Microbial production of bioactive retinoids including retinol and retinyl ester have been successfully reported. Nonetheless, there is no report of the microbial biosynthesis of retinoic acid. Therefore, two genes (blhSR and raldhHS) encoding retinoic acid biosynthesis enzymes [β-carotene 15,15’-oxygenase (Blh) and retinaldehyde dehydrogenase2 (RALDH2)] were synthetically redesigned to be modularly expressed. Co-expression of the blhSR and raldhHS genes on the plasmid system in the metabolically engineered β-carotene-producing Escherichia coli strain produced 0.59 ± 0.06 mg/L of retinoic acid in flask cultivation. Deletion of an ybbO gene encoding promiscuous aldehyde reductase enhanced 2.4-fold increase in retinoic acid from 0.59 ± 0.06 mg/L to 1.43 ± 0.06 mg/L. Engineering of the 5’UTR sequence of the blhSR and raldhHS genes future enhanced retinoic acid titer from 1.43 ± 0.06 mg/L to 3.46 ± 0.16 mg/L. Finally, a batch culture operated under the conditions (37°C, pH 7.0, and 50% DO) enhanced up to 8.20 ± 0.27 mg/L of retinoic acid in a bioreactor. As the construction and culture of the retinoic acid-producing strain carried out in this study is at an early stage in the development of the microbial process for retinoic acid, further optimization of the expression level of the retinoic acid pathway genes, protein engineering of Blh and RALDH2, and the fermentation operation and media optimization should synergistically increase the current titer of retinoic acid in E.coli.