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 maker 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 a talented engineer to help accomplish key initiatives on our roadmap.

You will:

• Deliver projects in your area of ownership while collaborating with a diverse group of cross-functional team members.. We often work on multi-week projects that require phased rollouts and coordination with multiple stakeholders.
• Prioritize tech debt and user-reported bugs along with feature development, 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 maker 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. 
• 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 other engineers to the codebase. We believe in structured onboarding processes that emphasize collaboration to ensure a smooth transition into the team and 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:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent experience.
• You have 3+ years experience writing software and a strong engineering background.
• Experience as a generalist working on both the frontend and backend to provide the best solutions for our users.
• Experience in building distributed systems using Ruby or Java.
• Knowledge of professional software engineering practices & best practices for full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, continuous deployments, testing, and operations.
• You love simple, well-tested code that is easy to extend and hard to break.
• You can convey technical ideas in common terms to business stakeholders, product managers, and engineers alike.

Bonus if you have:

• 2+ years of experience working with Postgres, MongoDB or other similar storage technologies.
• Knowledge of GraphQL and gRPC
• Experience with AWS or Kubernetes
• Experience with distributed systems
• 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, Scala, 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 recent $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.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.