Build the platform to help Flexport grow
The opportunity:

Flexport is building the first modern logistics platform to make global trade easier for everyone. We are solving complex problems on a global scale, and disrupting a multi-trillion dollar industry that has remained stubbornly unchanged.

Exceptional software development is integral in allowing us to fulfill our mission of fixing the user experience in global trade. At Flexport you’ll develop products that are at the forefront of reshaping the entire logistics & supply chain industries. You’ll work alongside self-starters interested in solving real-world problems and streamlining the inefficiencies in the complex global trade industry. You’ll have the opportunity to reshape an industry by creating the new operating system for global trade.

App Platform is a cross-functional team that builds key abstractions used across Flexport products. We believe in empowering other engineering teams by developing composable pieces that can be leveraged in their applications. Such composable pieces range from collaboration tools for communication and task management to config driven workflow systems to automate business processes. We also develop foundational infrastructure that enables teams to control access to resources and develop real-time experiences. We constantly evaluate new tools and technologies to help us solve problems of scale and complexity. In doing so, we also think hard about build vs buy tradeoffs to ensure that we are focused on novel problems in Flexport’s areas of innovation. With these values in mind, we are looking for an experienced engineer to architect and drive initiatives on our roadmap while mentoring other engineers on the team.

You will:

• Architect and drive major projects while coordinating with multiple stakeholders. We often work on multi-month projects that require phased rollouts and collaboration with cross-functional team members.
• Tackle difficult and subtle system-level issues, emphasizing simplicity and long-lasting designs. As we extract services out of the monolith, we take pride in untangling legacy code and re-building with composability in mind.
• Engage in conversations with other Flexport Technology teams, gathering requirements that inform the roadmap. We believe in delivering quality customer service by being highly responsive on our support channels, listening to feedback, and evangelizing our products. 
• Drive engineering excellence initiatives, ensuring our products maintain a high quality bar. We believe in anticipating issues by obsessing over metrics and applying key learnings from post-mortems to all our services. 
• Evaluate, implement, and evangelize new technologies and tools that can help accelerate the product development lifecycle. We explore the best tool for the job and ensure that our learnings make it out to the broader community. 
• Onboard and mentor engineers. We believe in structured onboarding and mentoring processes to ensure a smooth transition into the team and then continued development on the team.

 What you’ll build:

You will work on projects in the following areas:

• Collaboration - Facilitating communication between operations, clients, carrier, and partners. Products: messaging, inbox, notifications, action log. 
• Work Management -  Creating the framework to power the way work and tasks get done at Flexport. Products: task and work item queues.
• Documents - Building the platform for storage, ingestion, digitalization, and organization of trade documents. Products: storage and transcription services.
• Identity and Access Management - Building identity and authorization systems used across all services at Flexport. Product: authorization service.
• Workflow and Rules - Empowering developers and users to design, execute, and automate business rules and processes using config-driven systems. Products: workflow engine, rules engine.

You should have:

• Experience in building performant systems that deal with complexity or scale
• Track record of planning and executing on projects in a functional area with a phased rollout approach
• Experience mentoring engineers and driving eng-excellence initiatives
• The ability to convey technical ideas in common terms to business partners, product managers, designers and engineers alike
• 6+ years of experience writing software, and a strong engineering background

 Bonus:

• Proficient at least one programming language such as Java or Ruby
• Experience with Rails, Spring, or React
• Expertise in Postgres or MongoDB
• Knowledge of GraphQL and gRPC
• Experience with AWS or Kubernetes
• Experience migrating large monolithic applications to service-oriented architecture

 Our stack:

Our continuous releases are integrated with Buildkite and Github. On the frontend, we create our views with React, manage the flow of data with GraphQL/Relay, and test our application with Jest. On the backend, we’re in the process of decoupling our monolithic Rails app. We have introduced a few network isolated services using other languages, such as Java and Clojure. Our data is persisted in Postgres and MongoDB. Our stack is hosted on AWS using Docker, but we are currently migrating to Kubernetes.

 Engineering Culture and Values:

Check out our Key Values profile.

About Flexport:

We believe global trade can move the human race forward. That’s why it’s our mission to make global trade easier for everyone. We aim to do this by building the Operating System for Global trade - a strategic model combining advanced technology and data analytics, logistics infrastructure, and supply chain expertise. Flexport today connects almost 10,000 clients and suppliers across 109 countries, including established global brands like Georgia-Pacific as well as emerging innovators like Sonos. Started in 2013, we've raised over $1.3B in funding from SoftBank Vision Fund, Founders Fund, GV, First Round Capital and Y Combinator. We’re excited about the three big ways we’re moving forward after our $1B investment from SoftBank Vision Fund in February 2019.

Worried about not having any freight forwarding experience?

• Don’t be! We’re building the first Operating System for Global Trade. That’s why it’s incredibly important for us to bring people from diverse backgrounds and experiences together with our industry veterans to help move the freight forwarding industry forward.
• What’s freight forwarding and why does it matter? Freight forwarding is the coordination and shipment of goods from one place to another and it’s what makes global trade possible. Flexport is on a mission to make global trade easier for everyone because we believe it can help connect the world and break down economic barriers.
• We know this industry is complex. That’s why we invest in education starting day one with Flexport Academy, a one week intensive onboarding program designed specifically to set every new Flexport employee up for success. 

At Flexport, our ability to fulfill our mission of making global trade easy for everyone relies on having a diverse, dedicated, and engaged workforce.  That is why Flexport is committed to creating and nurturing an environment where anyone can be their authentic self.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, creed, national origin, age, physical and mental disability, health status, marital and family status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law.