Staff Engineer - Backend & Architecture

MapsPeople; Toronto; On-site; CAD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

MapsPeople, based in Toronto, is seeking a Staff Engineer to shape backend architecture and drive technical standards. You will be a hands-on leader, writing code, reviewing critical implementations, and guiding teams on complex distributed-system challenges.

You will work with TypeScript, Go, and .NET, promote patterns for reliability, observability, and security, and mentor senior engineers while influencing architecture across the platform.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience designing and evolving large-scale backend architectures.
• Experience in staff-level engineering roles or equivalent.
• Proven track record mentoring senior engineers.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the backend architecture and technical direction across MapsPeople's platform.
• Design scalable, resilient, and maintainable distributed systems and backend services.
• Lead architectural decisions across services, APIs, data flows, integrations, and infrastructure.
• Collaborate with engineering leaders to translate business requirements into tech solutions.
• Provide technical mentorship to senior and staff-level engineers.
• Conduct architecture reviews and technical design discussions.

Skills

Backend architecture

Distributed systems

Mentoring

TypeScript/Node.js

Go/.NET

Tools

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Job description

Toronto, CA- Full-time

MapsPeople is entering a pivotal phase of AI-led transformation and growth, shaping the future of spatial intelligence and indoor navigation for large enterprise customers worldwide. Our AI-led platform, MapsIndoors, brings together indoor mapping, wayfinding, location intelligence, and real-time spatial data to help organizations create smarter, connected environments. As we scale, we're looking for a Staff Engineer to help shape the technical direction of our platform.

The Role

This is a senior technical leadership role for an engineer who thinks beyond individual services and features. You will help define our backend architecture, drive technical standards across engineering teams, and solve complex distributed-system challenges, while remaining a hands-on contributor, writing code, reviewing critical implementations, and helping engineers navigate difficult technical problems.

What You Will Do

• Define and evolve the backend architecture and technical direction across MapsPeople's platform


• Design scalable, resilient, and maintainable distributed systems and backend services


• Drive architectural decisions across services, APIs, data flows, integrations, and infrastructure


• Work extensively with TypeScript, Go, and .NET across our backend ecosystem


• Establish and promote engineering standards, architectural patterns, and best practices


• Identify architectural weaknesses, technical debt, and opportunities for modernization


• Lead complex technical initiatives that span multiple engineering teams


• Collaborate with engineering leaders and product managers to translate business requirements into technical solutions


• Provide technical mentorship to senior and staff-level engineers


• Conduct and lead architecture reviews and technical design discussions


• Make pragmatic decisions around build vs. buy, service boundaries, APIs, and technology choices


• Help establish patterns for observability, reliability, security, and operational excellence


• Evaluate emerging technologies, including AI and agentic development approaches

We imagine you come with

• Extensive experience designing and evolving large-scale backend architectures, with demonstrated experience as a Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Lead Architect, or equivalent


• Advanced experience with TypeScript and Node.js, plus strong experience with Go and/or .NET/C#


• Strong understanding of distributed systems, microservices, event-driven architectures, and cloud-native systems


• Experience with relational and NoSQL databases, API versioning, authentication, and integration patterns


• Strong experience with cloud-native architectures, preferably Google Cloud Platform, including containers, Kubernetes, and CI/CD


• Ability to influence engineering decisions beyond your immediate team, and mentor senior engineers


• Comfort operating in ambiguity and driving technical change without formal authority


• Experience with AI-assisted development, agentic workflows, or spec-driven development is a plus

What You Get

• Significant influence on how our technology evolves, across a platform used in workplaces, healthcare, airports, universities, retail, and stadiums


• Genuine architectural impact, not just within one team, but across the engineering organization


• A collaborative environment that encourages ownership, mentorship, and technical exploration


• A competitive compensation package including flexitime, pension, and healthcare plans

Ready to shape the architecture behind the future of spatial intelligence?