Kakao Launches First Group-Wide Recruitment Drive... "Securing AI Talent"

First-Ever Group-Wide Recruitment for New Employees in 2026
Six Major Kakao Affiliates Participate
Open to Humanities and Social Sciences Graduates

Kakao is launching its first-ever group-wide open recruitment for new crew members (employees) across all job categories, including tech, service, business, design, and staff. This initiative goes beyond individual affiliates, aiming to proactively secure top talent suitable for the era of artificial intelligence (AI) at the group level.

Kakao Group New Crew Open Recruitment. Provided by Kakao

Kakao Group announced on September 3 that it will be accepting applications for new employee recruitment from September 8 to September 29. Six major group companies are participating in this recruitment: Kakao, Kakao Games, Kakao Mobility, Kakao Bank, Kakao Entertainment, and Kakao Pay. Applicants may apply to only one of these companies.

Document submissions will be accepted starting at 2 p.m. on September 8 through each company’s recruitment website. The group’s integrated recruitment website provides information on the qualities Kakao Group seeks in its talent. By navigating from the integrated website to each company's recruitment page, applicants can learn about the company’s work culture, work style, and experiences shared by senior crew members. Information about welfare programs, development environments, and various programs supporting career growth is also available.

The selection process consists of a document review, a coding test (limited to tech positions, scheduled for October), and interviews. Interviews are scheduled for November, and the final successful candidates will join the company in January next year. As this is a group-wide recruitment, onboarding education will also be conducted collectively.

The number of recruits across the six group companies will be in the triple digits. According to Kakao, this is the first time new employees are being hired for design and staff positions since the merger with Daum. This means that students from the humanities and social sciences can now join Kakao as new employees.

Kakao plans to secure future growth engines by attracting top AI talent. Having designated this year as the "first year of AI popularization," Kakao will announce new AI services, a joint product with OpenAI, and strategies for developing agentic AI models at the upcoming "If Kakao" event scheduled for September 23. Contrary to some concerns that the expansion of AI will reduce new employee recruitment, there are high expectations that the younger generation, who have been exposed to new technologies from an early stage, will become the driving force of innovation.

Jung Shina, Chairperson of the Kakao CA Council, said, "Today's young people are the first generation to have grown up encountering and utilizing various AI technologies. We look forward to the active participation of young talent who can find creative answers through unique questions."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.