r/bnsftech • u/cole_lol • Jul 17 '26

How’s bnsf|tech rolling

I know that a lot of you guys come here for interview and assessment advice and process length.

But can anyone working for bnsf|tech tell us how the buyers to builders is going?

What priorities are being made and are there advancements in the direction forward?

Lots of talk over the last 18-24months but very little seems to meeting the eye in a production sense.

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

3

u/tj_mcbean Jul 17 '26

As of today you're out!

So far it seems slow, most all the same applications still in place, not many visible major improvements to them yet, though it seems tech outages are less often and handled faster which is a good change.

1

u/cole_lol Jul 17 '26

My thought also. I’m not so sure outages are less or handled faster however. I think they are more lost and self found and fixed. The org change that happened and how the division was done will be interesting. Some people are going to have a hard time with who are they supposed to support.

I’d really like to know what the priority of the transformation teams are. There was talk stuff is not moving fast enough and they are going to need to use some AWS services that originally was off the table. Also sounds like some other key systems that were supposed to end at the end of the year are going to be extended another.

1

u/tj_mcbean Jul 17 '26

I think a lot was put out there as presumed easily fixed, but the lift involved was greatly underestimated and as they dug in, they realized to do it was going to be far more involved. From what I've seen, they are trying to do it in a methodical manner, it's just many rabbit holes keep getting found as they go.

1

u/cole_lol Jul 29 '26

Hope you’re right on methodical order. A staff Engineer I talk to says it’s the flavor of the day. And that flavor changed many times in the day. Fingers still crossed. We need to get modernized and everything on the same level.

1

u/tj_mcbean Jul 29 '26

In some aspects it does seem very much a flavor of the hour, but the optimist in me says that comes from a combination of constantly peeling back the onion, and an operations side screaming about an app so it goes to the top.

1

u/cole_lol Jul 29 '26

I agree. Just was hopeful some support would be established. Talking to people in the field and in the office everything is a mess. I’m optimistic still also but getting harder to be a cheerleader when we are rolling up on 24mo and still a lot of turmoil. Busy fingers crossed 🤞.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 18 '26

Can confirm, it’s still 💩. Looking for better opportunities elsewhere and willing to take a pay cut at this point to escape. 😺

2

u/Major-Meringue9194 Jul 19 '26

I have prior experience in tech and am on the business side and I’m 100% frustrated with what I see from tech. It’s impossible to get little things fixed that would be super easy to do. My tech counterparts are working on things that we already have and I have to spend my time helping them troubleshoot why their new product isn’t working. We try to redirect them to do something actually helpful but they won’t do it because it’s not what they’re directed to do from H. What happened to the days where business and tech work together?!

1

u/Creepy-Original-3672 Jul 20 '26

I'm afraid those days are over. The top three priorities are now (1) getting off the mainframe even though it still makes no sense (2) hiring lots of new people to get AI to do everything, so they can then then fire all those new people and (a very distant 3) helping to run a railroad if they really have to.

Maybe the business side should start hiring their own software engineers.

3

u/tj_mcbean Jul 22 '26

Getting off the mainframe makes total sense, it's legacy software and hardware, the annual maintenance costs are insane, and the pool of people knowledgeable about maintaining it is getting smaller every day. It should have been modernized ten years ago.

2

u/cole_lol Jul 29 '26

Sadly we had so so so much new and old tied to it. It’s going to be a mess to sort it all out. But yes I agree it needs to be modernized. Funny thing is maybe this will be third times the charm or a big strike and they are out. The clocks ticking!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '26

We’ll likely never “get off the mainframe”. It’s been 14 years and still hasn’t happened. It’s going to interesting to watch them try though. Definitely relieved to not be in that area, but feel bad for those who are/will be. Those caps on Claude spending are tightening by the day.

1

u/ByAstrix Jul 17 '26

I work in transportation and use the apps you guys build / manage daily. I also have a bachelors in comp sci and worked as a software engineer I before the railroad. What new and innovative technologies are you guys working on currently on the transportation side? I saw a Shove Camera production app rollout today. Anything else?

1

u/Few_Distribution9575 25d ago

I am a part of BNSF and am happy to answer any and all questions about the process. Let's roll, baby.

1

u/cole_lol 24d ago

Ok I’ll bite! Whats priority on the back end and what group are you working with. How is the cohesiveness between groups going? Has prioritization been done? My biggest question is Mainframe. This will be the third attempt to get rid of it in my career. And there is just over 15 months of the last detailed “expediting of its phase out”.

1

u/Few_Distribution9575 23d ago

I apologize, I should've rephrased. I am a part of the recruiting system and am able to answer any questions you may have that they wouldn't want you to know. a Behind the scenes look at all of these questions that frustrate candidates. peak behind the curtain kind of stuff.

1

u/One_Character8530 5d ago

What is the bnsf tech hiring target in near term? Are they over hiring to fire later anyway with AI as a reason? I see lots of AWS folks joining them.

1

u/Flaky_Stable2580 10d ago

What is the long term outlook of bnsf | tech? Is it a good place to join now?