Intermediate Backend Engineer

ANVIL

12d•Hybrid

About The Position

As an Intermediate Backend Engineer, you will play a critical role in designing, building, and maintaining the server-side systems that power our mission-critical software. You will develop reliable and well-structured APIs, model and manage data with care, and ensure that the services you build are robust, observable, and easy for other engineers to reason about and integrate with. You will work closely with engineering and product teams to define data contracts, shape API design, and deliver backend capabilities that underpin complex analytical and operational workflows. In this role, you will bring a thoughtful approach to type consistency and data integrity, contribute to event-driven and streaming architectures, and collaborate across the stack to ensure that the systems you build meet the reliability standards that mission-critical environments demand. We are looking for a well-rounded engineer with genuine experience across the backend stack. This would be someone who understands not just how to build an endpoint, but how data flows through a system, where it can break down, and how to design services that hold up under real-world operational pressure. This is a full-time position based in Ottawa / Remote. Eligible candidates must either possess or be eligible to obtain a Government of Canada Top Secret security clearance.

Requirements

Eligible for Government of Canada Top Secret security clearance
3+ years of hands-on experience in backend engineering, with production-grade work in Python
Demonstrated experience designing and building REST APIs, including thoughtful handling of resource modelling, error responses, versioning, and documentation
Familiarity with real-time (WebSocket, SSE) and event-driven (Kafka, Redpanda) patterns
Proven experience working with SQL databases in production, with a preference for candidates with Postgres depth (including schema design, query optimization, and migration management)
Demonstrated understanding of type consistency and data contracts (including how to define, enforce, and evolve shared interfaces between services and across team boundaries)
Strong grasp of backend fundamentals: service design, data modelling, concurrency, and error handling
Ability to write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code that other engineers can confidently build on
Clear understanding of how data flows through distributed systems and where consistency, validation, and failure modes need to be designed for explicitly
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical decisions and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences

Nice To Haves

Experience with knowledge management systems, case management systems, or relevant defence industry applications
Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies and sprint-based development cycles
Experience working in or closely with defence, public safety, or national security organizations
Familiarity with containerization and deployment tooling (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes)
Experience with CI/CD pipelines and integrating backend test suites into automated build processes
Exposure to observability practices including structured logging, metrics, and distributed tracing

Responsibilities

Design and implement well-structured APIs that are intuitive, consistent, and reliable for consuming teams
Define and maintain clear data contracts and shared interface schemas, collaborating closely with frontend and data engineers to manage changes without introducing breakage
Contribute to backend architecture discussions with a focus on simplicity, maintainability, and long-term operational health
Design and manage Postgres schemas that reflect sound data modelling principles and support evolving product requirements
Write efficient, well-considered queries and contribute to database migration strategies that minimize risk to production systems
Ensure data integrity and type consistency are enforced at the right layers of the stack
Write unit and integration tests that validate service behaviour, edge cases, and failure modes with clarity and reproducibility
Participate in code reviews, providing and incorporating constructive feedback to uphold code quality and shared standards
Identify and resolve backend defects early in the development cycle, documenting issues with clear reproduction steps and impact assessments
Participate actively in sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives
Review and provide feedback on requirements, design documents, and API specifications
Communicate development progress and technical blockers to stakeholders clearly and proactively
Work closely with cross-functional teams to maintain and exceed quality and delivery standards