Logo for Optimal Dynamics

Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Platform)

Role overview

Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, or equivalent technical experience
  • 8+ years of hands-on Infrastructure & Platform Engineering experience
  • Strong Python 3 expertise
  • Strong AWS expertise

Responsibilities

  • Design, implement, and scale core infrastructure to ensure reliability, performance, and security
  • Build and improve tooling, CI/CD pipelines, and workflows for optimizing developer productivity
  • Champion security-by-design principles, implementing controls that safeguard systems and data
  • Serve as a technical leader across teams, coaching engineers, and driving alignment on platform strategy

Key facts

Hard skills

Other skills

  • Security Policies
  • Collaboration
  • Mentorship
  • Problem Solving

About the company

Optimal Dynamics logo

Optimal Dynamics

Transportation, Logistics & Supply Chain

Optimal Dynamics introduces next-generation artificial intelligence to enable logistics companies to better plan, optimize and automate strategic, tactical and real-time operational decisions. Based on 40 years of extensive research & development at Princeton University in conjunction with decades of real-world application, CORE.ai reimagines how private fleets, dedicated capacity and for-hire carriers think about planning and operating their truckload assets, drivers and brokerage arms where applicable. Our platform enables users to ask hyper-detailed strategic "what if" questions via a simulation-based environment. We then leverage those outputs to maximize network profitability, increase asset revenue/utilization, reduce unnecessary cost and mitigate risk, all while keeping drivers moving in the most efficient manner. Optimization is nothing new, but it’s extremely difficult to get right. Through the use of High-Dimensional AI, CORE.ai has been proven to achieve outsized impacts for our customers.

Company details

IndustryTransportation, Logistics & Supply Chain
Company size51 - 200

Your match analysis

See how your profile stacks up against this role.

We compared the job requirements to your profile to show where you're strong and where you fall short.

Job description

About Our Company

Built on over four decades of pioneering research at Princeton University, our platform represents the leading edge of innovation in freight and transportation planning. We help customers unlock double-digit revenue gains and drive smarter, data-driven operations at scale.
With the recent close of our Series C funding round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies, we’re entering an exciting new phase of growth. Today, Optimal Dynamics is a high-growth company of ~70 employees, backed by top-tier investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, The Westly Group, Activate Capital, and Koch. 

We're on a mission to redefine the way logistics decisions are made—and we’re just getting started.

About Our Team

We are a team of bright, kind, and solution-oriented people focused on creating value for our customers. We can solve problems individually, but understand that the best solutions are found when the team brainstorms ideas together. We are excited about balancing the need to deploy new solutions quickly and designing solutions that are secured, reliable, maintainable, and scalable for the long run.

Role Overview

We're looking for a talented Senior or Staff-level Backend Software Engineer to join our Platform Engineering team and help build the foundation that powers intelligent transportation logistics technology. 

Platform Engineering is the team our engineers build on. You'll own the systems, services, and tooling that let product teams ship quickly and safely — and you'll contribute directly to key customer-facing projects where platform capabilities are the product. This is a role with leverage: your work multiplies across every team and every customer deployment. The role spans internal tool Development, Infrastructure, and Security, ensuring that our engineering team can build, deploy, & operate systems with speed, safety, & confidence.

In this role, you’ll help define best practices, guide cross-functional initiatives, & design systems that scale with our rapidly growing platform. You’ll partner closely across engineering & product teams, balancing reliability & velocity while mentoring others & raising the overall technical bar. You’ll work with Python, Django, AWS, and Terraform to design and scale the backend and infrastructure behind our platform. You’ll influence technical direction, architectural standards, and how our engineering organization operates as it grows.

This is a full-time, remote-friendly position open to candidates across the United States. For those who prefer an in-person experience, our New York City headquarters offers a collaborative office environment. Ready to make an impact? Join us and help redefine the logistics industry!

What You Will Do

  • Platform Architecture & Evolution: Design, implement, and scale core infrastructure to ensure reliability, performance, and security.
  • Developer Experience (DevEx): Build and improve tooling, CI/CD pipelines, and workflows, optimizing developer productivity and minimizing friction.
  • Security & Compliance: Champion security-by-design principles, implementing controls that safeguard systems and data without slowing innovation.
  • Mentorship & Influence: Serve as a technical leader across teams, coaching engineers, and driving alignment on platform strategy.
  • Collaboration: Partner with product and engineering leaders, balancing speed, cost, and resilience in every decision
  • Embrace the Dynamic Startup environment: You’ll wear multiple hats, tackle new challenges, and contribute wherever needed to fuel our growth!

Who You Are

  • Educated: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, or equivalent technical experience
  • Experienced
    • 8+ years of hands-on Infrastructure & Platform Engineering experience
    • Proven track record of scaling cloud-native systems
    • Strong Python 3 expertise
    • Strong AWS expertise 
    • Familiarity with event-driven architectures (Kafka or similar).
    • Familiarity with Relational databases (Postgres, DynamoDB, MySQL, SQL Server, or similar)
    • Hands-on IaC tool experience (i.e. Terraform, Spacelift, CloudFormation), observability, monitoring, & incident response.
    • Hands on containerization and orchestration experience (i.e. Docker, Kubernetes, ECS)
  • Optimization-Driven:
    • Proven track record of improving DevEx by leveling up tooling, pipelines, & automation.
    • Experience improving monorepo developer workflows (i.e. Bazel, Buck, Pants).
  • Security-Focused
    • Knowledge of compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, etc.) and how to operationalize them.
    • Experience leading security initiatives(i.e. hardening environments; building secure-by-default workflows)
  • Leader: A history of mentoring engineers and shaping technical direction across teams.

Nice to have (Bonus Points)

  • Experience with transportation systems (e.g., TMS, ELD) or scientific/analytics applications is a significant advantage.
  • Familiarity with modern data tools such as dbt and DuckDB is highly valued.

About our Tech Stack and Development Practices

At Optimal Dynamics, our entire infrastructure runs on AWS, leveraging a wide range of services including DynamoDB, Aurora, SSM, and SQS to power our intelligent logistics platform.

Our tech stack includes:

  • Backend & AI: Python 3 and Java
  • Frontend: JavaScript/TypeScript for our web-based SPA
  • Data Stack: Trino, Dagster, dbt, DuckDB, SQL, and Preset
  • IaC: Terraform and Spacelift
  • Cloud: AWS (ECS/RDS/S3/etc)
  • CI/CD: Bazel, Github, AWS CodePipeline/CodeBuild
  • GenAI: Anthropic Claude, ChatGPT Codex, GitHub Copilot

We follow modern development best practices with all code stored on GitHub. Every pull request undergoes thorough code reviews, is fully unit tested, and deployed through our CI/CD pipeline for continuous quality assurance.

Compensation: $180 - $220k in on-target earnings

Benefits

  • Competitive compensation, including Series C level equity
  • Health / Dental / Vision 100% covered for employee and 50% for dependents
  • Life Insurance, with optional supplemental insurance
  • Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
  • Health Spending Account (HSA)
  • 401(k) with match
  • Unlimited PTO (vacation, personal days, sick days, jury duty, military leave, bereavement)
  • 11 Holidays
  • Paid Parental Leave for all employees
  • Short-term and Long-term Disability Insurances, and AD&D Insurance
  • Fitness membership reimbursement
  • Commuter benefits

Optimal Dynamics is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive workplace with equal opportunity for all applicants and employees. Our goal is to recruit the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool regardless of race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, disability, sex (including pregnancy), age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Optimal Dynamics is committed to working with and providing access and reasonable accommodation to applicants. If you require an accommodation, please reach out to careers@optimaldynamics.com once you've begun the interview process. All requests for accommodations are treated discreetly and confidentially, as practical and permitted by law.

Apply once. Then go straight to the hiring manager.

After you apply, unlock the direct contact details of the people who actually make the call. A quick follow-up makes you 5x more likely to land an interview.

MR

Marcus Rivera

Chief Revenue Officer

m.rivera@company.com
linkedin.com/in/marcusrivera
Unlocked after you apply
·

Software Engineer Related jobs

Other jobs at Optimal Dynamics

Premium

Reach out to the hiring manager directly.

Gain access to the contact details of the hiring managers who actually decide, and reach out to network with them directly. That, plus more when you upgrade:

  • Full match report with fit score and gaps
  • Career diagnostics on how recruiters read you
  • Curated company matches and warm intros
  • 48h early access to new roles

Cancel anytime.