Principal Engineer- Architecture Engineering

Accion Labs; Canada; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology consultancy in Canada is seeking a Principal Engineer for its Architecture Engineering Services team. This role focuses on technical leadership and involves evaluating and adopting new technologies across their tax and accounting platform. Candidates should have extensive experience in software engineering, particularly with distributed systems, Apache Kafka, and Kubernetes. This position combines hands-on engineering with team guidance, ensuring production-ready systems and innovative solutions.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience at senior or staff level.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems and microservices architectures.
• Strong hands-on experience with Apache Kafka.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical evaluations and introduce new technologies.
• Build prototypes and define architectural standards.
• Guide engineering teams in technology adoption.

Skills

Software engineering experience 8+

Distributed systems expertise

Apache Kafka

Kubernetes experience

Proficiency in Go

Frontend development knowledge

Containerization knowledge

Cloud platform experience (Azure or AWS)

Strong communication skills

Technology-forward mindset

Job description

Role Summary

We are looking for a Principal Engineer to join our Architecture Engineering Services team. This is a hands‑on technical leadership role focused on evaluating, introducing, and operationalizing new technologies across our tax and accounting platform. You will build prototypes, define architectural standards, and guide engineering teams through adoption — bridging the gap between emerging technology and production-ready systems.

What You Bring

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, with a track record of operating at a senior or staff-level scope
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, including event-driven and microservices architectures
• Strong hands-on experience with Apache Kafka — topic design, partitioning strategies, consumer group management, and operational best practices
• Production experience with Kubernetes — cluster management, Helm charts, service mesh, resource tuning, and troubleshooting
• Proficiency in Go for building performant backend services
• Working knowledge of frontend development — enough to build and iterate on internal tools and dashboards (e.g., React, TypeScript, or similar)
• Experience with containerization — Docker, multi-stage builds, image optimization, and container security fundamentals
• Cloud platform experience with Azure or AWS, including infrastructure-as-code (Terraform,Pulumi, or similar)
• Strong written and verbal communication skills — you can articulate complex technical decisions to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders
• A technology-forward mindset — you stay current with the ecosystem and have strong instincts for what’s worth adopting vs. what’s hype