We're looking for a senior backend engineer to own platform quality - consistency across services, thoughtful tech adoption, security and compliance, and shipping things through to done. Compensation is $120,000-$140,000 CAD depending on experience. You'll also work closely with our scientific product manager to co-design new health report products, which means you'll need genuine curiosity about how biology works. You don't need a science degree - but if you've ever looked at your own lab results and wondered what they actually mean, that's the instinct.
What you'll own
- Platform quality and consistency - you notice when two services handle errors differently and fix it, not file a ticket
- Thoughtful introduction of new technology - you're skeptical until it earns its place, then you drive adoption through
- Security and compliance balance - you've made design decisions where delivery and security were in tension, and you navigated them with judgment, not just caution
- Production improvements from diagnosis through to resolution - you close the loop
- New health report products developed alongside our scientific PM - from clinical question to shipped feature
What we're looking for
- Production experience with Ruby on Rails and Elixir/Phoenix - shipped and operated, not just familiar
- Distributed systems in practice: async messaging (RabbitMQ or similar), failure modes, idempotency, dead-letter queues
- Infrastructure ownership: Terraform and AWS at a level where you can drive a change, not just read one
- At least one example of reducing platform entropy - a migration, deprecation, or refactor that made a system class simpler, not just larger
- Experience owning a security or compliance decision end-to-end (HIPAA/PIPEDA context is a plus; the judgment is the requirement)
- Clear, direct communication - you can explain a technical trade-off to a scientific PM without either oversimplifying or retreating into jargon
If you meet most of these but not all, we'd still like to hear from you. We're looking for the right person, not the perfect checklist.
How we work
We use Shape Up: six-week cycles with real autonomy, followed by cooldown periods where you help shape what comes next. You'll have direct access to customer feedback and clinical context. Engineering, product, and science work closely together here - decisions get made in conversations, not committees.
We're a small team. Your voice will carry. So will your follow-through.
Our stack
Ruby on Rails • Elixir/Phoenix • RabbitMQ • PostgreSQL • Terraform • AWS • GitHub
What we offer
- Ownership of platform quality and engineering standards across a production health platform
- A role where your architectural decisions are load-bearing, and you'll know it Vancouver-based, hybrid - we work together in person and value flexibility
