Backend Engineer - Optimization

About Rune

Rune Technologies is here to revolutionize the status quo of military logistics and sustainment through the deployment of AI-enabled solutions. Combining elite Silicon Valley software expertise with deep operational experience working in and with the Department of Defense, Rune builds cutting-edge software to solve the most critical logistics challenges faced by the U.S. military and its allies. Rune’s flagship product is TyrOS, an advanced software platform to enhance logistics at tactical and operational echelons, providing unified, comprehensive management of inventory, personnel, equipment and distribution. TyrOS integrates critical information for holistic, data-driven logistics decisions, leveraging AI for decision support, predictive analytics and optimization at machine speed. Rune’s mission is to support and enable the military logistics and sustainment communities with software to meet needs for the next fight.

About the Role

The Planning & Optimization team at Rune is building the computational core of modern military logistics — software that transforms ambiguous, adversarial problem spaces into executable, optimized plans at machine speed. Our platform tackles problems like vehicle routing, load planning, and multi-echelon scheduling under constraints of fuel, time, bandwidth, and threat. These are not theoretical exercises — they are operational decisions, solved and deployed in production, supporting missions at the tactical and operational edge.

As a Backend Engineer focused on optimization, you'll bridge the gap between algorithm design and high-performance software implementation. You’ll research solution approaches across MIP, CP, RL, heuristics, and hybrid methods. You’ll develop novel algorithms and accelerate them in our backend, profiling for performance, tuning for resilience, and simulating for robustness — all while working against the real-world constraints of edge deployment, limited data, and mission-critical uptime. Every planning service you build will feed directly into TyrOS, our logistics platform deployed across both military and commercial domains.

You’ll work closely with domain experts, ops researchers, and platform engineers to develop fast, interpretable, and configurable planning services. The result: operational-grade autonomy for logistics, built into the software stack of modern warfighting.

What You’ll Do

• Analyze real-world logistics problems from first principles, working with military users and domain experts to define constraints, objectives, and solution criteria.

• Research, prototype, and evaluate algorithmic approaches for problems such as:

  • Route and convoy planning under threat and capacity constraints

  • Multi-modal scheduling with limited assets and windows

  • Load planning and packing with platform-specific limitations

  • Inventory and sustainment optimization across distributed networks

• Implement performant, production-grade solutions in Go, integrated directly into TyrOS’s backend services.

• Evaluate algorithm performance using both synthetic and operational data; tune, benchmark, and optimize for speed, quality, and robustness.

• Build infrastructure to simulate, test, and iterate on solution methods at scale.

• Contribute to a culture of high technical rigor, rapid iteration, and operational relevance.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of backend or systems engineering experience, including building and deploying production-grade software.

• Strong programming skills in one or more performant languages such as Go, C++, Java, or Rust.

• Experience developing high-performance systems for simulation, scientific computing, machine learning or complex algorithmic domains.

• Ability to design and implement well-structured systems under evolving requirements and operational constraints.

• Strong engineering fundamentals: profiling, testing, code review, performance tuning, and version control.

• Experience working with structured data and building systems that integrate with APIs, messaging layers, and cloud infrastructure.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with optimization, scheduling, or constraint-solving algorithms (e.g., MIP, LP, CP, heuristics).

• Familiarity with optimization libraries or tools such as OR-Tools, Gurobi, or other commercial solvers.

• Background in operations research, applied mathematics, or scientific computing domains.

• Experience with geospatial, temporal, or logistics datasets.

• Comfort working on systems deployed in constrained environments (e.g., edge compute, unreliable networks, or latency-sensitive applications).

• Familiarity with simulation environments or agent-based models used for planning or decision-making.

Benefits

Rune offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees to include a full suite of insurance options at no cost for employees and low-cost to spouses and dependents. Highly competitive equity grants are also  included in the majority of full time offers and are considered part of Rune's total compensation package. Benefits include:

• 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