Back to jobs
New

Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Platform)

Remote

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.

Create a Job Alert

Interested in building your career at Optimal Dynamics? Get future opportunities sent straight to your email.

Apply for this job

*

indicates a required field

Resume/CV*

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Cover Letter

Accepted file types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf

Select...
Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Optimal Dynamics’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Select...
Select...
Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.

Select...

Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 07/31/2029

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury
Select...

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.