About the Role
We're hiring a Staff Software Engineer to own architecture and design decisions for our platform, including the modernization of legacy enterprise systems into modern, cloud-capable solutions. You'll operate with significant autonomy, act as a force multiplier for the rest of the engineering team, work closely with our Head of R&D as a technical backup, and be a candidate for broader technical responsibility across projects as you prove yourself. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role on a lean, three-person engineering team — small enough that your architectural calls ship and show results in weeks, not after months of committee review. You'll be a player-coach: as comfortable writing code as setting direction, designing and deciding as well as implementing, delegating, and growing the engineers around you. In an AI-assisted development era, we value sound judgment and design thinking as much as implementation speed — you'll have real latitude to use tools like Claude and Cursor to move faster, not just permission to.
Responsibilities
Architecture & Technical Ownership
- Own architecture and design decisions for the systems you're responsible for, favoring pragmatic, right-sized solutions over unnecessary complexity, and weighing trade-offs (build vs. buy, hosted vs. on-premises, integration approach) with senior-level judgment.
- Lead the modernization of legacy systems into maintainable, cloud-capable architectures without disrupting the business relying on them.
- Review requirements and designs early to flag architectural risk, technical debt, and feasibility gaps before they become expensive.
- Own solution-level architecture documentation — decisions, trade-offs, and the reasoning behind them — so the system stays understandable at a glance, not just in your head.
Hands-On Delivery
- Design and implement significant parts of the system yourself — this role ships production code, not just plans.
- Own what you build end-to-end, including its health after it ships — if it breaks in production, you're part of fixing it.
- Apply AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Claude, Cursor) to work faster across design, implementation, and documentation, with informed judgment about where they genuinely help.
Team Leadership & Mentorship
- Delegate work effectively and help pull the wider team forward, rather than carrying everything yourself.
- Mentor other engineers through code review, design discussion, and day-to-day guidance, as an individual contributor rather than a people manager.
- Act as a technical backup to the Head of R&D, and take on broader technical responsibility across projects over time.
Product & Customer Judgment
- Translate ambiguous customer needs — including regulated-industry and enterprise requirements — into sound technical designs.
- Work closely with product owners, QA, and subject-matter experts to understand how the product is used and where the real risk lies.
- Communicate trade-offs, risks, and plans clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Ways of Working
- Operate independently in ambiguous, shifting-priority conditions, setting your own priorities rather than waiting to be told what's next.
- This role has no fixed lane — architecture, hands-on coding, mentoring, production support, whatever's needed. You pick it up rather than waiting for it to be assigned.
- Participate in and help shape Agile ceremonies (stand-ups, sprint planning, retrospectives).
Our Stack
- Frontend: React (TypeScript) single-page applications.
- Backend: polyglot services, primarily .NET and Python, built as event-driven microservices.
- Databases: PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and Oracle.
- Infrastructure: containerized, Kubernetes-based deployments with owned CI/CD pipelines.
- Deployment model: hybrid — both cloud-hosted (SaaS) and on-premises enterprise environments.
- API & identity: API gateway / service mesh patterns and OIDC-based identity providers.
- We're also maintaining and modernizing some longer-standing legacy systems — comfort reading and evolving older architectures is part of the job.
Requirements
What You'll Bring
Must-Have
- 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including real ownership of architecture and design decisions — not just executing someone else's plan.
- Proven track record modernizing legacy systems into maintainable, cloud-capable architectures.
- Full software development lifecycle experience: requirements through design, implementation, testing, release, and operations.
- Strong relational database fundamentals (e.g., PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or Oracle).
- Experience in regulated-industry and/or enterprise software environments, with a real appreciation for compliance, data integrity, and audit requirements.
- Solid grounding in secure coding practices and software design principles.
- A track record of mentoring or informally leading other engineers — pulling a team forward, not just excelling individually.
- Excellent written and verbal communication in English, with both technical and non-technical audiences.
Nice-to-Have
- Hands-on experience designing and owning CI/CD pipelines, not just using ones someone else built.
- Experience with hybrid deployment models — supporting both cloud-hosted/SaaS and on-premises enterprise environments.
- Experience across more than one of PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and Oracle.
- Practical, regular use of AI-assisted development tools (Claude, Cursor, or similar) in your day-to-day engineering workflow.
- A habit of evaluating and adopting new tools and technologies early.
- Experience designing or shipping AI/ML-powered features in a production application (e.g., using LLMs, cloud AI/ML services, or applied ML) — we're actively exploring how AI capabilities fit into our platform.
You'll Thrive Here If
- You're comfortable operating with autonomy and ambiguity, reasoning from first principles when there's no existing playbook to follow.
- You're self-directed with a “get it done” mindset — you pick up what's needed rather than waiting for it to be assigned.
- You want your architecture decisions to matter beyond a single sprint, on a team small enough to notice.
Benefits
- Competitive salary aligned to experience and market.
- Employee profit sharing plan.
- Fully remote.
- Comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance.
- High ownership and autonomy across product marketing initiatives.
- Opportunity to work directly with leadership in a fast-paced environment.
- Fast-growing environment with strong long-term career development potential.
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8+ years software engineering with architecture ownership; legacy modernization; full SDLC; relational databases (PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle); regulated/enterprise experience; secure coding; mentoring; English communication.
Key Responsibilities
- owning architecture decisions
- modernizing legacy systems
- mentoring engineers
Skills & Tools
React, TypeScript, .NET, Python, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Oracle, Kubernetes, Claude, Cursor
Job Details
- Category: Software Development
- Seniority: Senior Level
- Commitment: Full Time
- Workplace: Remote — Canada
- Languages: English
About Valsoft Corporation
A company that acquires and grows vertical market software businesses providing mission-critical solutions. — Industry: Information Technology