Role overview

Senior Backend Engineer – Data Platform & Activation Location: Remote (Canada)
Employment Type: Full-time
Compensation: $180,000 – $240,000 USD + Equity
Role Overview A hyper-growth data infrastructure and SaaS company is seeking a product-minded Senior Backend Engineer to help scale its core data activation platform. The platform enables organizations to leverage their cloud data warehouses directly for customer engagement, analytics, and operational automation without complex custom code.
This role focuses on designing high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems that operate at the intersection of modern cloud warehouses, streaming data, and end-user workflows. You will take full end-to-end ownership of major technical initiatives-from architectural design and spec writing to deployment and performance tuning at massive scale.
Key Responsibilities

High-Scale Distributed Systems: Architect, build, and maintain mission-critical backend services and APIs designed to handle millions of queries and high-volume data synchronization.
Data Warehouse Performance: Push the limits of query performance and data extraction across modern cloud warehouses (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks), developing pre-computed caching layers and query optimization engines.
Real-Time Data Pipelines: Design event-driven, real-time data ingestion and synchronization pipelines utilizing change data capture (CDC) and stream processing.
Product Collaboration: Partner closely with product managers, designers, and customers to define technical specifications, scope features, and translate complex user needs into simple, reliable software.
Modern Tooling & AI: Incorporate machine learning and Generative AI workflows to streamline audience building, decisioning, and customer data operations.

Candidate Profile

Backend Experience: 6+ years of professional backend engineering experience, with a track record of building and scaling distributed systems in high-growth startup or tech environments.
Data Architecture Expertise: Deep practical knowledge of relational databases, cloud data warehouses, caching systems, and distributed system design patterns.
Product-Minded Mindset: Strong intuition for user experience and product mechanics; comfortable engaging directly with product specs and customer feedback.
Engineering Craftsmanship: Commitment to first-principles thinking, clean abstractions, high code quality, and maintainable system architecture.
Communication & Autonomy: High degree of self-direction, intellectual curiosity, and clear written and verbal communication skills in an asynchronous, remote-first setting.

Compensation & Benefits

Base Salary: $180,000 – $320,000 (dependent on experience and leveling).
Equity: Meaningful equity grant with favorable exercise provisions (including extended post-termination exercise windows).
Work Arrangement: 100% remote within Canada (aligned to North American time zones).
Comprehensive Coverage: Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage, alongside flexible PTO and home-office equipment allowances.