Behind every release and every new feature in Rail-Flow’s Order Management Intermodal platform is a team that balances speed, stability, and scale. We sat down with Can Özer, Head Developer on the OMI team, to hear about his day-to-day, the challenges he navigates, and how AI is changing the way the team works. 

What does a typical day look like in your role as Head Developer? 

My day typically begins with a stand-up meeting, where the team aligns on priorities, discusses upcoming work, and identifies any immediate blockers. When functional questions arise, we collaborate closely with the Product Owner to clarify requirements, scheduling follow-up discussions when needed. For technical challenges, I serve as the primary point of contact, supporting the team in making informed decisions and unblocking progress. 

Throughout the day, I remain actively involved in development while also dedicating time to mentoring and supporting team members. Around midday, I participate in head developer alignment meetings with other teams to stay informed about cross-team dependencies, upcoming changes, and potential impacts, ensuring we can proactively adapt where necessary. 

In addition, I attend regular system health check meetings focused on monitoring our production environment. These sessions help us identify risks, address issues early, and continuously improve the stability and reliability of the product. 

Overall, my role balances hands-on development, team support, and cross-team coordination to ensure we deliver a stable and high-quality Order Management Intermodal solution. 

What is the biggest challenge you face, and how does the team tackle it? 

Rather than a single, clearly defined challenge, the complexity lies in the scale and pace of change we are managing. We are continuously evolving the platform to support a wide range of customers, each with their own requirements, workflows, and edge cases. Balancing these parallel developments while maintaining system stability and consistency is one of the most demanding aspects of our work. 

To address this, we focus on building flexible and scalable solutions that can accommodate variation without introducing unnecessary complexity. Strong collaboration within the team, combined with clear communication with stakeholders, allows us to stay aligned and make well-informed decisions. 

Additionally, we are increasingly leveraging AI-assisted development to enhance productivity, improve code quality, and accelerate delivery. This enables us to remain adaptable and responsive, ensuring we can meet customer demands while continuing to strengthen the overall robustness of the platform. 

How do you balance product decisions with engineering execution? 

Balancing product decisions with engineering execution is a key part of my role, and recent advancements in AI-assisted tools have made this more effective. By reducing the time spent on repetitive development tasks, we can invest more effort into understanding requirements, refining functionality, and ensuring alignment before implementation begins. 

For new change requests and features, I work closely with the Product Owner, who prepares the initial case using AI-powered tools. Once I have a clear understanding of the requirements, I use Spec-kit to structure and refine the development story. I then review and adjust it to ensure it is technically sound, well-defined, and actionable for the team. 

When a developer picks up the work, I encourage open communication and proactive collaboration. If there are any uncertainties or concerns, we address them early through discussion, ensuring alignment on both the “what” and the “how.” This iterative feedback loop helps us validate that we are building the right solutions, in the right way, while maintaining a high standard of quality and consistency. 

Bonus: One thing that surprised you about life in the Netherlands? 

One of the first things that stood out to me after moving to the Netherlands was how efficient and integral cycling is to daily life. I realised that for many destinations, getting around by bike is actually fasterthan using public transportation. It’s a unique aspect of the country’s infrastructure and culture, and it’s been a refreshing way to navigate everyday life.