Principal SW Engineer - AI Native

HRB; Toronto; On-site; CAD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

HRB is building a new Toronto engineering hub as part of a globally scaled AI-native platform. The Principal Full Stack Engineer will define architecture, standards, and practices, driving end-to-end ownership in a small, senior team.

You will lead architectural direction for frontend, backend, and cloud services, shaping a highly scalable, observable, and secure system while leveraging AI tooling to boost velocity and quality.

Qualifications

• 10+ years building production software systems.
• Proven experience designing large-scale web platforms.
• Expert JavaScript/TypeScript proficiency.
• Strong backend and frontend architecture skills.
• Experience with AWS and distributed systems.
• Leadership in small, high-ownership teams.

Responsibilities

• Architect and evolve scalable full-stack systems across frontend, backend, and cloud layers.
• Lead high-impact technical initiatives from concept through production deployment.
• Define and promote AI-assisted development standards and workflows.
• Mentor engineers on system design, scalability, and architectural decision making.
• Guide technical direction across services, applications, and platform components.
• Improve system reliability, performance, and security at scale.
• Partner closely with product, infrastructure, and platform leadership.
• Lead root-cause analysis and resolution of complex production challenges.
• Establish best practices for testing, observability, and deployment.

Skills

JavaScript / TypeScript

API design

Distributed systems

Frontend architecture

Leadership / mentorship

Tools

AWS

Cloud-native development

Observability

Job description

Principal Full Stack Engineer (AI-Native) Canada | Founding Engineering Team

The Opportunity:

We’re partnering with a publicly listed global technology company operating at a massive international scale across digital commerce. Despite its size, the organization runs with a startup execution model - lean teams, strong ownership, and engineering-led decision making. The company is now establishing a new Toronto engineering hub, starting with a small group of highly senior engineers tasked with designing and operating modern, AI-native systems that directly power a global customer platform used across 50+ countries.

This is a founding-team opportunity - not incremental hiring. At the Principal level, this role will help define system architecture, technical standards, and engineering practices that shape the long-term foundation of the Toronto development center.

What Makes This Role Different:

This team is intentionally structured around AI-augmented software development. AI tooling is not experimental or optional - it is embedded into daily workflows to dramatically increase engineering velocity, ownership, and output quality.

You’ll work in an environment where engineers:

• Own problems end-to-end
• Lead technical direction through hands-on contribution
• Operate production systems directly
• Use AI as a true productivity multiplier

What You’ll Be Building:

You’ll architect and deliver full-stack platforms powering a globally scaled commerce ecosystem, including:

• Modern frontend applications and platform experiences
• Scalable backend services and APIs
• Cloud-native infrastructure and distributed systems
• Performance, reliability, and observability platforms
• AI-enabled engineering workflows and development standards Principal Engineers are expected to drive initiatives from architecture → execution → long-term operational ownership while enabling team-wide engineering effectiveness.

Core Responsibilities:

• Architect and evolve scalable full-stack systems across frontend, backend, and cloud layers
• Lead high-impact technical initiatives from concept through production deployment
• Define and promote AI-assisted development standards and workflows
• Mentor engineers on system design, scalability, and architectural decision making
• Guide technical direction across services, applications, and platform components
• Improve system reliability, performance, and security at scale
• Partner closely with product, infrastructure, and platform leadership
• Lead root-cause analysis and resolution of complex production challenges
• Establish best practices for testing, observability, and deployment
• Continuously improve engineering productivity within a small, senior team Ideal Background:

We’re looking for senior technical leaders who combine deep hands-on engineering expertise with strong architectural ownership.

You likely bring:

• ~10+ years building production software systems
• Proven experience designing and delivering large-scale web platforms
• Expert JavaScript / TypeScript proficiency
• Strong backend experience across modern service architectures
• Deep understanding of APIs, distributed systems, and frontend architecture
• Extensive cloud-native development experience (AWS preferred)
• Experience working with data storage, caching, and messaging systems
• Track record of leading technical direction through hands-on execution
• Comfort operating in small, high-ownership engineering teams

Most importantly: Demonstrated ability to leverage AI tooling effectively to accelerate engineering velocity and improve system quality.

Why Engineers Are Interested:

• Founding technical leader within a new Toronto engineering center
• High autonomy and meaningful architectural ownership
• Small, senior-only team environment
• Opportunity to shape AI-native engineering culture from day one
• Global scale technical challenges without large-company bureaucracy
• Competitive compensation and long-term growth opportunity