Software development engineer III

About Porter

At Porter, we're on a mission to move a billion dreams by building the most trusted, efficient, and seamless logistics platform in India. We started in 2014 with a simple vision to transform intra-city logistics through technology. Today, Porter is a late-stage startup, serving millions of users across 21+ cities, backed by marquee investors like Tiger Global, Lightrock, and Sequoia.

We solve real-world problems from empowering micro-entrepreneurs and truck owners, to optimizing last-mile delivery for SMEs and enterprises. Every challenge we take on has real consequences and real impact.

With a sharp focus on user obsession, ownership, and collaboration, we're building a workplace where people thrive when they take bold bets, move fast, and build with empathy.

If you're looking to work where scale meets purpose, complexity fuels learning, and culture isn't an afterthought, Porter is the place.

Role Overview

As an SDE 3 at Porter, you will own and build large, business-critical systems operating at

scale. This role goes beyond coding you'll design scalable architectures, make thoughtful

trade-offs, influence engineering standards, and mentor other engineers while working closely

with product and business stakeholders.

You are expected to think from first principles, leverage AI responsibly, and build systems

that are reliable, observable, and cost-aware.

Key Responsibilities

Technical & System Design

Design, build, and own scalable, high-availability distributed systems handling

millions of transactions.

Drive Low-Level and High-Level Design, including APIs, data models, and service

architectures.

Perform capacity planning, back-of-the-envelope calculations, and identify system

bottlenecks early.

Ensure engineering excellence across reliability, observability, security, and cost

optimization.

Coding & Execution

Write clean, maintainable, and testable production-grade code.

Apply SOLID principles, design patterns, and sound engineering practices.

Use AI tools to accelerate development while critically evaluating outputsknowing

when to use AI and when not to.

Ownership & Delivery

Own end-to-end delivery of systemsfrom design to production and long-term

maintenance.

Drive projects with high autonomy, handle ambiguity, and deliver under tight timelines.

Participate actively in operational reviews, incident management, and system

improvements.

Collaboration & Leadership

Collaborate closely with Product, Data, and Business teams to balance tech decisions

with real-world logistics constraints.

Mentor junior engineers, influence code quality, and help raise the engineering bar.

Contribute to hiring, technical interviews, and culture-building initiatives.

What We're Looking For

4+ years of software development experience (SDE 3 or equivalent role).

Proven experience owning and scaling production systems.

Experience working in fast-paced, high-ownership environments (startups or scale-ups

preferred).

Technical Skills

Strong fundamentals in data structures, algorithms, and object-oriented design.

Hands-on experience with system design at scale.

Familiarity with modern backend stacks, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure.

Strong understanding of engineering operations: monitoring, alerting, reliability, and

performance tuning.

AI & First-Principles Thinking

Ability to use AI as a productivity tool, not a crutch.

Strong judgment to validate AI-generated outputs and reason independently.

Comfortable breaking down complex problems to fundamentals rather than

pattern-matching solutions.

Leadership & Mindset

Strong sense of ownership and accountability.

User-first thinking with an understanding of business impact.

Bias for action and execution in ambiguous situations.

Collaborative, empathetic, and resilient under pressure.

Desire to raise the bar for talent, quality, and execution.

Why Join Porter

Build systems that operate at massive real-world scale.

Solve unique logistics and operational challenges.

Work in a culture that values ownership, frugality, speed, and impact.

Significant scope to grow beyond SDE 3 into technical or leadership paths.