Staff Software Engineer

Sage Recruiting Inc.; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 170,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Extended health & dental

RRSP matching

Flexible PTO

Job summary

Sage Recruiting Inc. is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to build and maintain core backend systems for a high-scale digital marketplace. The position requires strong experience in Java and Spring Boot, debugging production issues, and optimizing system performance. The role offers a base salary of CAD $170,000 – $190,000 with a performance bonus and comprehensive benefits. This remote position is ideal for candidates with a passion for solving complex technical problems in real-time environments.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software development experience.
• Strong backend development experience with Java (Spring / Spring Boot).
• Experience optimizing system performance, including database queries.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement backend systems and features using Java and Spring Boot.
• Own and resolve complex production issues.
• Profile and optimize application performance.
• Monitor system health and proactively address scalability.

Skills

Java

Spring Boot

GraphQL

MySQL

Elasticsearch

AWS

Job description

Location: Remote within Canada (Toronto preferred)

Reports to: Senior Director of Engineering

About the Company

This is a Canadian-based technology company building a high-scale digital marketplace that powers real-time transactions across North America. The platform handles complex, time-sensitive workflows where performance, reliability, and accuracy are critical to the business.

The engineering team is small, experienced, and highly collaborative, with direct access to senior leadership and the opportunity to influence both product and technical direction. There’s a strong emphasis on ownership, where engineers are trusted to make decisions, solve meaningful problems, and see their work through in production.

The business is well-established and profitable, with a steady stream of real-world complexity to solve. It’s not a “move fast and break things” environment, it’s a “move thoughtfully and make it work at scale” kind of place.

If you enjoy working on systems that actually have to perform under pressure, and you like understanding the business behind what you’re building, you’ll probably feel at home here.

About the Role

The Staff Software Engineer is a hands-on technical leader responsible for building, optimizing, and maintaining the core backend systems that power a real-time digital marketplace platform.

This role is highly execution-focused and sits at the intersection of backend engineering, system performance, and business-critical operations. The successful candidate will spend the majority of their time writing code, debugging production issues, and improving system performance, while also contributing to technical decision-making and mentoring other engineers.

This is not an architecture-only or management role. It is a deeply hands-on position focused on solving complex technical problems in a high-scale, real-time environment. This individual will play a key role in maintaining system reliability, supporting production operations, and ensuring the platform can scale effectively as the business grows.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement backend systems and features using Java and Spring Boot
• Own and resolve complex production issues, including leading root cause analysis and implementing long-term fixes
• Profile and optimize application performance across code, database queries, and infrastructure
• Monitor system health and proactively address scalability and reliability concerns
• Work closely with product and business stakeholders to translate requirements into technical solutions
• Lead technical problem-solving efforts within the team and support other engineers in debugging and implementation
• Contribute to code quality, best practices, and engineering standards through code reviews and mentorship
• Collaborate across teams to support integrations and ensure seamless system interactions
• Participate in technical planning, estimation, and delivery of key initiatives

Success in This Role Looks Like

• Production issues are resolved quickly with clear root cause analysis and long‑term fixes
• System performance improves, with reduced latency and fewer bottlenecks
• Backend systems scale reliably under increased load and real‑time demand
• Strong technical contribution across the team, with improved code quality and engineering practices
• Effective collaboration with business stakeholders, with clear translation of requirements into solutions
• Increased team capacity to handle complex technical challenges and production support

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software development experience
• Strong backend development experience with Java (Spring / Spring Boot)
• Proven experience working on high-scale, high-concurrency, or real‑time systems
• Demonstrated ability to debug complex production issues and perform root cause analysis
• Experience optimizing system performance, including database queries and application‑level bottlenecks
• Strong understanding of system design and backend architecture patterns
• Experience owning features end‑to‑end, from design through deployment and support
• Ability to work cross‑functionally and communicate effectively with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders
• Experience working in North American product environments is strongly preferred

Required Skills

• Core Stack: Java / Kotlin, Spring / Spring Boot, GraphQL, MySQL / SQL, Elasticsearch, AWS

Preferred Skills

• Frontend exposure (React, TypeScript, or similar)
• Infrastructure as code or cloud platform experience (nice to have)

Pay range and compensation package

Base Salary: CAD $170,000 – $190,000 (flexible up to ~$200K for strong candidates) Performance Bonus: ~10% of base Benefits: Extended health & dental, RRSP matching, flexible PTO Total Compensation: Competitive and aligned with experience and impact