Optimization Specialist (Airline Operations)

Location: Barcelona, Spain; hybrid work with work-from-home up to 2 days per week depending on team needs.

Company

hirify.global develops technology and communications solutions for airports, airlines, borders, and the global air travel industry.

What you will do

• Own the disruption-recovery solver pipeline from mathematical formulation to production code.
• Translate airline rules and constraints, including crew legality, aircraft routing, and passenger reaccommodation, into solver formulations.
• Validate solver solutions against real disruption cases with Solutions Experts.
• Own solution-quality and runtime KPIs and manage the trade-off between solution quality and solve time.
• Extend solver capabilities and integrate optimization outputs with Back-End and Data Engineering teams.
• Build airline-operations domain knowledge and improve optimization formulations.

Requirements

• Strong foundation in mathematical optimization and operations research, including linear programming, mixed-integer programming, network flow algorithms, large-scale optimization, or metaheuristics.
• Hands-on experience with Gurobi, CPLEX, or SCIP.
• Proficiency in Python, SQL, Git, and optimization libraries, with experience writing production-ready code.
• Ability to translate complex business rules into algorithms and connect operations research theory with production engineering.
• Degree in Operations Research, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, or a related quantitative field.
• Knowledge of airline operations management and the operational, commercial, and customer-service challenges faced by airlines.

Nice to have

• Experience with column generation or decomposition methods.
• C++ programming skills.
• Familiarity with IROPS and disruption management, crew legality rules, aircraft rotations, or passenger rebooking.
• MSc or PhD in a relevant field.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid work with up to 2 work-from-home days per week, depending on team needs.
• Flexible workdays and the option to work from any location in the world for up to 30 days per year.
• Employee Assistance Program and Champion Health wellbeing platform.
• Professional development through LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft’s Enterprise Skills Initiative, Pluralsight, Harvard Business Publishing, Stanford programs, and other learning resources.
• Competitive benefits aligned with the local market and employment status.