Senior Backend Software Engineer

AutoScale Ventures; Ottawa; Remote; CAD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work Canada

Healthcare coverage

Paid leave and holidays

Equipment funds

Profit sharing

Growth opportunities

Distributed team culture

Job summary

AutoScale Ventures is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to design, build, and evolve backend systems powering data-heavy products such as VinAudit.ca and SquidProxies.com. You will own major initiatives end-to-end, guiding other engineers from design through long-term support in production.

The role emphasizes building scalable APIs, reliable systems, and mentoring teammates while thriving in a remote, autonomous work environment within Canada.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering or architectural experience.
• Experience building backend systems from scratch, launching them into production, and evolving them over time.
• Experience designing and operating APIs or backend systems at scale.
• Strong systems thinking — performance, failure modes, scaling, long-term maintainability.
• Experience in startup or startup-like environments, or owning major systems within larger companies.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and evolve backend systems powering data-heavy production products (markets, crawlers, APIs, data pipelines).
• Own major backend initiatives end-to-end — design, development, rollout, long-term maintenance.
• Write and maintain scalable APIs and backend services used at meaningful scale.
• Lead architectural improvements to improve reliability, performance, and maintainability.
• Break complex designs into executable components and delegate with engineers.
• Collaborate with leadership and senior engineers on technical direction.
• Mentor developers through code reviews, design discussions, and best practices.

Skills

Backend design

APIs at scale

Systems thinking

Autonomous work

AI-assisted development tools

Job description

Senior Software Engineer (Full-Time, Remote) — Canada

Work Schedule: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM PST

About The Role

At AutoScale Ventures, we build large-scale systems behind products like VinAudit.ca (vehicle history and data) and SquidProxies.com (proxy infrastructure). We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer to design, build, and evolve the backend systems that power these data-heavy products in production.

You’ll be designing and developing critical backend components and guiding other engineers through execution. If you enjoy owning systems end to end, from design through long-term support, this role is for you.

What You’ll Do

• Design, build, and evolve backend systems that power data-heavy production products such as market feeds, crawlers, APIs, and data pipelines.
• Take ownership of major backend initiatives across their full lifecycle — design, development and implementation, rollout, and long-term maintenance and support.
• Write and maintain scalable APIs and backend services used at meaningful scale.
• Lead architectural improvements and redesigns of existing systems to improve reliability, performance, and maintainability.
• Break complex designs into executable components and delegate effectively when working with other engineers.
• Collaborate with leadership and senior engineers on technical direction.
• Mentor developers through code reviews, design discussions, and best practices.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of professional software engineering or architectural experience (or equivalent depth).
• A proven track record of building backend systems from scratch, launching them into production, and supporting and evolving them over time.
• Experience designing and operating APIs or backend systems at scale.
• Strong systems thinking — you can reason about performance, failure modes, scaling, and long-term maintainability.
• Experience in startup or startup-like environments, or owning major systems within larger companies.
• Comfort working autonomously and making high-impact technical decisions.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, code-generation and review tools) to support productivity and code quality.

Nice to have

• Python experience.
• Experience redesigning or evolving legacy systems.
• Background in data-heavy systems (crawlers, feeds, ingestion pipelines, analytics backends).
• Infrastructure or scaling experience (high-throughput systems, reliability, performance tuning).
• Experience mentoring mid-level and senior developers.

What We Value

We’re looking for someone who is curious, independent, and excited to build systems that solve real problems at scale.

You should enjoy thinking beyond individual features — understanding how systems fit together, making thoughtful technical decisions, and taking ownership from initial design through production and beyond. We value engineers who can move comfortably between architecture and hands-on development.

We value someone who naturally thinks:

• How should we design this to work reliably at scale?
• What could fail, and how should we account for it?
• Is there a simpler or more maintainable approach?
• What will this system look like as it grows?
• How can AI help me build, test, and improve this more effectively?
• What can I improve beyond the immediate task?

Most importantly, we’re looking for someone who enjoys building, solving difficult problems, and taking meaningful ownership of the systems they create.

Benefits & Perks

• Fully remote work — work from anywhere in Canada with a reliable connection.
• Healthcare coverage for you and your family.
• Paid leave, vacation, and holidays.
• Equipment funds to set up or upgrade your work station.
• Performance-based profit-sharing tied to the company’s financial standing.
• Stability and long-term growth opportunities.
• A supportive, globally distributed team culture.

About Us

AutoScale Ventures is a technology-driven company with 50+ team members across Canada, the U.S., the Philippines, Pakistan, India, and China. We operate a group of businesses spanning tech, data services, infrastructure, and AI, including VinAudit.com (vehicle data) and SquidProxies.com (proxy infrastructure).