Overview
About ShyftLabs
Full job description
About ShyftLabs
At ShyftLabs, we live and breathe data. Since 2020, we’ve been helping Fortune 500 companies unlock growth with cutting-edge digital solutions that transform industries and create measurable business impact. We’re growing fast and we’re looking for passionate problem-solvers who are ready to turn big ideas into real outcomes.
The Opportunity
We’re an ambitious Toronto-based startup building data-driven products that operate at massive scale, and we’re looking for a Technical Lead / Backend Architect to help shape our backend foundation for the next stage of growth. You’ll be hands-on designing distributed systems that handle billions of events monthly, while guiding the engineering team in building scalable, secure, and high-performing services.
This is an opportunity to take ownership of architecture decisions, influence technology direction, and work alongside a passionate team that moves fast, experiments boldly, and values craftsmanship.
Architect & Deliver: Design and implement distributed backend systems capable of handling billions of monthly events (e.g., AdTech pipelines, CAMS microservices). Build Scalable Data Pipelines: Develop robust ingestion and processing frameworks using Kafka, ClickHouse, and Snowflake, ensuring data quality and schema governance. Optimize Performance: Lead database optimization efforts across Aurora, Cloud SQL, and PostgreSQL to deliver low-latency, high-availability systems. Set the Bar for Engineering: Define and enforce best practices around code quality, CI/CD automation, monitoring, and release management. Lead & Mentor: Guide engineers through architectural decisions, conduct design reviews, and balance workload distribution in an Agile setup. Drive Cloud Architecture: Design cloud infrastructure on AWS and GCP, with a focus on scalability, cost efficiency, and security compliance. Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner closely with Product Managers and Data teams to evaluate technical feasibility, define milestones, and deliver on roadmap goals. Champion Reliability: Promote observability and reliability engineering practices, building alerting, tracing, and SLO/SLA dashboards for high system visibility.
8+ years of backend development experience, including 3+ years in a technical leadership or architecture role. Deep expertise in distributed systems, event-driven architecture, and data-intensive applications. Strong proficiency in at least one backend language (Node.js, Python, Go, or Java). Hands-on experience with Kafka, ClickHouse, Snowflake, and relational databases. Proven experience scaling systems on AWS or GCP. Exceptional communication, mentorship, and problem-solving skills. A startup mindset - someone who is adaptable, execution-focused, and unafraid to get hands-on when needed.
$130,000 - $170,000
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