Backend Software Engineer - Distribution

Rune Technologies•Arlington, VA

About The Position

The Distribution team at Rune is building the software that determines how supplies, equipment, and other critical resources move through complex logistics networks — from requirements and inventory availability through planning, allocation, routing, dispatch, tracking, and delivery. Military distribution is a dynamic systems problem. Routes change. Transportation assets become unavailable. Priorities shift. Inventory moves. Communications degrade. Threat conditions evolve. The software supporting these decisions has to continuously reconcile changing information and turn it into reliable, executable actions. As a Backend Software Engineer focused on Distribution, you will design and build the production systems at the center of these workflows. You’ll own services that model logistics networks, coordinate movement across nodes and transportation modes, manage state across distributed systems, and enable users to rapidly plan and replan as operational conditions change. This is not a generic backend role. We are particularly interested in engineers who have built software where system decisions directly affect real-world operations — logistics, transportation, fulfillment, routing, dispatch, warehousing, marketplace operations, supply chain, or similar domains. You will work closely with product engineers, optimization engineers, military domain experts, and platform teams to translate complicated operational workflows into resilient, scalable software. The result is a distribution capability that can operate from enterprise environments to the tactical edge and give military users a dramatically better way to understand, plan, and execute logistics movements.

Requirements

7+ years of backend, platform, or distributed systems engineering experience, including substantial ownership of production-grade software.
Demonstrated experience building production systems in logistics, transportation, fulfillment, routing, dispatch, shipment management, warehousing, marketplace operations, supply chain, travel, operations planning, or another similarly complex operational domain.
Experience building software that supports real-world planning or operational decision-making, rather than exclusively transactional or CRUD-oriented backend applications.
Strong programming skills in one or more performant languages such as Go, C++, Java, or Rust.
Strong understanding of distributed systems concepts including service architecture, asynchronous processing, messaging, state management, failure handling, consistency, and system reliability.
Experience designing complex domain models and translating evolving business or operational requirements into maintainable software architecture.
Strong experience designing and consuming APIs and integrating services through messaging layers, event-driven architectures, and cloud infrastructure.
Experience working with large or complex structured datasets and building systems that continuously reconcile changing state.
Strong engineering fundamentals including profiling, testing, observability, code review, performance tuning, version control, and production debugging.
Demonstrated ability to independently lead complex technical projects from ambiguous problem definition through architecture, implementation, deployment, and production operation.
Ability to collaborate effectively with product managers, domain experts, operations researchers, and engineers across multiple parts of a software platform.

Nice To Haves

Experience building software for transportation management, fleet management, freight, supply chain planning, warehouse management, order fulfillment, travel, logistics marketplaces, or network planning.
Experience with production optimization or planning systems involving routing, scheduling, allocation, matching, capacity planning, or other constrained decision-making problems.
Familiarity with optimization approaches such as MIP, LP, CP, graph algorithms, heuristics, or vehicle-routing techniques.
Familiarity with optimization libraries or tools such as OR-Tools, Gurobi, or other commercial solvers.
Experience with geospatial, temporal, transportation, or logistics datasets.
Experience designing systems that must continuously replan or respond to changes in demand, capacity, availability, priority, or external conditions.
Experience with event-driven systems and architectures where information arrives asynchronously from multiple sources.
Experience with systems deployed in constrained environments, including edge compute, unreliable networks, or latency-sensitive applications.
Experience with military logistics, defense software, contested logistics, or Department of Defense users and systems.
Background working alongside operations research, applied mathematics, optimization, or data science teams.

Responsibilities

Own the architecture and development of backend services supporting Rune’s distribution capabilities across TyrOS.
Design systems that support end-to-end logistics workflows including: Transportation and movement planning, Routing and dispatch, Shipment creation and execution, Asset and capacity allocation, Multi-modal transportation, Scheduling and time-window management, Tracking and status reconciliation, Dynamic replanning when conditions change.
Translate real-world logistics workflows into durable domain models, APIs, services, and event-driven systems.
Build systems that reconcile inventory, demand, transportation capacity, location, time, priority, and other operational constraints across distributed networks.
Develop performant, production-grade services in Go and integrate them directly into TyrOS and the broader Rune platform.
Integrate optimization and planning capabilities into operational software, turning algorithmic recommendations into reliable, understandable, and executable workflows.
Design systems capable of handling partial, delayed, conflicting, or changing information while maintaining a reliable representation of operational state.
Build APIs, messaging patterns, data pipelines, and backend infrastructure that allow distribution services to communicate effectively across Rune’s product ecosystem.
Design for environments where bandwidth, connectivity, compute, latency, and system availability may all be constrained.
Partner directly with military users and domain experts to understand how distribution actually operates, identify the highest-leverage problems, and convert ambiguous requirements into scalable software.
Make architectural decisions that balance speed of development with long-term reliability, maintainability, and extensibility.
Establish strong engineering practices around testing, observability, performance, failure recovery, and operational resilience.
Provide technical leadership to other engineers through system design, code review, mentorship, and ownership of complex cross-functional initiatives.

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans; premiums 100% covered by Rune for all employees; exceptionally low premiums for spouses and dependents
Basic life insurance and disability 100% covered for all employees by Rune; option to purchase additional life insurance available
‘Take the time off that you need, when you need it’ paid time off, not accrual based
Generous company holiday calendar including a holiday shutdown in December
Supportive leave of absence program including time off for military service, medical events, and parental leave
Full 401(k) retirement plan for all full-time eligible employees
Company-funded commuter benefits
Free access to on-site gym at office

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