About the role
SFL Tech is opening its first Asia-Pacific office in Tokyo, and we're looking for a founding engineer to help build it from the ground up. You'll own the core booking and tracking systems for our APAC operations — the same pipeline architecture that already runs our UK and Sri Lanka freight networks, adapted for a new region, new carriers, and new regulatory requirements.
This isn't a maintenance role. You'll be making foundational decisions about how the Tokyo office's systems are built, and your choices will shape how the next five engineers we hire there work.
What you'll do
- Design and build the booking and tracking infrastructure for SFL's Tokyo operation, working closely with our Colombo and London platform teams.
- Integrate with Japanese carrier and customs systems, extending our existing five-checkpoint pipeline (Ingestion → Validation → Transformation → Enrichment → Delivery) to a new region.
- Set the technical direction and early engineering culture for the Tokyo office as our first hire there.
- Partner with Operations and Commercial teams to make sure the systems you build match how APAC freight actually moves.
- Help recruit and onboard the next engineers who join the Tokyo team.
What we're looking for
Must have
- 5+ years building backend systems in production, ideally with high-throughput or real-time data pipelines.
- Comfort working independently and making architectural decisions with limited precedent to lean on.
- Experience integrating third-party or partner APIs, especially in logistics, fintech, or similarly regulated industries.
- Fluent written and spoken English; conversational Japanese is a strong plus but not required.
- Based in or willing to relocate to Tokyo.
Nice to have
- Prior experience as a founding or early engineer at a startup.
- Familiarity with freight, customs, or supply-chain systems.
- Experience with event-driven pipelines (Kafka, Kinesis, or similar).
Ready to build this with us?
Send your CV and a short note on why this role interests you.
