--- title: 'Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Platform) at Optimal Dynamics' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-backend-platform-optimal-dynamics-remote-8nhgxq34x1hx' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-06' --- # Senior Software Engineer, Backend (Platform) at Optimal Dynamics - **Company:** Optimal Dynamics - **Location:** Remote - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2026-09-04 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/optimaldynamics/jobs/6183234004 ## 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. ## About Optimal Dynamics ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Optimal Dynamics provides an AI-powered Transportation Decision System (TDS) that automates and optimizes strategic, tactical, and real-time operational decisions for enterprise truckload carriers. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series C) - **Headquarters**: New York, New York, United States - **Founded**: 2017 (incorporated); 2018 (founded per LinkedIn); go-to-market launch in 2020 - **Founders**: Daniel Powell (CEO) and Warren Powell (Co-founder & Chief Analytics Officer) ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Truck Transportation / Logistics Technology - **Target customers**: Enterprise truckload carriers (private fleets, dedicated capacity, and for-hire carriers) - **Mission or purpose statement**: To redefine the way logistics decisions are made by automating and optimizing complex planning processes, empowering teams to focus on high-impact work. ## Products & Services - **Transportation Decision System (TDS)**: A unified platform that automates and optimizes decisions across the entire truckload operation lifecycle. It includes: - **Network Management**: Intelligent, agentic freight procurement across channels to improve utilization, service, and profitability. - **Bid Analysis**: Identifies the best lanes to bid on and simulates the impact of each bid to optimize profitability, coverage, and service. - **Dispatch Management**: Real-time automated dispatch decisions, allowing a full day’s plan to be completed in minutes. - **Network Simulation**: A digital twin of the network to model scenarios and answer critical "what if" questions before executing changes. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed. - **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$129.1M** (including a $40M Series C led by Koch Disruptive Technologies in 2024). Annual Revenue estimated at **$65.0M** (per LinkedIn). - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Koch Disruptive Technologies, Bessemer Venture Partners, The Westly Group, Activate Capital. - **Growth Signals**: Triple-digit average annual growth since go-to-market launch in 2020. Headcount grew 22.2% year-over-year to ~72 employees. The company is expanding its footprint among enterprise carriers and recently closed a $40M Series C. ## Competitive Advantages - **Proprietary AI Engine**: Built on 40+ years of research at Princeton University, using a proprietary "Artificial Decision Intelligence" engine that goes beyond simple optimization to automate complex, real-time decisions. - **Comprehensive Platform**: The only "Transportation Decision System" that unifies planning, procurement, dispatch, and simulation in a single platform. - **Proven Results**: Delivers measurable outcomes for customers, including an 80% increase in productivity and a 12.5% increase in weekly revenue per truck. - **Deep Domain Expertise**: Focused exclusively on the complex, high-stakes world of enterprise truckload operations, creating a deep moat. ## Strategic Focus - **Scaling the Decision Layer**: The company is focused on becoming the "decision layer" for logistics, expanding its platform's capabilities and customer base. - **Product-Led Growth**: With a strong product that delivers clear ROI, the company is scaling its go-to-market efforts (Sales, Marketing) to capture a larger share of the enterprise trucking market. - **Continued Innovation**: Investing in R&D to further automate and optimize network decisions, leveraging the latest advances in AI and decision science. ## Why Work Here - **High-Impact Work**: Employees work on some of the hardest problems in logistics, directly seeing their contributions improve customer outcomes (e.g., double-digit revenue gains). - **Culture of Autonomy and Learning**: The company values autonomy, ownership, and continuous learning. It offers periodic courses on advanced decision analytics taught by co-founder and AI visionary Warren Powell. - **Flexible Work Environment**: The company supports a remote-first culture, believing the office is a tool for meetings and connections, not a requirement. They offer a flexible work environment. - **Strong Benefits Package**: Includes unlimited PTO, 10 paid holidays, up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for primary caregivers (4 weeks for secondary), a $125/month fitness reimbursement, and a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) for healthcare and dependent care. - **Culture**: Described as a "no-blame culture" that encourages learning and improvement. The team is described as bright, kind, and solution-oriented. - **Growth Stage**: As a high-growth company (~70 employees) with strong funding and a clear market fit, it offers significant opportunities for career growth and ownership. ## Sources 1. [optimaldynamics.com](https://optimaldynamics.com/) 2. [optimaldynamics.com/about](https://optimaldynamics.com/about) 3. [job-boards.greenhouse.io/optimaldynamics](http://job-boards.greenhouse.io/optimaldynamics) 4. [linkedin.com/company/optimaldynamics](https://www.linkedin.com/company/optimaldynamics) ## Other roles at Optimal Dynamics - [Senior Software Engineer, Frontend](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-frontend-optimal-dynamics-remote-eg4tq0fhye4g) - [Talent Community](https://feeny.ai/job/talent-community-optimal-dynamics-new-york-g7pq2m2k5var) — New York, NY