Founding Operations Research Engineer (Full Time)

Haladir; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Haladir in San Francisco is seeking a quantitative engineer to design the optimization core of its products, including models for wave release, inventory allocation, routing in trucking networks, and labor planning for 3PL operations.

You will translate messy constraints into production-ready formulations, work closely with operators to understand decisions, and build scalable models that perform under real-world deadlines. This role offers autonomy and close collaboration with the founding team.

Qualifications

• Strong background in Operations Research, including MILP, constraint programming, heuristics, and local search.
• Research experience in Operations Research through publications, graduate work, or equivalent applied work.
• Able to implement production-grade models in Python using solver APIs such as Gurobi, CP-SAT, or HiGHS.
• Turn real-world constraints into mathematical models that can run in production.
• Strong judgment on solution quality, computational performance, and real-world operational constraints.
• Willingness to relocate to San Francisco and travel to potential customer sites.
• US work authorization.

Responsibilities

• Design optimization core for Haladir’s products, including models for wave release, inventory allocation, routing in trucking networks, and labor planning in 3PL.
• Turn messy operational constraints into production-ready formulations and systems.
• Work closely with operators to understand decisions and optimize what matters.
• Operate with greater autonomy and close collaboration with the founding team.

Skills

Operations Research

MILP

Constraint programming

Heuristics

Local search

Python

Production-quality code

Decision modelling

Education

MS or PhD in Operations Research/Industrial Engineering/Applied Mathematics

Tools

Gurobi

CP-SAT

HiGHS

Solver APIs

Job description

Role Description

You will aid in designing the optimization core of Haladir’s products, including, for example, the models that decide how waves get released, how inventory gets allocated, how routing occurs within trucking networks, and/or how labor gets planned inside 3PL operations. Our approach combines practical heuristics, including local search and hill climbing, with solver-based methods such as MILP and constraint programming where they are the right tool.

You will take messy operational constraints and turn them into formulations and systems that run in production under real-world deadlines. You will work closely with operator's problems to understand how decisions are actually made, determine what should be optimized, and build models that can make those decisions reliably at scale.

This role offers greater autonomy and closer collaboration with the founding team than other positions.

Required Qualifications

• Strong background in Operations Research, including MILP, constraint programming, heuristics, and local search




• Research experience in Operations Research through publications, graduate research, or equivalent applied work




• Able to implement your own models in production-quality Python using solver APIs such as Gurobi, CP-SAT, or HiGHS




• Able to turn real-world operational constraints into mathematical models that can run in production




• Strong judgment around solution quality, computational performance, and real-world operational constraints




• Willingness to relocate to San Francisco and travel to potential customer sites




• US work authorization

Preferred Qualifications

• Currently enrolled or finished MS or PhD in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related quantitative field




• Domain experience in warehousing, routing, scheduling, or supply chain




• Experience deploying optimization models in live operational environments