Senior Full-Stack Engineer

GuruLink; Toronto; On-site; CAD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

GuruLink in Toronto seeks a Senior Full-Stack Engineer to help shape an innovative interactive character platform. You’ll work on animation, AI, and real-time systems within a small team, reporting directly to the founder.

You will own features end-to-end across frontend, APIs, and backend, collaborating closely with animators and creatives to ship quickly and iterate on product direction in an early-stage effort.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong full-stack capabilities with TypeScript/React and Node.js.
• Experience building and shipping real-time interactive systems.
• Comfort working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with evolving requirements.
• Ability to evaluate multiple technical approaches and make clear trade-offs.
• Experience integrating external APIs or services quickly.

Responsibilities

• Take concepts from idea to working interactive systems and product features end-to-end.
• Build across the stack: frontend (React/Next.js), APIs, and backend services.
• Develop systems for real-time character interaction including animation triggers, voice, and behavior.
• Explore AI-driven motion, video, or audio systems and related pipelines.
• Collaborate with animators to integrate character assets into interactive systems.
• Prototype rapidly and decide between build, buy, or integrate options.
• Ensure systems are performant, observable, and production-ready as they evolve.

Skills

5+ years exp

TypeScript/React

Node.js

Real-time systems

API integration

Ownership & initiative

Ambiguity tolerance

Team collaboration

Job description

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Senior Full-Stack Engineer - Interactive Systems & AI

Our client is building a new kind of interactive character experience: combining animation, real-time systems, and AI to bring expressive digital characters to life. We’re developing a platform where characters are not just animated, but responsive, programmable, and part of a living system. This is an early-stage effort with a small team, working directly with the founder to explore, prototype, and ship quickly.

What This Role Is

• A high-autonomy role focused on building new interactive systems from scratch
• A chance to explore and define how AI + animation + real-time interaction come together
• A close partnership with the founder and creative team to shape product direction
• An opportunity to make foundational technical decisions early

What You’ll Do

• Take early concepts and turn them into working interactive systems and product features end-to-end
• Build across the stack: modern frontends (React / Next.js), APIs, and backend services
• Develop systems that support real-time character interaction, including animation triggers, voice, and behavior
• Evaluate and experiment with different technical approaches, including: Live2D pipelines and alternatives; AI-driven motion / video systems (e.g., SeeDance or similar); Voice synthesis and real-time voice transformation APIs
• Work closely with animators to integrate character assets into interactive systems
• Rapidly prototype and test build vs integrate vs buy decisions
• Ensure systems are performant, observable, and production-ready as they evolve

Must Have Skills

• 5+ years of professional experience as a software engineer
• Strong full-stack capability (TypeScript/React + Node systems)
• Experience building and shipping interactive or real-time systems
• Comfort working in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with evolving requirements
• Ability to evaluate multiple technical approaches and form clear, opinionated trade-offs
• Experience integrating external APIs and stitching systems together quickly
• Strong ownership. You can take a concept from idea - prototype - production

Nice to Have Skills

• Experience working with animation systems (Live2D, Spine, Unity, WebGL, or similar); AI media tools (video, motion, or audio generation); Voice synthesis, audio processing, or real-time streaming systems
• Familiarity with event-driven or real-time architectures (WebSockets, streaming pipelines)