Senior Software Developer

THE EMPIRE LIFE INS. CO•Kingston, ON

6d•CA$106,904 - CA$156,904•Remote

About The Position

Empire Life is looking to hire a Software Developer to join our Back Office Development team! We are actively seeking candidates to fill a current, open position. We are building a dedicated modernization development team to transform our core operational systems from legacy COBOL and Easytrieve mainframe logic into a modern, cloud-native architecture using Incremental Modernization Strategy patterns.

Requirements

5+ years work experience in back office software development.
Practical working knowledge and expertise in application modernization.
Completion of a University degree, college diploma, technical training, and/or equivalent experience.
Reverse engineering & legacy logic (COBOL/Easytrieve) analysis.
Deep understanding of incremental modernization patterns.
Hands-on expertise in modern target languages and frameworks (Java/Kotlin, Golang, Python, C#).
Expertise in data layer migration from hierarchical/flat formats to relational or NoSQL stores
Mainframe ecosystem working knowledge (JCL, CICS, VSAM, DB2, packed-decimal).
Mastery of test driven validation, automated parity and parallel testing.
Ability to map monolithic batch/transactional workflows to event-driven architectures.
Domain-Driven Design (DDD) & monolith decomposition.
Modern CI/CD pipelines.
Risk management & defensive modernization mindset.
Language proficiency in English is required for communicating with customers, advisors, or employees across Canada.

Nice To Haves

GCP and/or Microsoft Azure experience for modernization would be an asset.
Insurance or investment experience would be an asset.

Responsibilities

Technical Discovery & Code Analysis: Reading COBOL programs, Easytrieve report scripts, and JCL flows to reverse-engineer core business rules and data pipelines.
Target Architecture & Service Development: Writing clean, scalable microservices/APIs in modern target languages (e.g., Java/Kotlin, C#, Python, or Go) and decoupling batch workflows into event streams (Kafka).
Parity Testing & Interception: Setting up API routing gateways, feature flags, and parallel shadow testing to validate that new services match legacy output down to the penny/byte before cutting over.
Implementation & Cleanup: Flipping live transaction switches and safely decommissioning legacy system functions and capabilities.

Benefits

Competitive salaries with annual pay increases
Annual bonus program, which recognizes both strong company performance and individual contributions, for non sales positions
Competitive uncapped commission, for sales positions
A comprehensive employer-funded benefits package starting from day one of employment, that includes life insurance, disability, health and dental and a generous health account
Flexible work arrangements and an annual allotment of personal health days.
Four weeks annual vacation from hire date
A defined contribution pension plan with generous employer matching
Top up programs for parental leave and compassionate leave
Employer-sponsored wellness and recognition programs
A cash employee referral program