Senior Operational Research Scientist, Relay
Last Mile
+ Equity
2-5 days a week in office
Enabling retailers to supercharge their e-commerce growth
Open for applications
Enabling retailers to supercharge their e-commerce growth
101-200 employees
Open for applications
+ Equity
2-5 days a week in office
101-200 employees
Company mission
Realising the most efficient delivery network to create the most compelling experience for clients, consumers and relayers.
Role
Who you are
- You want to be close to the problems you are optimising, and decisions your solutions will make, getting hands-on in the network to see the outcome of your work first hand
- You have relevant operational research experience in heuristics and/or mathematical programming
- You are comfortable coding in a general purpose or performance language, such as Python, Rust, Julia or C++
- You enjoy the challenge of solving large-scale optimisation problems
- You are motivated to work on production systems, learning from the realised outcome of your optimisation model every day, and proactively evolving your solution
- You love understanding problems deeply, crafting bespoke solutions to unique dynamics of the decision being made
- You are excited to work in a cross-functional tech team designing and building Relay’s Last Mile Marketplace
- You care about the people your work affects — couriers, retailers, and consumers all feel the decisions these systems make
What the job involves
- A last-mile marketplace runs on decisions — which parcels? on which routes? delivered by which couriers? at what price? Thousands of them, made every single day. Good decisions have fast and meaningful impact across the entire Relay Network. Our Operational Research team are responsible for the intelligent systems that optimise the most complex decisions across our network
- As the first Operational Research Scientist in Last Mile Marketplace, you will design, build and evolve the optimisation models and solvers that sit at the heart of Relay's last-mile network — These are production Decision systems that shape how Relay operates every day
- This is a senior individual contributor role. You will work alongside Data Scientists, Analysts, and Engineers in a squad focussed on developing the tech defining our last mile marketplace
- This role sits within Relay’s Data function, joining a dedicated Operational Research team, reporting into the Staff Decision Systems Architect
- Translate operational requirements into optimisation models across scheduling, assignment and pricing problems
- Develop and evaluate solution approaches — drawing on knowledge of mathematical programming and meta-heuristics
- Design and build algorithms, heuristics and solvers bespoke for the unique problems you formulate
- Ensure your solutions are scalable and adaptable to our growing operation
- Benchmark and evaluate the performance of your solutions
- Work closely with engineering to productionise your solutions into automated daily processes
- Work with analytics to monitor the daily performance of your solution, using this information to proactively evolve your solution to make better decisions
Application process
- Talent Acquisition Interview - 30mins | Online
- Hiring Manager Interview - 45mins
- Python Live Coding - 60mins
- Case Study - 60mins
- Relay Operating Principles & Impact- 60mins
- Decision and offer within 48 hours. Our process mirrors our pace of work
Salary benchmarks
Our take
In recent years, e-commerce has grown considerably. Despite this, the retail sector is still in the early innings of digital disruption in the US and the UK (especially when compared to more digitally mature markets such as China).
Relay enables e-commerce through re-wiring the critical delivery infrastructure to address the growth of e-commerce in the UK. Not only do they enable orders of magnitude better delivery in speed and cost for retailers and consumers, but they are also doubling down on making sure their ecosystem of delivery drivers and the planet benefit.
Relay are early stage, and backed by founders who both have considerable experience at delivery service company, Stuart. With this expertise and solving a problem within a growing market, the company are well set make a difference to how retailers provide online delivery.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (2 rounds)
Feb 2025
$35m
SERIES A
Nov 2023
$10m
SEED
Total funding: $45m
Company benefits
- Hybrid remote work (3 days/week in the office)
- Cool co-working office in the heart of Shoreditch
- Competitive equity and compensation package, and culture of recognition
- 25 Days Holiday (plus bank holidays)
- Monthly social events - from Crystal Maze escape rooms to pottery painting and life-size Monopoly! We also have an annual off-site where we all get together in person to celebrate our wins and plan for more success in a relaxed environment.
- Unlimited free snacks and drinks in the office (all the Dash water you can drink, a whole cupboard full of nibbles, plus we have wonderful coffee machines!)
- Contributory pension
- Perks At Work discount scheme - online shopping discounts, cheap cinema tickets, money off holidays and so much more!
- Free membership of the gym in our co-working space
Company HQ
Old Street, London, UK
Leadership
Nicole Mazza
(CCO)Previously worked at Stuart, becoming Commercial Director in 2018. They are also on the Board of Advisors at HYPER CRUNCH and is a Member of Pavilion.
Jonathan Jenssen
(CEO)Worked at Stuart for over five years, first as Head of Operations and later becoming General Manager.
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