Head of Backend

About the Role A fast-growing productivity SaaS startup is looking for a Head of Backend to lead and scale its backend engineering function. You'll join a small, highly capable development team and play a pivotal role in consolidating a microservices architecture, driving performance and reliability improvements, and powering new product growth through well-crafted APIs and integrations. This is a hands-on leadership role — you'll both shape engineering direction and write production code every day. What You'll Do - Expand, consolidate, and scale a microservices backend architecture for a high-growth product. - Improve overall backend performance, reliability, and security posture. - Design and develop new REST APIs for both internal and external consumers. - Build and maintain integrations with third-party services and external APIs. - Create internal tooling to streamline development and operations workflows. - Define and contribute to software lifecycle processes and engineering best practices. - Proactively propose innovative features and backend solutions aligned with product goals. - Occasionally engage directly with customers to triage and reproduce bugs. What We're Looking For Required skills & experience: - 11+ years of professional backend development experience (minimum 6 years considered for exceptional profiles). - Strong hands-on proficiency in Go and Node.js; PHP familiarity is a bonus. - Proven experience building and consuming REST APIs with OAuth2 authentication. - Deep experience with distributed systems and microservices architecture. - Solid knowledge of PostgreSQL or other relational databases and caching systems. - Proficiency with Unix-based systems, Docker, and Kubernetes. - Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS, or equivalent). - Experience scaling infrastructure and implementing monitoring and logging solutions. - Strong fundamentals in algorithms, data structures, and software design. - Proficient with Git version control. - Strong spoken and written English communication skills. Nice to have: - Experience with third-party and external API integrations. - Security hardening background for backend services. - Experience building developer-facing internal tools. The ideal candidate is: a collaborative, security-conscious engineer-leader who sweats the details, cares about user experience at the API level, and brings a flexible, can-do mindset to a small team environment. Compensation & Benefits - Salary: $80,000 – $120,000 USD annually, depending on experience. - Opportunity to shape backend architecture at a critical growth stage (Series A/B equivalent). - Small team with high ownership and direct product impact. Visa sponsorship is not available for this role. Location This is an on-site position based in Canada. Candidates must be eligible to work in Canada without visa sponsorship.

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