Lead Backend Engineer (AI-native)

TL;DR

Lead Backend Engineer (AI-native): Building and maintaining backend APIs and services that power an AI workflow platform for marketing and creative teams, with an accent on high-scale data architecture, event-driven systems, and production-grade third-party integrations. Focus on designing service boundaries and API contracts, directing AI coding tools while rigorously reviewing outputs, and ensuring reliability under real production load.

Company

hirify.global builds an AI-native platform that helps marketing and creative teams understand which ads work and ship winning creative across major ad platforms.

What you will do

• Design, build, and maintain backend APIs and services used across engineering as the AI workflow platform scales.
• Architect service boundaries, data models, and API contracts in production using Node.js and TypeScript.
• Lead complex multi-engineer backend projects from design through production and make technical trade-off decisions.
• Build asynchronous, event-driven systems (queues, background jobs, messaging) that run under real production load.
• Own end-to-end third-party integrations (auth, rate limits, retries, failure modes), including ad-platform APIs when applicable.
• Simplify and evolve data architecture at scale (schema design, ETL pipelines, storage choices such as PostgreSQL and MongoDB).

Requirements

• Location: Remote in Canada (preference for candidates based in the GTA/Toronto) and ability to work with significant overlap to Eastern Time.
• 6+ years building and maintaining large-scale software applications, operating at Staff or Lead IC level with experience setting technical direction.
• Track record taking products from 0 to 1, ideally at Series A to C startups.
• Experience raising an engineering team’s bar through design reviews, mentoring, and standards adoption.
• Experience building or integrating LLM-powered product features or agent systems.
• Strong written and verbal communication, translating technical issues into business impact.

Culture & Benefits

• Remote-first with optional office hubs; in-person build weeks every couple of months and a summer retreat.
• Health benefits from day one.
• 20 days PTO plus a monthly health and lifestyle stipend and a $1,500 work-from-home stipend.
• Competitive compensation with equity for all employees.