Principal Backend Engineer, Canada

NovoEd, Inc.

About The Position

We are seeking a Principal Backend Engineer with deep expertise in backend systems and a strong track record of architecting scalable, reliable platforms. This role is responsible for shaping the technical direction of our backend architecture and helping guide the long-term evolution of our systems as the product and organization grow. In addition to defining architecture, the Principal Engineer owns platform-level outcomes, ensuring that backend systems deliver strong performance, reliability, and scalability that directly support business and product goals. As a Principal Engineer, you will combine hands-on technical leadership with strategic architectural thinking. You will partner closely with engineering leadership, product teams, and cross-functional stakeholders to design solutions that balance scalability, reliability, and development velocity. In addition to leading complex technical initiatives, you will mentor engineers, influence engineering standards, and help raise the technical bar across the organization. You will also identify and address systemic technical debt that impacts platform performance, reliability, and developer productivity, and drive initiatives that improve the organization’s ability to ship high-quality features faster. You will also help advance modern engineering practices across the team, including the effective use of AI-assisted development tools and automation to improve developer productivity while maintaining rigorous standards for system design, code quality, and operational reliability.

Requirements

12+ years of software development experience with a strong foundation in backend development, including building and maintaining scalable systems.
4+ years of hands-on experience with Ruby on Rails in production environments.
Experience with Sidekiq for background job processing and Redis for caching and queuing systems.
Proven experience in database design and optimization, particularly with SQL and PostgreSQL.
Experience developing APIs (REST or GraphQL) and integrating with third-party systems or services.
Proficiency with Docker for containerization and familiarity with AWS infrastructure for deployment and scaling.
Experience managing technical debt while continuing to deliver new features.
Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing strategies, and backend development best practices.
Strong understanding of system architecture, infrastructure, and deployment strategies using Docker and AWS.
Must have Computer Science or Engineering degree
Demonstrated fluency with modern AI-assisted development workflows, including coding assistants or autonomous coding agents.
Experience incorporating AI-enabled tools into daily engineering workflows while critically evaluating their outputs.
Strong problem-solving skills and ability to diagnose complex backend issues and performance bottlenecks.
Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and communicate technical concepts clearly.
Self-motivated with strong ownership of backend systems and technical outcomes.
High attention to detail and commitment to delivering maintainable, high-quality solutions.
Ability to influence engineering practices and promote responsible adoption of modern development tools, including AI.

Nice To Haves

Experience designing and evolving large-scale distributed systems or platform architectures.
Strong understanding of modern frontend ecosystems (e.g., React or Angular) and how they integrate with backend services and APIs.
Experience with DevOps practices, infrastructure automation, and improving reliability, observability, and deployment workflows.
Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction, mentor engineers, and raise engineering standards across teams.
Experience building or improving developer platforms, internal tooling, or engineering productivity systems.
Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools, coding agents, or automation frameworks, and an interest in advancing how engineering teams leverage modern development tooling.
Experience working in high-scale SaaS environments serving enterprise customers.