Backend Software Engineer

Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada; on-site

Company

hirify.global develops AuraNet, a mesh networking platform for autonomous assets operating in contested and disconnected environments, supporting defence capabilities for the Canadian Armed Forces and its allies.

What you will do

• Design and build high-performance backend services for data ingestion, processing, and real-time distribution.
• Develop and optimize Zenoh-based publish/subscribe networking for low-latency, end-to-end encrypted mesh communications.
• Build and maintain GraphQL and REST APIs for operator interfaces, internal tools, and external integrations.
• Integrate the platform with MAVLink, ArduPilot, Unreal Engine, Gazebo, and deployed autonomous systems.
• Develop secure asset management workflows using certificate-based authentication and PKI infrastructure.
• Build automated testing frameworks, contribute to CI/CD, review code, and support platform architecture.

Requirements

• Production experience with Go, Python, Java, C++, or a comparable backend language.
• Strong understanding of TCP/IP, UDP, publish/subscribe architectures, and distributed systems.
• Experience with end-to-end encryption, PKI, authentication, and authorization.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and experience shipping distributed systems in production.
• Eligibility for Canadian security clearance is preferred; Canadian citizenship is an asset.
• No defence background is required.

Nice to have

• Experience with mesh networking or distributed communication systems.
• Familiarity with Zenoh or similar messaging technologies.
• Experience integrating robotics, UAV, or autonomous platforms.
• Exposure to Unreal Engine, Gazebo, Linux systems, or containerized deployments.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time, on-site work with direct collaboration across disciplines and leadership.
• High-trust environment with short feedback loops and rapid iteration.
• Opportunity to work directly with operators and systems already deployed with the CAF.
• Competitive base salary and company equity.
• Comprehensive health benefits and additional equity based on impact.

Hiring process

• AI tools may support screening and review of candidate responses.
• Final hiring decisions are made by people in accordance with applicable Canadian privacy and employment laws.