WELCOME TO SITA

PURPOSE

As an Optimization Scientist, you will apply operations research and mathematical optimization to design and build the optimization engines that recover airline operations from disruption — turning hours of manual replanning into minutes of high-quality, automated recovery decisions.

You will be accountable for a disruption-recovery solver pipeline end-to-end: from mathematical formulation to production code running against real airline operations.

Reporting to the Head of Disruption Management Solutions (OCC Assistant Manager), you will be a part of the OCC Assistant Manager team responsible for OCC Assistant Manager

, SITA’s AI-powered Operations Control Center solution that helps airlines manage and recover from operational disruptions. We are hiring two Optimization Scientists to grow the team.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Own a disruption-recovery solver pipeline end-to-end — from mathematical formulation to production code
• Translate airline-specific rules and constraints (crew legality, aircraft routing, passenger reaccommodation) into solver formulations
• Validate solver solutions against real disruption cases, working side by side with our Solutions Experts
• Own solution-quality and runtime KPIs, driving the trade-off between solution quality and solve time
• Extend solver capabilities and ship new optimization functionality as the product evolves
• Collaborate with Back-End and Data Engineering teams to integrate your solver outputs into the live product
• Build deep airline-operations domain knowledge and turn it into better formulations

WHO YOU ARE

• You have a strong foundation in mathematical optimization and operations research, with depth in areas such as linear programming, mixed-integer programming, network flow algorithms, large-scale optimization techniques or metaheuristics
• You have hands-on experience with solvers such as Gurobi, CPLEX or SCIP
• You are proficient in Python and SQL, work fluently with Git and optimization libraries, and write code that is ready for production
• You can translate complex business rules into algorithms
• You work at the intersection of math and engineering, bridging OR theory and production code
• You are self-directed and ramp up new domain knowledge independently
• You are detail-oriented — debugging solver behavior requires precision
• You think in systems: you understand how formulation choices affect solver performance end-to-end
• You hold a degree in Operations Research, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Industrial Engineering or a related quantitative field. MSc or PhD is a plus

NICE-TO-HAVE

• Experience with column generation or decomposition methods
• C++ programming skills
• Familiarity with airline operations: IROPS/disruption management, crew legality rules, aircraft rotations or passenger rebooking

WHAT WE OFFER

• 
  Flex Day: Make your workday suit your life and plans.