Principal Software Engineer

Stord is the leading commerce enablement provider of fulfillment services and technology that powers seamless checkout and delivery experiences for high-volume mid-market and enterprise brands across all channels. Stord manages over $5 billion of commerce annually through its fulfillment, warehousing, transportation, and operator-built software suite including OMS, Pre- and Post-Purchase, and WMS platforms. With Stord, brands can sell more, save money, and reduce headaches.

With Stord, brands can increase cart conversion, improve unit economics, and drive customer loyalty. Stord’s end-to-end commerce solutions combine best-in-class omnichannel fulfillment and shipping with leading technology to ensure fast shipping, reliable delivery promises, easy access to more channels, and improved margins on every order.

Hundreds of leading DTC and B2B companies like AG1, Native, Tula, American Giant, and more trust Stord to make their supply chains a competitive advantage. Stord is headquartered in Atlanta with facilities across the United States, Canada, and Europe. Stord is backed by top-tier investors including Kleiner Perkins, Franklin Templeton, Founders Fund, and Salesforce Ventures.

We are seeking a highly experienced and visionary Principal Software Engineer to lead our AI initiatives and drive technical innovation. As a Principal Engineer, you will be instrumental in shaping Stord's AI strategy, architecting advanced AI systems, and mentoring other engineers. This is a leadership role requiring deep technical expertise, strategic thinking, and exceptional collaboration skills. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to solve complex challenges, define our AI roadmap, and significantly impact the success of our platform and the supply chain industry.

Stord engineers work within a team to contribute, improve, and scale our software; you'll fully own entire features and influence the specs, build out/modify the back-end (Elixir/Phoenix) and interact with the front-end (React), and own on-going improvements for a product rapidly impacting the entire supply chain industry. Each member of the team has the ability to impact all aspects of the development process from ideation, design, delivery, maintenance, and operations.

This role will collaborate with the teams responsible for building, maintaining, and owning the Order Management System (OMS), Billing, Warehouse Management System (WMS), and the Consumer Experience (CX) platform. The OMS powers our innovative, world-class logistics network, enabling leading omni-channel brands to achieve significant optimizations and cost savings. Through advanced automation, intelligent routing, and robust order management tools, it ensures that orders are fulfilled in alignment with each client’s unique goals and objectives. The CX platform serves as Stord's consumer-facing solution, enabling our clients’ customers to engage seamlessly with their brands through pre and post-purchase interactions, enhancing the overall consumer experience. Meanwhile, our WMS powers every facility within Stord’s network and is designed to enhance labor productivity, reduce costs, and maintain inventory accuracy.

Why This Role Is Great

• Foundational Leadership & Technical Guidance: Opportunity for a green field project laying the foundation for an entire suite of products that drive revenue and the success of the company
• Team Building: This individual will work with Engineering leadership to build this team from the group up.
• Pivotal Role in Future of Software at Stord: This role will play an important role in building a new suite of software products here at Stord, while building a team that can maintain them.

What You'll Do

Strategic Leadership:

• Define and articulate Stord's AI vision and strategy, aligning it with our business objectives and customer needs.
• Identify and prioritize high-impact AI use cases across OMS, Billing, WMS, and other areas.
• Work closely with product management to develop and refine the AI roadmap.
• Conduct research and stay abreast of the latest advancements in AI and machine learning.

Technical Execution

• Architect and implement scalable and robust AI systems and infrastructure.
• Design and develop machine learning models, including time series forecasting models, and regression models.
• Integrate and utilize Large Language Models (LLMs) and other pre-trained AI models via APIs.
• Write high-quality, maintainable code in Elixir, Python, and other relevant languages.
• Build and maintain data pipelines for data ingestion, processing, and transformation.
• Ensure the performance, reliability, and security of AI systems.
• Work hands on with GCP cloud services.

General Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership: Provide technical direction and guidance to engineering teams, ensuring alignment with business goals and industry best practices.
• System Design and Architecture: Lead the design and implementation of scalable, reliable, and secure systems, while maintaining a focus on simplicity and maintainability.
• Problem-Solving: Tackle complex technical challenges across the stack, driving innovation and delivering efficient solutions.
• Mentorship: Guide and mentor engineers at various levels, fostering a culture of continuous learning and professional development. Act as a leader in the team.
• Collaboration: Partner with Product, Design, and other stakeholders to define and prioritize work, ensuring the successful delivery of high-quality features.
• Code Quality: Set and uphold high standards for code quality, testing, and software development practices.
• Cross-Team Initiatives: Lead cross-team technical initiatives and contribute to scaling processes, tools, and technologies.

Experience

What You'll Need:

• 10+ years of experience in software engineering, with a strong focus (in recent years) on applying machine learning and AI to solve business problems.
• Proven track record of architecting and implementing complex AI systems in production environments.
• Strong understanding of machine learning algorithms, statistical modeling, and data analysis.
• Experience integrating and utilizing LLMs and other pre-trained AI models.
• Experience with cloud platforms, preferably GCP.
• Experience building data pipelines and working with large datasets.
• Demonstrated ability to learn and adapt to new technologies.

Technical Skills

• Expert proficiency in Elixir, Python, and related libraries
• Strong understanding of data engineering principles and practices.
• Experience with database systems and data warehousing.
• Familiarity with front-end technologies (React, Typescript) is a plus.
• Experience with API driven AI solutions.

Leadership And Communication

• Ability to define and articulate a clear technical vision.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to influence and guide technical teams without direct management authority.
• Ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions.

Education

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field

Bonus Points

• Previous startup experience
• Previous logistics or supply chain experience
• Experience with Order Management Systems(OMS), Warehouse Management Systems(WMS), or Transportation Management Systems(TMS)