Director of Data Engineering

The Opportunity:

Flexport is looking for a leader who is creative and technically minded to lead the development of our foundational data platform for global trade. In this role, you will be responsible for developing the foundational data models, data pipelines, and software systems that will be used to solve some of the world’s most interesting and challenging problems in supply chain and logistics. This is a highly visible role that requires strong interaction with executive and senior leadership. 

You will be responsible for the development of a globally scalable, distributed, data platform that will serve the most up to date information about global supply chains, transportation, and logistics. The foundational abstractions served by your platform represent the digital state of the world, will be used to automate operational workflows, and feed predictive machine learning models. 

As a leader, you will have a tremendous opportunity to work across various business, product and engineering teams at Flexport to help define and realize strategic roadmaps. You will be responsible for managing, growing, and developing an organization of exceptional software engineers, and software engineering managers that are technically focused and delivery oriented. 

Our ideal candidate is: a self-motivated leader, highly analytical, technically excellent, passionate about delivering solutions for end users coping with real-world business problems, and is experienced with building and developing a team of managers and individual contributors.  

You Will:

• Lead the design and development of our foundational data platform for global trade.
• Work collaboratively with business, product and engineering leaders to design and develop a distributed, data platform that will provide real-time supply chain, transportation and logistics intelligence to the world. 
• Build, manage, and grow a high performing data engineering organization. 
• Drive the design, development, and launch of high quality data models and pipelines in production.
• Drive data quality across the company.
• Balance short and long term goals and investments.
• Develop and manage technical strategy and culture.  
• Contribute to improving data engineering competency across Flexport.

You Should Have:

Minimum Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, or related technical field.
• 10+ years of professional work experience in software engineering, including 5+ years in a managerial position.
• Experience with data architecture design and data pipeline optimization.
• Experience scaling and managing 20+ person teams.
• Ability to lead through influence with both internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Strong programming experience with SQL.
• Strong programming experience in Java, C/C++, or C#.
• Be proactive with asking questions, ensuring that the right questions are being answered with the appropriate level of rigor and that analyses lead to clear and actionable recommendations and impact.

Preferred Qualifications 

• Master’s or Ph.D. in computer science, software engineering, or related technical field.
• Experience with distributed computing and large-scale software systems design.
• Experience with large volume data sets and data visualization tools.

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.

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, 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.