Software Engineer I

The opportunity:

Flexport is a platform for global trade in an industry that comprises 12% of the global GDP.  We are the first licensed freight forwarder and customs brokerage built around a modern tech stack.  We help the world's fastest-growing brands manage their international supply chains, providing a fully-managed service for moving products between any two places on the planet.

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.

Our engineers are top-notch software developers who love listening to the users, working as a team, and proactively taking the lead whenever necessary. The role involves learning the business of freight forwarding, modeling the work that people do to move freight, designing solutions to make it more efficient, and thinking innovatively to automate much of it. In this role, you will have an opportunity to own the design and development of key parts of our forwarding systems. You will have influence on subsystem design and help contribute to a team culture around practices that are critical to a quality product.

About the team:

We have multiple teams in Shanghai and Shenzhen working on a suite of core products and services that enable Flexport operation to scale, including Forwarding Application, Client Application, Shipper Application, WMS, Consol Planning Tool, Document Platform (AI empowered), Email Platform, Compliance Platform, Work Assignment Engine, Exception Management, AI Copilot and so on. We are looking for engineers who love learning, are passionate about collaborating, and desire to build solutions with a global impact.

You will:

• Build highly available, secure, distributed systems in a microservice architecture.
• Design, develop, test and maintain systems that represent the real-world intricacies of logistics entities, such as shipper, client, cargo, document, carrier, container, email etc.
• Collaborate with some of the best engineers in the industry to work on complex business and technical problems.
• Work closely with business partners and product managers to distill complex business problems into elegant technical solutions.
• Build and launch products rapidly and incrementally. We ship to production dozens of times per day.
• Ensure 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.
• Geek out about shipping and logistics. (We do this often.)

You should have:

Basic Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience writing software, and a strong engineering background.
• 2+ years of design and architecture knowledge as well as familiarity with object-oriented analysis and design patterns (OOA/OOD)
• Knowledge of at least one programming language such as Ruby, C, C++, Java, or Kotlin
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related technical field, or equivalent experience

Preferred Qualifications

• A love of simple, well-tested code that is easy to extend and hard to break.
• A bias for action. When you see a problem, you solve it.
• The ability to convey technical ideas in common terms to business partners, product managers, and engineers alike.
• Experience building large scale, high-performance systems in a complex, multi-tiered, distributed environment
• Understanding of performance tradeoffs, load balancing and operational issues
• 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
• Non-optional: an aptitude for learning quickly.

Engineering Culture and Values:

• Check out our Key Values profile.

About Flexport:

At Flexport, we believe global trade can move the human race forward. We’re shaping the future of a $8.6T industry with solutions powered by innovative technology and exceptional people. Today, companies of all sizes—from emerging brands to Fortune 500s—use Flexport technology to move more than $19B of merchandise across 112 countries a year.

The recent global supply chain crisis has put Flexport center stage as we continue to play a pivotal role in how goods move around the world. At a valuation of $8 billion, we’re experiencing record growth and are proud to have the support of the best investors in the game who believe in our mission, solutions and people. Ready to tackle global challenges that impact business, society, and the environment? Come join us.

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.