization where country names like "Japan ~" and "Vietnam ~" do not become the subject.

I’m currently based in Ho Chi Minh City, overseeing the development organization of CADDi Vietnam, our local subsidiary. When I first joined CADDi, I focused on ramping up my technical skills as a Backend Engineer. However, my focus has since shifted toward management.
I want to build a global development organization where country names like &quot;Japan ~&quot; and &quot;Vietnam ~&quot; do not become the subject.

Yosuke Shirai

I began my career at an ad tech company, where I spent three years in corporate sales of advertising products to advertisers and advertising agencies. I joined CADDi in 2019, where I served as a product manager for an in-house supply chain management product and was involved in launching a new business before taking up my current role.

I had long been concerned by the lack of globally competitive software products and businesses originating from Japan. At the same time, I recognized that software companies—particularly those building platform products—face a structural disadvantage compared with their North American counterparts, both in terms of customer and user demand and access to capital and engineering talent. This led me to believe that a Japanese company would need to find a different source of leverage—one rooted in assets and strengths unique to Japan. From that perspective, CADDi’s mission to address the structural challenges facing the manufacturing industry was especially compelling to me.

Since joining CADDi, I have held the following positions: (1) Product Manager for the company’s internal supply chain management products; (2) I launched the product that later evolved into CADDi Explorer as a new business venture; and (3) Chief Product Officer overseeing the entire product and operations.

Keina Kanisawa

I began my career as a game programmer. Since then, I have worked at companies of various sizes, gaining experience in contract-based web application development and SaaS product development. Throughout my career, I have primarily taken on leadership roles, including Project Manager, Product Manager, and Engineering Manager.

What first caught my attention was CADDi's mission: "Unleash the potential of the manufacturing industry." I've always had a deep respect for manufacturing, so I was immediately intrigued by the idea of contributing to its transformation. As I learned more about the company and spoke with the team during the interview process, I realized that my first impression was exactly right. Beyond the technical complexity of the challenges, there are also deep-rooted structural and cultural issues within the industry. What impressed me most was that CADDi wasn't simply a company chasing an impossibly ambitious vision. Instead, everyone genuinely believed that these incredibly difficult challenges were solvable—and was fully committed to making that happen. In the end, I asked myself, "How many opportunities like this will I have in my career?" That question ultimately convinced me to join CADDi.

What first caught my attention was CADDi&#39;s mission: &quot;Unleash the potential of the manufacturing industry.&quot; I&#39;ve always had a deep respect for manufacturing, so I was immediately intrigued by the idea of contributing to its transformation. As I learned more about the company and spoke with the team during the interview process, I realized that my first impression was exactly right. Beyond the technical complexity of the challenges, there are also deep-rooted structural and cultural issues within the industry. What impressed me most was that CADDi wasn&#39;t simply a company chasing an impossibly ambitious vision. Instead, everyone genuinely believed that these incredibly difficult challenges were solvable—and was fully committed to making that happen. In the end, I asked myself, &quot;How many opportunities like this will I have in my career?&quot; That question ultimately convinced me to join CADDi.

Since joining CADDi, I have been serving as the Engineering Manager of the team responsible for developing and operating our data platform. I also work as the PMO for cross-functional development projects, collaborating closely with teams across the organization to strengthen the foundation that supports CADDi's products and business. As an Engineering Manager, I am passionate about helping both the team and each individual member grow. Through people management, I strive to empower my team, bring out the best in every member, and support them in reaching their full potential.

Since joining CADDi, I have been serving as the Engineering Manager of the team responsible for developing and operating our data platform. I also work as the PMO for cross-functional development projects, collaborating closely with teams across the organization to strengthen the foundation that supports CADDi&#39;s products and business. As an Engineering Manager, I am passionate about helping both the team and each individual member grow. Through people management, I strive to empower my team, bring out the best in every member, and support them in reaching their full potential.

Takumi Sueyoshi

After graduating from university, I joined a systems integrator (SIer), where I supported telecommunications carrier clients by designing, building, and operating a wide range of infrastructure systems. In 2018, I shifted my focus to supporting manufacturing customers—primarily in the semiconductor and food processing equipment industries—by implementing traceability systems. Inspired by CADDi's mission to "Unleash the potential of the manufacturing industry," I joined the company in January 2025 as the Engineering Manager of the SRE team.

After graduating from university, I joined a systems integrator (SIer), where I supported telecommunications carrier clients by designing, building, and operating a wide range of infrastructure systems. In 2018, I shifted my focus to supporting manufacturing customers—primarily in the semiconductor and food processing equipment industries—by implementing traceability systems. Inspired by CADDi&#39;s mission to &quot;Unleash the potential of the manufacturing industry,&quot; I joined the company in January 2025 as the Engineering Manager of the SRE team.

Throughout my career at a systems integrator (SIer), I worked closely with customers to deliver the best possible solutions within their budgets and requirements. However, because of the nature of that role, there were often limits to how fully I could realize my customers' ideal solutions. I frequently found that frustrating, and over time, I developed a strong desire to move beyond simply delivering projects for clients and instead build products myself—products that could create direct value for end users. As I began looking for an opportunity where I could leverage my years of infrastructure experience, a recruiter introduced me to CADDi. Having worked with manufacturing customers for many years, I had firsthand experience with the complexity of the industry and the challenges involved in driving meaningful change. When I learned about CADDi's products and the technology behind them, I immediately saw their potential to solve many of those long-standing challenges and make a significant impact on the manufacturing industry. What ultimately convinced me to join CADDi was the opportunity not only to respond to customer needs, but also to build products with my own hands and contribute to transforming one of the world's largest industries. I felt that CADDi offered the perfect environment to take on a new challenge while applying the experience I had built throughout my career.

Throughout my career at a systems integrator (SIer), I worked closely with customers to deliver the best possible solutions within their budgets and requirements. However, because of the nature of that role, there were often limits to how fully I could realize my customers&#39; ideal solutions. I frequently found that frustrating, and over time, I developed a strong desire to move beyond simply delivering projects for clients and instead build products myself—products that could create direct value for end users. As I began looking for an opportunity where I could leverage my years of infrastructure experience, a recruiter introduced me to CADDi. Having worked with manufacturing customers for many years, I had firsthand experience with the complexity of the industry and the challenges involved in driving meaningful change. When I learned about CADDi&#39;s products and the technology behind them, I immediately saw their potential to solve many of those long-standing challenges and make a significant impact on the manufacturing industry. What ultimately convinced me to join CADDi was the opportunity not only to respond to customer needs, but also to build products with my own hands and contribute to transforming one of the world&#39;s largest industries. I felt that CADDi offered the perfect environment to take on a new challenge while applying the experience I had built throughout my career.

Since joining CADDi, I have been leading initiatives to improve the reliability of the services we provide as the Engineering Manager of the SRE team. Through people management, I also support the growth of the team while working on defining the SRE team's vision in alignment with the organization's overall strategy.

Since joining CADDi, I have been leading initiatives to improve the reliability of the services we provide as the Engineering Manager of the SRE team. Through people management, I also support the growth of the team while working on defining the SRE team&#39;s vision in alignment with the organization&#39;s overall strategy.

Kim Bjorkman

Originally from Stockholm, Sweden
Spent a couple of years studying marine biology
Digital Graphics Technical Degree 2012
CS Technical Degree 2014
Previously specialized in 3D graphics
Joined CADDi in September 2022 as a Frontend Engineer
Started working on the Workflow Engine team in 2023

I first learned about CADDi through a recruiting agent when I was looking for jobs in Japan.
It was a bit late in the journey and I had already gotten some offers from other companies, I was a bit skeptical in the beginning because I had no previous experience in the manufacturing industry. After talking to the members and learning about the effect CADDi's success could have on Japan as a whole, due to the size and importance of manufacturing here, I decided to join.

I first learned about CADDi through a recruiting agent when I was looking for jobs in Japan.
It was a bit late in the journey and I had already gotten some offers from other companies, I was a bit skeptical in the beginning because I had no previous experience in the manufacturing industry. After talking to the members and learning about the effect CADDi&#39;s success could have on Japan as a whole, due to the size and importance of manufacturing here, I decided to join.

After joining CADDi I was involved in building a couple of PoC projects, after those projects were shut down in favor of more promising ones I joined the Workflow Engine team as one of the first founding members. This new project was a big challenge since it was a big context switch from my earlier experiences, but I'm glad I accepted the challenge as it led to growth. Now I'm one of the people responsible for Drawer's ingestion pipeline.

After joining CADDi I was involved in building a couple of PoC projects, after those projects were shut down in favor of more promising ones I joined the Workflow Engine team as one of the first founding members. This new project was a big challenge since it was a big context switch from my earlier experiences, but I&#39;m glad I accepted the challenge as it led to growth. Now I&#39;m one of the people responsible for Drawer&#39;s ingestion pipeline.

Benjamin Smith

30 years of Software Engineering experience, a majority in a leadership role. Experience in scaling e-commerce systems, building IOT monitoring and command control systems for a manufacturing company from scratch, and building and scaling teams in HRTech. Now focused on helping CADDi's tech organization become more global and scalable.

30 years of Software Engineering experience, a majority in a leadership role. Experience in scaling e-commerce systems, building IOT monitoring and command control systems for a manufacturing company from scratch, and building and scaling teams in HRTech. Now focused on helping CADDi&#39;s tech organization become more global and scalable.

I like what CADDi is doing (their mission), how they are doing it (their culture), and the people I work with. It is a well established company with great market penetration and growth, but still operates as a start up with extreme flexibility in how decisions are made. I feel I've already made contributions in the first few months and I think most new joiners have the ability to do so if they put in solid effort!

I like what CADDi is doing (their mission), how they are doing it (their culture), and the people I work with. It is a well established company with great market penetration and growth, but still operates as a start up with extreme flexibility in how decisions are made. I feel I&#39;ve already made contributions in the first few months and I think most new joiners have the ability to do so if they put in solid effort!

I am focused on helping CADDi's tech organization become more global and scalable. Analyzing the hiring, onboarding, engagement, performance management, and promotion processes have been some of my earliest activities. I'm also working to build a stronger platform organization identity as CADDi makes more investments in becoming a Manufacturing Data Management platform.

I am focused on helping CADDi&#39;s tech organization become more global and scalable. Analyzing the hiring, onboarding, engagement, performance management, and promotion processes have been some of my earliest activities. I&#39;m also working to build a stronger platform organization identity as CADDi makes more investments in becoming a Manufacturing Data Management platform.

Shuhei Takeda

"After completing my studies in design at both undergraduate and graduate levels, I built my career across a Japanese manufacturer and three global IT companies. My experience spans UI/UX design, user research, service design leveraging design thinking, and facilitation of co-creation workshops.
At IBM Japan, I led solution design in advanced technology domains—particularly AI—for the manufacturing industry, working closely with clients to drive meaningful value creation.
I am recognized as an IPA Mitou Super Creator and also serve as a part-time lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts."

&quot;After completing my studies in design at both undergraduate and graduate levels, I built my career across a Japanese manufacturer and three global IT companies. My experience spans UI/UX design, user research, service design leveraging design thinking, and facilitation of co-creation workshops.
At IBM Japan, I led solution design in advanced technology domains—particularly AI—for the manufacturing industry, working closely with clients to drive meaningful value creation.
I am recognized as an IPA Mitou Super Creator and also serve as a part-time lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts.&quot;

"While working closely with manufacturing customers, I was strongly drawn to the depth and fascination of monozukuri. At the same time, I directly encountered the structural challenges that span multiple stages of the manufacturing process and realized how deeply rooted and difficult these problems are to solve.
Although I wanted to contribute to manufacturing through design, I also recognized the limitations of addressing such challenges through fragmented efforts alone.
In that context, I came across CADDi. I resonated with its vision of addressing the industry’s structural issues head-on, as well as the people and organization working to make that vision a reality. I felt that this environment offered the potential to truly engage with fundamental problems and create meaningful value, and I decided to join in order to be directly involved in that challenge."

&quot;While working closely with manufacturing customers, I was strongly drawn to the depth and fascination of monozukuri. At the same time, I directly encountered the structural challenges that span multiple stages of the manufacturing process and realized how deeply rooted and difficult these problems are to solve.
Although I wanted to contribute to manufacturing through design, I also recognized the limitations of addressing such challenges through fragmented efforts alone.
In that context, I came across CADDi. I resonated with its vision of addressing the industry’s structural issues head-on, as well as the people and organization working to make that vision a reality. I felt that this environment offered the potential to truly engage with fundamental problems and create meaningful value, and I decided to join in order to be directly involved in that challenge.&quot;

After joining CADDi in February 2026, I became involved from the launch phase of a new project and have been responsible for designing the user experience. In the early stage of the project, when the direction was still highly abstract and alignment had not yet been established among team members, I used design as a form of communication to help organize perspectives, build alignment, and drive the definition of the ideal experience and the value it should create. Since then, I have been working closely with product managers and engineers to lead UX design in a development environment moving at an unprecedented speed.

Ryuichi Kubo

At DeNA Life Science, I was involved in AI drug discovery projects, exploring the use of AI in drug discovery based on cheminformatics. In 2019, I joined Cykinso, Inc., and became CTO in 2021. With an eye toward IPO preparation and beyond, I established the corporate IT function, led HR initiatives such as recruitment and performance evaluation system design, and contributed to organizational growth and culture building. As the company entered a new phase, I stepped down as CTO in November 2023 and, as a Senior Manager, contributed to the business mainly through HR, the development and operation of a participatory science platform, and sales and planning for the B2B business. In March 2025, I joined CADDi Inc. as an Engineering Manager.

I came across CADDi while looking for my next role with a clear goal in mind: I wanted to build products where strong product management translates directly into real value for users. When an agent first introduced CADDi to me, I actually turned it down because I found it hard to picture how I would contribute. But as I continued talking with people in the interviews, my impression changed. No matter their role, everyone was consistently focused on craftsmanship and outcomes, and I was drawn to the ambition and perspective they brought. Most of all, I felt the organizational culture was truly faithful to the mission. Before long, I found myself naturally wanting to build great products here.

As an Engineering Manager in the AI for Application group, I work on delivering customer value by making use of the data accumulated at CADDi. Our mission is to understand the limitations of AI correctly, balance that with UI and UX considerations, and translate the best possible functionality into the product. In collaboration with product managers and designers, we are taking on two main challenges: faithfully realizing and validating the UX we aim for, and deploying and delivering proven technologies. We do not treat release as the end goal. What matters is continuously refining what we build so that it keeps fitting customer value even after launch.

Shunsuke Takei

I developed an e-book reader using browser technologies at a software company, then joined a startup at its founding stage as a developer, where I worked on services leveraging natural language processing and machine learning. After the company was acquired by a publicly listed firm with strengths in data analytics, I also became involved in data analysis. I later joined a medical DX startup as CTO, where I led in-house service development, drove IT initiatives such as introducing HIMS to overseas subsidiary medical facilities, and executed across areas including medical service planning and facility setup. After joining CADDi, I have primarily been engaged in management work, focusing on organizational leadership.

I love technology and strongly believe in its power to change the future. At the same time, my experience has taught me that impact is maximized not when a company is driven by technology alone, but when functions such as operations and sales are organically integrated and technology is seamlessly embedded into the mechanism that delivers value. I wanted to put that belief into practice, but in reality it is very difficult. Companies often end up either over-indexing on technology or treating it as something separate and borrowed, to the point where I sometimes felt that making it work would require going back to the roots of how the company was built. At CADDi, the CTO is one of the founders, so technology is treated as a crucial means. At the same time, if something tied to customer value cannot be solved by technology alone, the company is willing to build operations to address it—an approach that many conventional technology companies would not take. This way of thinking about technology as one of many methods for delivering customer value aligns closely with my own. I joined because I believed this organization would let me practice the kind of high-impact use of technology I have long envisioned.

After joining CADDi, I first worked as an engineering manager for the AI team, handling management responsibilities such as member development and hiring. Later, in the CTO Office, I worked across the technology organization to solve broader issues, including designing business processes and rebuilding evaluation systems. More recently, I have returned to the AI team as an engineering manager, where I continue leading member management while exploring how AI can create major impact on the value our products deliver.

McDade Conor

Prior to joining CADDi, I worked in Silicon Valley at Robinhood, as a member of the Developer Experience team, working on initiatives to make the engineering organization more productive and efficient. Before that, I worked at Amazon, where I worked on improving the performance of the operating system that runs on several of their devices, such as the Fire TV stick and Alexa speakers.

I felt fulfilled technically with my career in Silicon Valley and wanted to challenge myself in new ways. This is when I made the decision to move to Japan. With my previous experience of focusing on developer experience and productivity and with where CADDi was at in its growth, I felt this opportunity aligned perfectly with my skills and my goals. Through the interview process, I was impressed both the managers and ICs I had the opportunity to speak with. How CADDi handled the offer process was like nothing I ever experienced before and I was affirmed that accepting the offer was the right choice.

Immediately upon joining CADDi, I had the opportunity to contribute to several teams. As a member of the Workflow Engine team, I helped create infrastructure for a new product. I was then embedded in this team to build the rule engine for this new product. After completing this work, I was one of the founding members of the Platform Engineering team, where I've focused on Github org cleanup and governance. I've also worked on cookie cutter templates to help engineers bootstrap new projects. My current focus is integrating AI into these templates to enable engineers to create more diverse and robust applications.

Immediately upon joining CADDi, I had the opportunity to contribute to several teams. As a member of the Workflow Engine team, I helped create infrastructure for a new product. I was then embedded in this team to build the rule engine for this new product. After completing this work, I was one of the founding members of the Platform Engineering team, where I&#39;ve focused on Github org cleanup and governance. I&#39;ve also worked on cookie cutter templates to help engineers bootstrap new projects. My current focus is integrating AI into these templates to enable engineers to create more diverse and robust applications.

Akina Matsushima

After completing graduate school, I started my career as an infrastructure engineer. In November 2019, I joined Kurashiru Inc. as an SRE, focusing on resolving infrastructure technical debt and improving operations. I later transitioned to a backend engineer role, where I worked on Web/App API development, search accuracy improvements, and building systems to transform unstructured data into structured formats using LLMs. I also took on responsibilities as a Scrum Master, drove Agile development practices, and participated in engineering recruitment. In January 2026, I joined CADDi as an SRE.

I spent about six years at my previous company, where I was involved in a wide range of responsibilities — from infrastructure and backend development to team building and hiring. Over time, however, I began to feel that my growth as an engineer was plateauing. Additionally, my interests shifted, and I decided to make a career change driven by a desire to work on product development with greater social impact and more challenging problems to solve. I first connected with CADDi through a casual interview invitation via a job platform, and after a conversation with a former manager, I moved forward with the selection process. Throughout the interviews, I was inspired by CADDi's vision for the future, the difficulty of the challenges they are tackling, and the passion of the people. I felt a real possibility of building software that could become a global standard in manufacturing — one of Japan's greatest strengths — and that convinced me to join.

I spent about six years at my previous company, where I was involved in a wide range of responsibilities — from infrastructure and backend development to team building and hiring. Over time, however, I began to feel that my growth as an engineer was plateauing. Additionally, my interests shifted, and I decided to make a career change driven by a desire to work on product development with greater social impact and more challenging problems to solve. I first connected with CADDi through a casual interview invitation via a job platform, and after a conversation with a former manager, I moved forward with the selection process. Throughout the interviews, I was inspired by CADDi&#39;s vision for the future, the difficulty of the challenges they are tackling, and the passion of the people. I felt a real possibility of building software that could become a global standard in manufacturing — one of Japan&#39;s greatest strengths — and that convinced me to join.

Since joining CADDi, I have been working as a Drawer SRE, primarily focused on improving operational practices on the application side. Recently, as system and application complexity has grown, I have been driving initiatives to revamp our monitoring design and leverage AI to enhance operational efficiency.

Daigo Hiroka

After working as a machine learning engineer at a data analytics consulting company, I joined CADDi in December 2022 as part of the AI Lab MLOps Team, where I was involved in the development and operation of a machine-learning-based drawing analysis system. From 2023, I also worked as an SRE for CADDi Drawer, handling infrastructure maintenance and the promotion of SLI/SLO operations. In 2024, I moved to the Analysis Platform Group, where I once again focuses on MLOps as well as building inference infrastructure and ensuring reliability for machine learning systems.

As I considered changing jobs, I noticed that CADDi had started investing seriously in machine-learning-based drawing analysis and seemed to be attracting strong talent as well. One of my key criteria was that I wanted to be involved in building and operating a service that would continue growing globally. I could see that engineers and business-side members at CADDi were working together as one to drive the growth of the business. I felt strong potential in what the company could become and decided that I wanted to dive into that growth myself. Since joining as an engineer on CADDi Drawer and working on areas such as SRE and machine learning infrastructure, I have once again come to appreciate both the difficulty and the excitement of building a scalable service for a growing user base and expanding amounts of data. It is not an easy challenge, but it feels absolutely worth betting my engineering career on.

At CADDi Drawer, I contribute to engineering mainly from two angles: SRE and MLOps. As an SRE, I have worked to improve the service's reliability through infrastructure maintenance, the promotion of SLI/SLO operations, incident response, and emergency preparedness such as on-call systems. As an MLOps engineer, I work on the machine learning backend for drawing analysis and use my SRE experience to improve SLI/SLO and other non-functional requirements, all with the goal of building a scalable and highly reliable analysis platform. Looking ahead, we expect further growth in data volume, data types beyond drawings, and the range of analyses we want to support, so I intend to continue building out a scalable machine learning platform that can keep up with that expansion.

At CADDi Drawer, I contribute to engineering mainly from two angles: SRE and MLOps. As an SRE, I have worked to improve the service&#39;s reliability through infrastructure maintenance, the promotion of SLI/SLO operations, incident response, and emergency preparedness such as on-call systems. As an MLOps engineer, I work on the machine learning backend for drawing analysis and use my SRE experience to improve SLI/SLO and other non-functional requirements, all with the goal of building a scalable and highly reliable analysis platform. Looking ahead, we expect further growth in data volume, data types beyond drawings, and the range of analyses we want to support, so I intend to continue building out a scalable machine learning platform that can keep up with that expansion.

Ritwick Gupta

Engineering leader with 10+ years of experience building scalable backend systems and cloud-native platforms on GCP and AWS.
Currently Team Lead for the Workflow Engine Core Team at CADDi, driving architecture and platform development.
Previously led reverse ETL pipelines, observability tooling, and notification systems at Ford and other enterprise clients.
Skilled in SpringBoot, Python, Terraform, BigQuery, OpenSearch, and designing high-performance REST APIs.
Strong background in team leadership, DevOps, and stakeholder communication.
Based in Osaka, Japan, with a Master’s in CS from the University of Windsor, Canada.Currently Team Lead for the Workflow Engine Core Team at CADDi, driving architecture and platform development.
Previously led reverse ETL pipelines, observability tooling, and notification systems at Ford and other enterprise clients.
Skilled in SpringBoot, Python, Terraform, BigQuery, OpenSearch, and designing high-performance REST APIs.
Strong background in team leadership, DevOps, and stakeholder communication.
Based in Osaka, Japan, with a Master’s in CS from the University of Windsor, Canada.

I joined CADDi shortly after moving to Japan, and it stood out as a great opportunity to continue working on impactful engineering challenges while settling into a new country. The company’s strong engineering focus, use of modern technologies, and the chance to lead the Workflow Engine Core Team made it an exciting next step. CADDi’s remote work flexibility has made the transition smoother, and while the company is still evolving toward a fully English-speaking culture, that effort has been encouraging and important for me as someone who doesn’t speak Japanese very well.

I’m still relatively new at CADDi, but I’ve quickly taken on the role of Team Lead for the Workflow Engine Core Team. Since joining, I’ve focused on understanding the existing architecture, aligning with stakeholders, and helping define the technical direction of the platform. I’m currently working on setting the future roadmap, improving team processes, and guiding the team toward building a more scalable and maintainable system. It’s been a fast-paced and rewarding start.

Yuya Osujo

As a Kaggle Grandmaster, I joined CADDi in November 2022 after working at Stockmark and DMM.com. I initially worked as an ML engineer on drawing analysis. From July 2023, I also took on MLOps responsibilities, building a retraining platform for continuously updating ML models. In September 2024, I returned to a dedicated MLE role and, through September 2025, worked on PoCs and product integration for LLM-based drawing analysis systems and RAG systems. After taking six months of parental leave, I am now developing AI agents to solve customer challenges.

I first came to know CADDi as an energetic and somewhat mysterious startup, where Kaggle acquaintances of mine kept joining one after another—something I noticed on Twitter. As I became involved through casual conversations and contract work, I was increasingly drawn to both the strength of the AI Lab team and the manufacturing domain itself—a vast field where machine learning has not yet been fully applied.
The challenge of applying machine learning to unstructured data such as drawings is highly demanding, but that is exactly what makes it rewarding. Including the MLOps work I have taken on in parallel, I have been able to work across a wide range of ML technologies while staying focused on solving real customer problems, and I genuinely enjoy that every day.

I first joined CADDi in 2022 as a contractor and later became a full-time member of AI Lab. I was assigned to the business unit developing what was then CADDi Drawer and joined the drawing analysis team as an ML engineer.
From 2023, I also worked with the MLOps team. In 2024, I returned to a dedicated MLE role and have been focused on solving customer problems through areas such as applying LLMs in products, developing RAG systems, and building AI agents.

Yuri Yasukawa

Developed an interest in the principles of human behavior mediated through products through early experience in education, leading to a career in product design.
Studied Human-Computer Interaction in San Francisco, followed by product design roles at global B2B SaaS companies and startups in the U.S.
Involved in UX research and design, as well as building and scaling design organizations, establishing processes, defining metrics, and developing design systems.

I joined CADDi driven by my interest in the complexity of B2B products and the opportunity to create meaningful impact on real-world operations. What stood out to me was the team’s ability to push things forward at a ground level, along with the strong sense of ownership and broad perspective shared across the organization. Working with highly motivated and thoughtful teammates continues to challenge me, and I saw it as an environment where I could significantly accelerate my growth.

I joined CADDi in September 2025 and am currently working on the product design of CADDi Quote. In addition to UX research-driven design, I focus on shaping design governance in collaboration with cross-functional teams and driving alignment across teams.

Takeaki Imai

I completed a degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Tokyo and joined NTT Laboratories in 2015. There I worked on the distributed processing framework Jubatus for online machine learning and engaged in various R&D projects, including models for analyzing human flow during events. In 2018, I became Executive Officer and CTO at a startup providing IoT SaaS for production management in manufacturing. Driven by the desire to transform manufacturing through the power of platforms and data, I joined CADDi in January 2021. After leading R&D as a product manager for drawing analysis, I launched AI Lab and led product management there. I now heads the Data Platform Division, leading cross-product data infrastructure and the use of machine learning and AI in products, with the theme of creating culture through technology.

I completed a degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Tokyo and joined NTT Laboratories in 2015. There I worked on the distributed processing framework Jubatus for online machine learning and engaged in various R&amp;D projects, including models for analyzing human flow during events. In 2018, I became Executive Officer and CTO at a startup providing IoT SaaS for production management in manufacturing. Driven by the desire to transform manufacturing through the power of platforms and data, I joined CADDi in January 2021. After leading R&amp;D as a product manager for drawing analysis, I launched AI Lab and led product management there. I now heads the Data Platform Division, leading cross-product data infrastructure and the use of machine learning and AI in products, with the theme of creating culture through technology.

I attended one of CADDi's hiring events when a major phase of development at my previous company had come to an end. I had known about CADDi for about a year and a half and thought its work on automatic quotation for 3D CAD looked technically fascinating. What impressed me most at the event, besides how enjoyable it was, was how deeply the company's strategy and culture had permeated the organization—everyone was able to talk about the company in their own words. From my previous experience, I had also learned that manufacturing is an industry that cannot be transformed by technology alone, so I was curious about CADDi's approach. When I heard that the company had shifted from approaching many areas of manufacturing with technology as the hook to narrowing its focus as its understanding of the industry deepened, and that its products and technologies had evolved accordingly, I felt a strong sense of vision and commitment. I decided to join because I believed this was a company where everyone was genuinely serious about tackling the challenges of manufacturing.

I attended one of CADDi&#39;s hiring events when a major phase of development at my previous company had come to an end. I had known about CADDi for about a year and a half and thought its work on automatic quotation for 3D CAD looked technically fascinating. What impressed me most at the event, besides how enjoyable it was, was how deeply the company&#39;s strategy and culture had permeated the organization—everyone was able to talk about the company in their own words. From my previous experience, I had also learned that manufacturing is an industry that cannot be transformed by technology alone, so I was curious about CADDi&#39;s approach. When I heard that the company had shifted from approaching many areas of manufacturing with technology as the hook to narrowing its focus as its understanding of the industry deepened, and that its products and technologies had evolved accordingly, I felt a strong sense of vision and commitment. I decided to join because I believed this was a company where everyone was genuinely serious about tackling the challenges of manufacturing.

After joining CADDi, I worked as a product manager for drawing analysis, pursuing ways to structure drawing information and apply it to real use cases. As a result, we were able to improve internal operational efficiency and apply the outcomes to core SaaS technologies. Building on my previous experience, I also explored opportunities for machine learning and launched AI Lab. There, I led R&D in areas such as drawing analysis and similar-search algorithms, contributing to the development of key features in CADDi's SaaS product, Drawer. Today, as head of the Data Platform Division, I lead the development of the data foundation that supports multiple products as well as the integration of machine learning and AI into those products.

After joining CADDi, I worked as a product manager for drawing analysis, pursuing ways to structure drawing information and apply it to real use cases. As a result, we were able to improve internal operational efficiency and apply the outcomes to core SaaS technologies. Building on my previous experience, I also explored opportunities for machine learning and launched AI Lab. There, I led R&amp;D in areas such as drawing analysis and similar-search algorithms, contributing to the development of key features in CADDi&#39;s SaaS product, Drawer. Today, as head of the Data Platform Division, I lead the development of the data foundation that supports multiple products as well as the integration of machine learning and AI into those products.

Kenichi Suzuki

I began my career at NTT DATA, where I worked on the design of large-scale mission-critical systems. After researching programming language theory in pursuit of robustness, I helped launch a security business at Visional. I later held roles including VPoD at ContractS and Head of the CTO Office at Loglass, where I worked to elevate the standards of technology organizations. In 2026, I joined CADDi to help bring Japanese software to the global market, and I am now focused on platform design that supports complex business operations.

Jumpei Nishina

After roles at BizReach and M3, I joined CADDi in September 2022. While contributing to the development of a supply chain management product, I gradually shifted my focus toward engineering management. Drawing on broad expertise in DDD, Scrum, QA, and architecture design, I have led organizational decision-making and capability development across the engineering organization. I currently serves as VP of Growth Enablement, taking on the challenge of improving both engineering productivity and product profitability.

I love thinking about how to build better software, and when necessary I have tried to learn not only technology but also product management, business models, accounting, and relevant regulations. Through that process, I came to realize that software development works best only when business and technology are both strong. I also learned from past experience that a company's view of software is deeply reflected in its organization. Through CADDi's blog posts and casual conversations, I felt that CADDi is a company with strong passion for both business and technology. I decided to join because I was convinced that this was the place where I could realize the kind of software development I aspire to.

I love thinking about how to build better software, and when necessary I have tried to learn not only technology but also product management, business models, accounting, and relevant regulations. Through that process, I came to realize that software development works best only when business and technology are both strong. I also learned from past experience that a company&#39;s view of software is deeply reflected in its organization. Through CADDi&#39;s blog posts and casual conversations, I felt that CADDi is a company with strong passion for both business and technology. I decided to join because I was convinced that this was the place where I could realize the kind of software development I aspire to.

After joining CADDi, I worked on quote-related features for the supply chain management product, contributing to design discussions using my knowledge of DDD and improving Scrum events by drawing on my experience as a Scrum Master. I then shifted my focus to engineering management, where I analyzed productivity across the group, planned improvement actions, and executed initiatives to raise productivity. As a member of the CTO Office, I also helped shape the medium-term architecture of CADDi Drawer as an AI data platform and led key technical decisions. Today, as VP of Growth Enablement, I work to improve the productivity of the product organization from both engineering productivity and product profitability perspectives.

Takashi Inoue

I began my career in 2011 at a systems integrator and, from 2014, worked as a web engineer across a variety of development projects. After gaining experience at two web companies, I joined dely, where I served as Head of Development, SRE, and Engineering Manager. In these roles, I led the development and operation of a large-scale media service, oversaw the app development organization, and managed hiring and team development. I also served as CTO.
My areas of expertise include cloud infrastructure such as AWS and GCP, server-side development, data platforms, and product management, and I have experience managing engineering organizations of 10 to 50 people.
Drawn by the opportunity to build a globally competitive product from Japan, I joined CADDi in 2024 as an engineering manager. After leading functionality development in the structured data domain, I now head the CADDi Drawer development organization, overseeing both development and operations.

As I gained experience as an engineer, I gradually became more convinced that I wanted to spend the rest of my time doing work that would make the world even a little better. That was when I encountered CADDi. I felt great potential in both the mission to unleash the potential of manufacturing and the company's determination to compete seriously on the global stage using one of Japan's greatest strengths: manufacturing. I resonated deeply with the clear vision for global expansion and the passion to make it real, and that led me to join. Since becoming part of CADDi, what I feel every day is the company's dynamic growth and the positive kind of chaos that comes with it. During the interview process, I knew the company already had around eighty engineers, so I expected a fairly mature organization. But after joining, I found that there were still many things not yet fully built and constant change happening every day. I find it exciting and deeply rewarding to be in a phase where we can proactively shape those things ourselves.

As I gained experience as an engineer, I gradually became more convinced that I wanted to spend the rest of my time doing work that would make the world even a little better. That was when I encountered CADDi. I felt great potential in both the mission to unleash the potential of manufacturing and the company&#39;s determination to compete seriously on the global stage using one of Japan&#39;s greatest strengths: manufacturing. I resonated deeply with the clear vision for global expansion and the passion to make it real, and that led me to join. Since becoming part of CADDi, what I feel every day is the company&#39;s dynamic growth and the positive kind of chaos that comes with it. During the interview process, I knew the company already had around eighty engineers, so I expected a fairly mature organization. But after joining, I found that there were still many things not yet fully built and constant change happening every day. I find it exciting and deeply rewarding to be in a phase where we can proactively shape those things ourselves.

I serve as the head of the development organization for CADDi Drawer, a software for the manufacturing industry. CADDi Drawer automatically analyzes drawings and other documents, making them searchable at any time and transforming them into valuable assets.
My main responsibility is to define and drive the strategy for the entire development organization—including software engineers, SREs, and QA engineers—and support its execution. Working closely with product managers, I focus on building a resilient and adaptable organization where each member can act autonomously.
Going forward, I aim to evolve CADDi Drawer into a data platform that connects diverse forms of manufacturing data and creates new value. To achieve this, I want to build teams that can respond quickly to market changes and contribute to both our customers’ businesses and the future of manufacturing itself.

Taisuke Kuwana

I joined DMM.com as a new graduate in 2015 and worked as a web director managing projects for shared platform systems. Through that work, I realized I needed engineering knowledge and experience and transitioned into an engineering role. After joining CADDi in 2019, I worked on the development of the order management product for the order and procurement business and later led development of a warehouse management product. I now work on the CADDi Drawer development team, focusing on internal operations tools and data registration infrastructure.

My job search started when several senior engineers left my previous company and I began looking for an environment where I could grow. As I spoke with several CADDi engineers, including CTO Kota Kobashi, I felt that there were highly skilled people working here with real passion and that the scale and impact of the problem the company was trying to solve were enormous. I decided to join because I felt it was exactly the kind of environment where I could grow.

After joining, I worked on launching and operating the order management product. Later, in addition to supporting that product, I led the warehouse management product team. I am now part of Drawer's DataOps team, where I work on challenges such as improving internal operational efficiency and optimizing data registration. Because our team includes developers who are not native Japanese speakers, our development environment is naturally bilingual, mixing Japanese and English. As a result, I am also interested in the globalization of the engineering organization.

After joining, I worked on launching and operating the order management product. Later, in addition to supporting that product, I led the warehouse management product team. I am now part of Drawer&#39;s DataOps team, where I work on challenges such as improving internal operational efficiency and optimizing data registration. Because our team includes developers who are not native Japanese speakers, our development environment is naturally bilingual, mixing Japanese and English. As a result, I am also interested in the globalization of the engineering organization.

Yoshihiro Fukuhara

I bridge the gap between academia and industry. After researching computer vision at Waseda University and publishing at top-tier conferences such as CVPR and ECCV, I served as a specially appointed fellow at AIST. I also promoted industry–academia and international collaboration as an organizer of cvpaper.challenge and a core member of LIMIT.Lab, an international joint laboratory. After working in the CTO Office at ExaWizards, I joined CADDi in 2026. I now lead the research team, driving the social implementation of AI technologies in manufacturing, with a particular focus on 3D vision and multimodal recognition.

My core mission has long been to turn knowledge born in academia into value for real industry. I had been watching the intersection of manufacturing and AI for some time, and the emergence of 3D foundation models in March 2025 convinced me that the field had reached a turning point. Advances in 3D and multimodal technologies made it possible for AI to understand and leverage the complex drawings, CAD data, and text information hidden within manufacturing, creating a foundation for full-scale real-world implementation. CADDi is a rare place where massive, complex manufacturing problems intersect head-on with world-class research themes. I decided to join because I was convinced it was the ideal place to connect cutting-edge research directly to an industry where Japan has a real global advantage—not by merely experimenting with technology, but by moving back and forth between papers, products, and customer value.

At CADDi, I lead the research team, driving the formulation and execution of a roadmap for foundational AI technologies that will serve as the source of our long-term competitive advantage. Specifically, I am developing core AI technologies that create immense value on the manufacturing domain by leveraging the latest advancements in 3D geometric and spatial recognition, multimodal processing, and knowledge graphs, combining them with CADDi's vast accumulation of diverse industrial data. Furthermore, utilizing my strong network with AIST and broader research communities, I propel technological development by actively integrating cutting-edge academic insights into our workflows. My ultimate mission is to highly fuse the perspectives of both researchers and engineers, ensuring that we generate globally competitive AI technologies directly from CADDi.

At CADDi, I lead the research team, driving the formulation and execution of a roadmap for foundational AI technologies that will serve as the source of our long-term competitive advantage. Specifically, I am developing core AI technologies that create immense value on the manufacturing domain by leveraging the latest advancements in 3D geometric and spatial recognition, multimodal processing, and knowledge graphs, combining them with CADDi&#39;s vast accumulation of diverse industrial data. Furthermore, utilizing my strong network with AIST and broader research communities, I propel technological development by actively integrating cutting-edge academic insights into our workflows. My ultimate mission is to highly fuse the perspectives of both researchers and engineers, ensuring that we generate globally competitive AI technologies directly from CADDi.

Atsushi Kambara

After working at three contract development companies, I joined Sansan in 2014. There, I held roles including engineer, tech lead, and head of product development for the Sansan product, and later served as Deputy General Manager of Data Strategy. I joined CADDi in April 2024. After working as an engineering manager responsible for the development of CADDi Drawer and Quote, I now oversee product management for CADDi Drawer.

joined CADDi because I wanted to build a software product from Japan that would naturally be used around the world. Among Japanese companies, I believed CADDi offered the highest likelihood of making that happen, and CADDi Drawer was the product I felt I could fully commit my passion and energy to.

One particularly memorable achievement was leading a large-scale concept expansion project for CADDi Drawer from the fall of 2024 through the end of the year as project manager. I am deeply proud of the project members, who embodied the spirit of moving forward as one team even better than I had imagined. Today, as a product manager, I am once again taking on the challenge of fundamentally evolving CADDi Drawer.

Keiichi Yamada

After working at a system integrator and at Colopl, I joined CADDi in September 2019. I contributed to the development of two products before forming the Platform Team in July 2021, where I led cross-functional initiatives across the technology organization as well as team management.
In June 2023, I launched the CTO Office, driving organization-wide policy making, security reinforcement, and hiring. At the end of 2024, I became Head of the CTO Office, where I now lead technical decision-making and organizational management across the entire development organization.

Tohru Onoe

I began my career at an IT vendor as a systems engineer and consultant, then worked at Accenture on a broad range of projects including IT strategy, cost reduction, business process transformation, and PMO support. From 2017, I joined Link and Motivation, where I helped build the technology organization from the ground up, leading engineering hiring, development, and the promotion of in-house development in a non-tech company. I joined CADDi in 2025 and now work in the VPoE Office, focusing on engineering hiring and organizational development for the technology organization.

In my previous role, I experienced what it takes to build and scale an engineering organization inside a non-tech company, including hiring, development, and organizational design. Through that experience, I developed a desire to take on the challenge of building an organization that was even more closely tied to business growth. CADDi has achieved extraordinary business growth at a pace that far exceeds typical SaaS benchmarks, and both the business and the organization are expanding rapidly. I was strongly attracted to the chance to tackle challenges of a scale and difficulty I had never experienced before. I was also deeply impressed by the people I met through interviews and conversations at CADDi. They were all sincere, straightforward, and genuinely committed to the mission of unleashing the potential of manufacturing. I felt the entire organization was united by a high level of aspiration and thought, 'With teammates like these, we can overcome any challenge.' Manufacturing is also a massive industry on a global scale, comparable in size to Japan's GDP. I had long wanted to help build a product from Japan that could win globally, and CADDi felt like exactly that opportunity. Seeing the product already gaining traction in the U.S. made the global potential feel very real, and that was a major reason I chose to join.

In my previous role, I experienced what it takes to build and scale an engineering organization inside a non-tech company, including hiring, development, and organizational design. Through that experience, I developed a desire to take on the challenge of building an organization that was even more closely tied to business growth. CADDi has achieved extraordinary business growth at a pace that far exceeds typical SaaS benchmarks, and both the business and the organization are expanding rapidly. I was strongly attracted to the chance to tackle challenges of a scale and difficulty I had never experienced before. I was also deeply impressed by the people I met through interviews and conversations at CADDi. They were all sincere, straightforward, and genuinely committed to the mission of unleashing the potential of manufacturing. I felt the entire organization was united by a high level of aspiration and thought, &#39;With teammates like these, we can overcome any challenge.&#39; Manufacturing is also a massive industry on a global scale, comparable in size to Japan&#39;s GDP. I had long wanted to help build a product from Japan that could win globally, and CADDi felt like exactly that opportunity. Seeing the product already gaining traction in the U.S. made the global potential feel very real, and that was a major reason I chose to join.

At CADDi, I work in the VPoE Office and am responsible for engineering hiring and organizational development for the tech organization. From discussing hiring strategies and plans to designing interviews and conducting casual interviews, I work across the entire recruiting process to identify issues and develop solutions. My work goes beyond recruiting, covering onboarding, retention support, and a wide range of initiatives to strengthen the organization after people join. Drawing on my past experience, I constantly think not just about how to increase headcount, but about how to build an organization where new hires can thrive. I work closely with managers on the ground while actively updating hiring standards and making organizational issues more visible. Going forward, I want to take on more medium- to long-term initiatives to improve productivity and engagement across the entire tech organization. In a rapidly growing organization, balancing immediate issues with longer-term mechanisms is never easy, but that is exactly what makes the work so rewarding.

Chinnapa Pattamada

Originally from India, I studied in Singapore and Japan before starting my career at Goalist, an HR big data company in Tokyo. There, I worked on a range of data aggregation and analysis projects before being asked to lead a new subsidiary, HumAIn, as CEO, building AI-powered services for a global audience.
In 2022, I transitioned into the sustainability sector to drive greater positive impact, serving as CTO of Sustainable Lab, a leading corporate sustainability data platform in Japan.
I joined CADDi in April 2025 and currently work as an Engineering Manager.

I was introduced to CADDi by an agent. Once I met the members and learnt about the company, I was impressed by (1) the focus on making impact on the manufacturing industry (2) the impression of the high level of capability of the engineers and other managers I spoke to during the interview process. These were by core reasons for deciding to join CADDi.

I've been at CADDi since April 2025. I'm currently working on improving developer experience at the company by creating tools to measure and track various methods of code health, as well as implement company wide frameworks for making testing and data management easy for engineers.

I&#39;ve been at CADDi since April 2025. I&#39;m currently working on improving developer experience at the company by creating tools to measure and track various methods of code health, as well as implement company wide frameworks for making testing and data management easy for engineers.

Masaki Inaba

I studied electronics and information engineering at the University of Tokyo and its graduate school. I worked at Canon on robot vision and at Denso on R&D for in-vehicle camera image recognition. In addition to joint research with institutes and commercialization efforts, I led the design and construction of machine learning pipelines for processing large-scale automotive image data. At ExaWizards, I served as Tech Lead of the Machine Learning Vision Group and gained experience through a variety of PoC projects. I joined CADDi in 2022 and worked on projects that use machine learning to recognize and analyze 2D and 3D drawings. I currently serves as Head of the Data and Analysis Department.

I studied electronics and information engineering at the University of Tokyo and its graduate school. I worked at Canon on robot vision and at Denso on R&amp;D for in-vehicle camera image recognition. In addition to joint research with institutes and commercialization efforts, I led the design and construction of machine learning pipelines for processing large-scale automotive image data. At ExaWizards, I served as Tech Lead of the Machine Learning Vision Group and gained experience through a variety of PoC projects. I joined CADDi in 2022 and worked on projects that use machine learning to recognize and analyze 2D and 3D drawings. I currently serves as Head of the Data and Analysis Department.

I first learned about CADDi through television programs and Twitter. When I encountered the mission to unleash the potential of manufacturing, I felt I wanted to contribute to a company that could help support Japan's future. I was also strongly drawn to CADDi's values and to what the technology organization cares about. One value in particular resonates with me deeply: keep sharpening your weapons, but do not become attached to them.

I first learned about CADDi through television programs and Twitter. When I encountered the mission to unleash the potential of manufacturing, I felt I wanted to contribute to a company that could help support Japan&#39;s future. I was also strongly drawn to CADDi&#39;s values and to what the technology organization cares about. One value in particular resonates with me deeply: keep sharpening your weapons, but do not become attached to them.

Since joining CADDi, I have been involved in developing machine-learning technologies for recognizing and analyzing manufacturing data. When I joined, the similar drawing search system was being developed and CADDi Drawer, the manufacturing data utilization cloud, had just been launched, so I started by working on the analysis of drawing data. Later, I helped establish machine learning development processes and data and annotation frameworks, and led the team responsible for developing and delivering analysis models that could read information from drawings in a generalizable way. Today, as head of the Data and Analysis Department, I lead the analysis of various kinds of data generated across the manufacturing supply chain—including 2D drawings, 3D CAD, and a wide range of documents—and carry the mission of turning that data into value.

Koki Mori

After working at a design and web production company and at Ikkyu.com, I joined CADDi in September 2019. I contributed to the launch of a cost estimation product and have since been involved in multiple internal products. In 2022, I joined the launch of CADDi Drawer as a product designer, and I continue to work in product design today.

While job hunting, I came across a Forbes article about CADDi. Although I had little prior exposure to the manufacturing industry, I was immediately drawn to the problem the company was tackling and felt a strong sense of excitement.
After speaking with the founders, Yushiro Kato and Kota Kobashi, I was struck by their humility and clarity of vision, which led me to make the decision on the spot. Since joining, I’ve found the environment to be constantly evolving, giving me continuous opportunities to take on new challenges without losing momentum.

When I joined, the company was still small, so in addition to UI and UX design I also worked on front-end implementation. As more outstanding engineers joined, I stepped away from implementation and began focusing on UX work such as user research, problem decomposition, and user story mapping.
CADDi is an environment where users’ voices reach us directly, and on the product side we have many opportunities to engage with firsthand information, which makes the work extremely rewarding. Going forward, I want to help establish new directions for product development at CADDi.

Shigemoto Fujikura

I was stationed in Silicon Valley with OGIS-RI and worked on joint development projects with local startups. After returning to Japan, I completed a graduate degree in Intelligent Systems Design Engineering at Kanazawa Institute of Technology. I joined Sansan in 2009 and became Executive Officer and CTO in 2019. As Director and CTO of Sansan Global Development Center, I also strengthened the company's global development structure. In 2024, I joined CADDi and was appointed VP of Engineering.

I was stationed in Silicon Valley with OGIS-RI and worked on joint development projects with local startups. After returning to Japan, I completed a graduate degree in Intelligent Systems Design Engineering at Kanazawa Institute of Technology. I joined Sansan in 2009 and became Executive Officer and CTO in 2019. As Director and CTO of Sansan Global Development Center, I also strengthened the company&#39;s global development structure. In 2024, I joined CADDi and was appointed VP of Engineering.

When I started thinking about taking on a new challenge, I wanted to leverage my experience in software development while also getting involved in manufacturing, something I had loved since childhood. I also had a personal ambition to help software developed in Japan be used around the world and to grow it into a major business. I decided to join CADDi because I believed this was the place where I could take on that challenge.

As VP of Engineering, I am focused on managing the engineering organization. We have excellent engineers and outstanding technology, and my role is to build an organization that helps both the people and the company make the most of those strengths. I want to create development teams that can deliver what they build to customers quickly, see those efforts recognized, and feel the business grow as a result.

Yuki Hashimoto

I began my career as a software engineer in 2019 and joined CADDi in 2022. Leveraging both backend engineering expertise and knowledge of machine learning, I led quality improvements to the drawing search infrastructure and reduced search latency to less than one tenth of its previous level. I currently serves as a tech lead, broadly leading the development and operation of the search experience, including UI and UX.

I joined CADDi through a referral from a former colleague. Even before that, I had been interested in CADDi for two reasons: it was creating real business value by applying machine learning, and it was building with Rust. Around that time, I was invited to have a casual conversation with the CTO so I could get to know the company better. Through that conversation, my interest deepened even further, especially in the challenge of effectively connecting the field of information science—particularly machine learning—with the realities of manufacturing to create value. The compensation was also a good fit, so I decided to join. Now, two years later, I feel every day that I am growing while working at the intersection of information science and manufacturing to create real-world value.

As a leader with deep knowledge of search technology, I use that expertise to identify product issues and solve them. I also share knowledge about search technology with team members so they can focus on solving problems more effectively. More recently, I have been expanding beyond search itself to explore and implement new forms of value that can be created by leveraging drawings and the surrounding information assets. Communication challenges in manufacturing are particularly significant, and I believe that what we are working on can make the entire industry more productive. Going forward, I want to keep addressing these challenges through search and other feature development.

Masaaki Sugiura

After managing projects for major securities firms at Simplex, I drove product growth as CTO and board director at Talknote, then joined Uzabase, where I served as CTO of NewsPicks and CTO of Uzabase USA. I now leads the development of new products at CADDi.

My ambition in life is to build a product that can compete on a global scale. Manufacturing is one of Japan’s core industries and also has a significant presence worldwide.
I decided to join CADDi because I saw strong potential in its mission to address the challenges of the manufacturing industry through the power of technology. I wanted to be part of CADDi’s effort to create a product that can be used globally.

Amane Suzuki

I studied chemoinformatics, an interdisciplinary field combining chemistry and machine learning, at the University of Tokyo and its graduate school. I joined DeNA in 2019 and worked on recommendation systems for a live streaming platform and on a fuel scheduling project for power plants. I joined CADDi in March 2022 and, within AI Lab, developed a recommendation system for suppliers and an internal similar-drawing search engine. I later led the development of MOCAD, CADDi's proprietary data structure that incorporates manufacturing knowledge, as a product manager. I currently work on developing and promoting the use of data infrastructure in CADDi Drawer's Data Management Team and is also a Kaggle Master.

I studied chemoinformatics, an interdisciplinary field combining chemistry and machine learning, at the University of Tokyo and its graduate school. I joined DeNA in 2019 and worked on recommendation systems for a live streaming platform and on a fuel scheduling project for power plants. I joined CADDi in March 2022 and, within AI Lab, developed a recommendation system for suppliers and an internal similar-drawing search engine. I later led the development of MOCAD, CADDi&#39;s proprietary data structure that incorporates manufacturing knowledge, as a product manager. I currently work on developing and promoting the use of data infrastructure in CADDi Drawer&#39;s Data Management Team and is also a Kaggle Master.

A colleague from my previous company was working at CADDi and introduced me to the company, which led me to start working with CADDi as a contractor. At that time there were not many people working with data, and I thought that as an early member of AI Lab I would be able to take on a broad range of responsibilities while expanding my technical range around my core expertise, so I decided to join. What impressed me after joining was how deeply rooted the culture of looking at data already was. At inspection sites, dashboards were displayed on large monitors, and in day-to-day work people across the company were measuring KPIs and thinking about improvements based on numbers. At the same time, I felt that the tools had not yet caught up with that culture of data usage, and I came to see strengthening that area as an important challenge.

After joining CADDi, I worked as a data scientist and machine learning engineer, developing a supplier recommendation system and an internal search engine for similar drawings.
As the number of machine learning engineers grew, I shifted into an MLOps engineer role with a stronger focus on delivery, where I built machine learning API infrastructure and data pipelines.
After launching the Data Management team and leading product management for the data platform, I am now working to improve development productivity across the Tech organization by redefining the development process.

Jumpei Goto

After graduating from the University of Tokyo and completing graduate studies in precision engineering, I joined CADDi as a new graduate in 2022. After working as a project manager driving initiatives in the Manufacturing business, I now serve as a product manager for CADDi Drawer.

I first became interested in CADDi while researching manufacturing in graduate school and speaking with a CADDi employee through an introduction from a senior. Three things ultimately led me to join as a new graduate: my admiration for members who are passionate about the mission and relentless about self-growth, my genuine interest in the mission to unleash the potential of manufacturing, and the sense that this was exactly the right moment for the product to compete globally.

I began as a project manager in the Manufacturing business, supporting customers with procurement. I later moved to the Product Division and now work as a product manager on CADDi Drawer as well as on the planning and development of various data utilization and analysis technologies.

Yota Shoji

After completing graduate studies at Nagoya University, I joined Rakuten as a new graduate, where I worked on planning apps and websites in the financial business domain. I later moved to LINE, where I was responsible for product management and business leadership for fintech services.
I joined CADDi in 2021, where I led operations for a supply chain management system and project management for an SAP implementation. I now primarily work in product management for the data platform domain.

I chose CADDi because of its people and the intensity they bring. At previous companies, there were many moments when executives seemed focused on protecting their own interests or their own organizations, but at CADDi everyone was aligned around a single mission, and the purity of that commitment felt completely different. I did not initially have a particularly strong interest in manufacturing itself. What first drew me in was the combination of difficult problems and people who were passionate about them. I want to create real game-changing impact with this team, which is sincerely committed to unlocking the potential of manufacturing.

The first area I worked on after joining was product management for a supply chain management system connecting ordering and purchasing in manufacturing. I managed the product while confronting the complex operational realities unique to manufacturing sites. I then also served as PM for an ERP implementation project, driving the digitalization of core operations. Today I work in the data platform domain, building the foundation that transforms manufacturing-specific data—such as drawings, technical documents, BOMs, and defect-related information—into forms that AI and applications can use. My work is about building a data platform that can fundamentally improve the quality of decision-making in manufacturing.

Masaki Iizako

I joined a system integrator as a new graduate and gained experience developing a wide range of systems. Later, on the technology platform team at a hotel and restaurant reservation company, I worked on company-wide API development and cloud migration projects. At a blockchain and cryptocurrency company, I served as tech lead for the Platform Team within the SRE Group, working on the development of a trading engine and broader cross-functional technical challenges. At CADDi, after contributing to product development for production management and for supply partners, I launched the Platform Team and has been working under the mission of unleashing the potential of the development organization.

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