Portcast jobs, judged for you, free

What they do

Portcast tracks ocean containers and air cargo for freight forwarders, shippers, and manufacturers. Its models predict when a container will arrive and explain the reason for a delay. Newer products audit freight invoices and show the shipments that need attention. Portcast started in 2018 in Singapore and has about 30 people.

What they value

• Curiosity: find out why a system or a number behaves as it does.
• Ownership: act like founders and stay on a problem until it is solved.
• Raising the bar: do not settle for work that is only fine.
• Effectiveness: do the work that changes outcomes, not only output.

Where they hire

Portcast is remote-first, with a team across Asia and Europe. Nine of the eleven openings are remote and two are hybrid. Five list Singapore first, three list Bangalore, and one each lists Delhi, Mexico City, and Chicago. Most also accept other cities in India and Southeast Asia. The two sales roles offer no visa sponsorship.

Teams and roles

The Tech team has 15 people in three functions: engineering, machine learning and data science, and data analysis. A Head of Tech role is open to lead it.

• Engineering: a backend engineer who builds APIs and services in Python, Flask, and AWS. The work covers real-time data from many carrier sources, through to the ETA and risk models.
• Machine learning: a senior engineer who builds, deploys, and runs models for visibility, prediction, demand forecasting, and freight audit. The role also puts LLM-based systems into production.
• Data analysis: an analyst and an intern who find gaps and anomalies in the data and automate quality checks with Python and SQL. The analyst also owns customer dashboards.
• Product: a technical program manager who owns delivery from kickoff to release across Product, Engineering, Data, and Solutions.
• Marketing: a director who reports to the CEO and leads a team of two, and a designer who also edits video.
• Sales: two sales managers who own the full sales cycle with enterprise freight forwarders. The posting describes the first commercial hire based in the US.
• Customer success: a senior manager who owns enterprise accounts, with onboarding, renewal, expansion, and customer tickets.

What they look for

Most postings ask for a bachelor's or master's degree in a related field. The backend, machine learning, sales, and customer success roles ask for five or more years of experience. The analyst role asks for two to three years, and the designer and program manager roles ask for three. The Head of Tech role asks for ten.

The technical postings repeat two traits: first-principles thinking and curiosity about why a system behaves as it does. Several postings expect candidates to use AI tools and to read and defend what the tools produce. Data roles need Python and SQL. Many postings prefer experience in a small product company and in logistics or supply chain technology. Clear communication in a distributed, cross-cultural team repeats across roles.

Hiring has three steps: a recruiter screening, a take-home assignment for many roles, and an interview with the hiring manager. Candidates also meet possible teammates and a C-level executive.