Job Title: Principal (Lead/Staff) Backend Engineer (Distributed Systems & Control Planes)
Location: Fully Remote (Need to reside in Greater Vancouver BC, Canada or in the United States)
Visa: Can sponsor work-permit and PR in Canada
Compensation : $140K-$175K CAD annual, plus equity, (commensurate with experience/profile)
Level: Staff / Principal
Reports To: CEO
Experience: 8+ years (Principal/Staff level)
Employment: Full‑time
The Mission SmartVerify is decoupling data security from application security. As Generative AI transforms applications from predictable tools into dynamic security risks, enterprises can no longer rely on AppSec as a proxy for Data Security. They need granular, reliable control. SmartVerify is that control layer. We are building a distributed security grid that enforces policy at the edge. We need a Lead Engineer to build the Control Plane. This is the central component that orchestrates security policies across thousands of nodes in real-time.
About the Role
We’re seeking a Principal/Staff Software Engineer to lead architecture and development across our large‑scale SaaS platform. You’ll drive distributed systems design, event‑driven architectures, cloud platform strategy, data and compliance frameworks, and performance engineering. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in complex technical environments, influences multiteam engineering direction, and brings deep architectural judgment.
What You’ll Do
* Lead architecture and system design for cloud‑native, multi‑tenant SaaS platforms.
* Design and scale distributed systems, microservices, and high‑throughput backend services.
* Lead infrastructure and platform engineering using orchestration, event‑driven pipelines, and streaming systems.
* Drive performance, caching, and processing strategies for latency sensitive large‑scale workloads.
* Ensure compliance support for NIST – RMF, SOC2, HIPAA, PII/PHI and internal policy frameworks.
* Partner with data and ML teams to build data lakes, pipelines and model‑driven product features.
* Provide technical leadership across backend, data, and full‑stack domains.
* Mentor engineers, influence engineering culture, and guide long‑term architectural strategy.
What you need: Tech Skills & Platform Experience
* Core Language: Go (Golang) — Heavy use of concurrency patterns and Python
* Communication: gRPC, Protocol Buffers, Bidirectional Streaming.
* Infrastructure: AWS (EKS, Lambda), Kubernetes, Docker.
* Eventing Streaming: EventBridge, Kinesis; Kafka
* Infrastructure & Runtime: Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes (EKS), SPIFFE/SPIRE
* Performance & Backend Scaling: Redis/Memcached (ElastiCache) rate limiting, autoscaling
* Data & Storage: Postgres, DynamoDB, Glue, Athena; Delta Lake, Parquet
What you need: Requirements
* 8+ Years of Backend Engineering with a specific focus on distributed systems, infrastructure, or platform engineering.
* System Architecture: You have built systems that configure or manage other systems.
* High-Scale Thinking: You understand the challenges of the "Thundering Herd" problem, eventual consistency, and managing state across thousands of persistent connections.
* Startup Mindset: We are pre-seed. You are comfortable making architectural decisions that balance "perfect" with "shipped."
Bonus Skills
* Experience with Azure or GCP cloud ecosystems
* Experience with OPA/Rego, Cedar, or custom policy engines
* Additional compliance frameworks: FedRAMP, GDPR, PCI, ISO27001
* Experience with LLM systems, vector databases, or real‑time inference
* Experience with data classification, lineage, or labeling systems
* Experience with service mesh technologies: Envoy Proxy / WASM / Rust
* Experience with Security & Compliance: SOC2, HIPAA, PII/PHI, KYC/AML;
Why Join SmartVerify?
* Solve Hard Problems: This isn't a standard REST API role. You are solving problems related to distributed state, latency, and grid computing.
* AI-Ready Security: You are building the infrastructure that will enable enterprises to safely adopt the next generation of AI tools.
* Architectural Ownership: You will define how our Control Plane scales from Day 1 to Day 1,000.
* Equity upside: the role will be compensated with equity that is commensurate with value creation from solving hard technical problems.
* Remote-first team. Flexible schedule. PR Sponsorship in Canada.
To apply:
1. Upload your resume
2. Must Include your linkedin profile. If you don't have, must include 2 professional references.
3. Must answer: Do you need visa sponsorship in the US or Canada?
4. Must answer: How many years of experience do you have in system design and architecture?
As an equal opportunity employer, we value diversity in our workforce. We encourage qualified women to apply and welcome candidates from all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives
Skills Required
- 8+ years of backend engineering experience focused on distributed systems, infrastructure, or platform engineering.
- Proficient in Go (Golang) with heavy use of concurrency patterns.
- Proficient in Python.
- Experience with gRPC and Protocol Buffers, including bidirectional streaming.
- Experience designing cloud-native, multi-tenant SaaS platforms and system architecture.
- Experience with AWS (EKS, Lambda) and Kubernetes (EKS) and Docker.
- Experience with eventing/streaming systems: EventBridge, Kinesis, and/or Kafka.
- Infrastructure as code experience with Terraform.
- Experience with SPIFFE/SPIRE or similar identity/workload attestation tooling.
- Experience with caching and backend scaling (Redis/Memcached/ElastiCache) and autoscaling strategies.
- Experience with data and storage technologies: Postgres, DynamoDB, Glue, Athena, Delta Lake, Parquet.
- Knowledge of compliance frameworks and requirements: NIST RMF, SOC2, HIPAA, handling PII/PHI.
- System-level thinking about high-scale problems (thundering herd, eventual consistency, many persistent connections).
- Startup mindset: ability to balance long-term architecture with shipping requirements.
- Residency requirement: must reside in Greater Vancouver BC, Canada or in the United States (fully remote within these locations).
- Bonus: Experience with Azure or GCP cloud ecosystems.
- Bonus: Experience with OPA/Rego, Cedar, or custom policy engines.
- Bonus: Experience with LLM systems, vector databases, real-time inference, or data classification/lineage systems.
- Bonus: Experience with service mesh technologies (Envoy, WASM, Rust) and additional compliance frameworks (FedRAMP, GDPR, PCI, ISO27001).
What We Do
SmartVerify is the first egress control plane for the agentic era, serving as the safety layer for the AI-first enterprise. It provides autonomous guardrails that decouple data security from application logic, enabling teams to deploy AI features rapidly without compromising safety. By implementing action control directly at the data layer, SmartVerify protects critical assets from AI-powered threats and ensures enterprise data security.
