Principal Operations Research Scientist(Gurobi/CPLEX/Xpress)(Python/Java/C++/C#/ Go)(12+years) - 11780

About the role

Coupa makes margins multiply through its community-generated AI and industry-leading total spend management platform for businesses large and small. Coupa AI is informed by trillions of dollars of direct and indirect spend data across a global network of 10M+ buyers and suppliers. We empower you with the ability to predict, prescribe, and automate smarter, more profitable business decisions to improve operating margins.

Why join Coupa?

- Pioneering Technology: At Coupa, we're at the forefront of innovation, leveraging the latest technology to empower our customers with greater efficiency and visibility in their spend.

- Collaborative Culture: We value collaboration and teamwork, and our culture is driven by transparency, openness, and a shared commitment to excellence.

- Global Impact: Join a company where your work has a global, measurable impact on our clients, the business, and each other.

Learn more on Life at Coupa blog and hear from our employees about their experiences working at Coupa.

The Impact of Principal Operations Research Scientist to Coupa:

At Coupa, we are building the smartest Business Spend Management (BSM) platform in the world. Our Supply Chain and Sourcing engineering teams develop advanced tools that help global enterprises design resilient supply chains, optimize procurement events, and maximize the value of every dollar spent. The Operations Research team is at the heart of this mission. As a Principal Operations Research Scientist, you will act as the principal hands-on architect for our core optimization engines, driving technical excellence and turning complex mathematical theories into scalable, production-ready enterprise software.

What You’ll Do - Algorithmic Leadership: Take end-to-end technical ownership of complex optimization features. Formulate, prototype, and implement advanced mathematical models (MIP, LP, NLP, Network Flow, and custom heuristics) to solve strategic sourcing and supply chain challenges.

- Architecture & Scalability: Partner with software architects to integrate optimization models into Coupa’s high-throughput, multi-tenant SaaS platform. Ensure the code is modular, well-tested, and built to handle massive enterprise datasets.

- Solver Tuning & Optimization: Bench-test, profile, and tune commercial solvers (e.g., Gurobi, CPLEX, Google OR-Tools) to dramatically improve performance, solve times, and memory footprint under strict application SLAs.

- Technical Mentorship: Act as a force multiplier by mentoring senior and junior engineers/scientists. Establish code review standards and run design sessions to elevate the team's mathematical and engineering practices.

- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Product Managers and Senior Engineering leaders to define feature requirements, translate business objectives into technical specifications, and manage algorithmic trade-offs.

- Empirical Validation: Design robust validation frameworks and simulation environments to thoroughly test model behavior, ensuring stability and mathematical correctness against highly variable, messy real-world data.