Senior Backend Developer (AI)

Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; remote or onsite

Company

Knak provides an enterprise SaaS platform for creating marketing emails and landing pages.

What you will do

• Design and implement the Python agent runtime, including orchestration, tool execution, memory, context management, structured outputs, and failure handling.
• Build evaluation datasets, automated evaluators, and LLM-as-judge pipelines with LangSmith to measure agent quality and prevent regressions.
• Diagnose agent failures, tune prompts and tools, and run model comparisons and benchmarks.
• Create Python and Node.js AI microservices and maintain Laravel APIs that integrate agents into the platform.
• Build secure, scalable AWS infrastructure using services such as Lambda, Bedrock, and CDN delivery.
• Improve database performance, code quality, observability, testing, and scalability while collaborating with product, design, QA, and DevOps and mentoring engineers.

Requirements

• 6+ years of backend software development experience.
• Production experience building LLM-powered agents with tool calling, orchestration, context management, and prompt engineering.
• Experience designing LLM evaluations, including dataset curation, automated evaluators, LLM-as-judge systems, and regression tracking.
• Strong Python, Node.js, and MySQL skills, plus RESTful APIs, TDD, and CI/CD with GitHub Actions.
• Experience with SaaS architecture, microservices, AWS, observability, performance tuning, and scalability.
• Familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes, and collaborative software development.

Nice to have

• Full-stack experience with Vue, PHP Laravel, and AI agent engineering.
• Experience with AI-powered products, LLMs, LangGraph, or other AI agent frameworks.
• Background in a fast-growing SaaS company.

Culture & Benefits

• Mission-driven environment focused on empowering people to be creative.
• Competitive salary, company equity, and comprehensive benefits.
• Paid vacation and Life Leave days.
• Team lunches, off-sites, and investment in career growth.
• Inclusive, barrier-free working environment with interview accommodations available.