Bike to gym? Train to work? Walk to lunch? Bus to dinner? Life in the city is
a multimodal road trip. As the newest member of Transit’s routing and
compression team, you’ll be the map-wielding oracle for millions of riders.
You’ll help folks perfectly time their rides, tell them the best places to
transfer, and whisper “you actually can catch the earlier train, if you
bikeshare to the station instead of walking.”
But even oracles need to run tests, fix bugs, and hunt down edge cases.
OpenStreetMap is incredible, but it ain’t perfect. The grids don’t always line
up, a street zigs where it should zag, a Twitter user informs you about 6½
Avenue in Midtown that can shave five minutes off your commute — like a Mario
Kart speedrun, but real life. And while you’d think transit routes would be
straightforward to work with because they follow fixed shapes (except when
they don’t 🤪) the reality is more nuanced. You’ll help us diagnose suboptimal
trip plans, figure out whether they’re one-offs or symptoms of a larger issue,
and make the necessary improvements.
You’ll also be responsible for reducing our app’s data footprint: other
navigation apps are happy to devour your data, sending GTFS files in blimp-
sized backpacks stuffed with extraneous information. At Transit we prefer the
ultralight approach: we saw our toothbrush in half and cut the tags off our
t-shirts to save weight on the trail. (How much transit data can you squeeze
into a single kilobyte? The answer is “always more!”)
**📝 Responsibilities**
* You’ll add new functionality to the trip planner and other parts of the app. Recent projects have included integrating [transit detours](https://blog.transitapp.com/transit-can-now-detect-where-your-bus-has-been-detoured/), and adding the ability to handle [flexible transit services](https://blog.transitapp.com/mndot-gtfs-flex-bringing-rural-riders-into-the-fold/) that don’t follow fixed routes.
* You’ll keep performance top of mind: we take pride in making sure our code runs [ridiculously fast](https://blog.transitapp.com/how-we-shrank-our-trip-planner-till-it-didnt-need-data-84984ca56663/)
* You’ll compress new datasets (OSM, GTFS, GBFS etc.) for use within the app
* You’ll work alongside our transit data experts and the team working on GO, our step-by-step navigation assistant, to help deliver the fastest and friendliest plans for every single trip
**✅ Requirements**
* A minimum of 1 year or equivalent working with C++
* Understanding of data compression techniques, graph algorithms, and data structures
** 💯 Would be nice if…**
* You’re passionate about cities, urbanism, public transit, design, technology, or all the above
* You know your way around Python
* You’re familiar with OpenStreetMap and/or transportation data formats like GTFS, GTFS-rt, and GBFS
Don’t feel like all the requirements apply to you but you still think you’d be
a great fit for Transit? Don’t hesitate to apply!
**💰 Compensation and benefits**
$85,000 CAD - $110,000 CAD per year, based on experience
* Cost of living adjustments are possible for employees who are not based in Montreal
* Stock options
* Comprehensive medical and dental coverage
* 5 weeks vacation
* Four-day work week at full-time salary (yes, you read that right)
* Apple laptop and equipment
* $1,500 annual mobility allowance. STM? BIXI? Uber? E-bike? Scooter? Going car-free is free at Transit.
* A training and development budget
* Generous maternal/paternal/parental leave policy. Gotta fill out our tandem bicycles somehow!
* Flexible work hours
* Spend your days surrounded by first-rate teammates and the best view of Montreal and/or [insert exotic Zoom background]
* When you’re in the office: you’ll be in urbanist heaven, surrounded by Mile End’s urban gardens, bike paths, BIXI docks, bus stops, a metro station, and limitless restaurants… cafés… bars… concert halls… bagel boutiques…
* Communal lunch-and-learn with free food in the office each week
**👨💻 A note on diversity**
Public transit is used by overwhelmingly more women and people of colour than
other modes of transportation. We try to make sure the diversity of our users
is reflected in the team that serves them. Because when we include people of
all races, genders, sexual orientations, ages, and identities — we end up
building a better app for everyone who uses Transit.
We encourage candidates of all ages, genders, origins and orientations to
apply. If you’d like to specify which pronouns you use, feel free to include
that in your application email.
And if your lived experience has given you a unique perspective on all things
transportation, mobility, accessibility, urbanism? Let us know, and we’ll make
sure your application gets the attention it merits.
**📬 How to apply**
Shoot us an email at
[jobs+routing@transitapp.com](mailto:jobs+routing@transitapp.com) with a CV,
quick summary of who you are and why you’re interested in working at Transit,
a link to your GitHub, and some projects you’re proud to have worked on. We
look forward to meeting you!
PS: When you apply, let us know how you heard about the position! Whispers,
grapevines, middle-of-the-night Google searches? We’re dying to know.
