Staff Software Engineer

Thinkific; Vancouver; Hybrid; CAD 144,000 - 179,000; Full time

Job summary

Thinkific is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for the TCommerce team to advance their payments platform. This role requires leadership in major engineering initiatives, in-depth knowledge of payment systems, and collaboration with various stakeholders to ensure technical excellence. The position offers a competitive salary and a commitment to diversity and inclusive workplace culture.

Benefits

Flexible Paid Time Off

Health, vision, and dental coverage

Annual Learning & Growth fund

Home office setup budget

$50 CAD monthly for snacks

Qualifications

• Expertise in backend architectural approaches and payment systems.
• In-depth understanding of payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal.
• Experience in developing asynchronous job processing.

Responsibilities

• Drive major engineering initiatives for Payments products and architecture.
• Lead technical strategy discussions and coach junior engineers.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define software requirements.

Skills

Event-driven architecture

Domain-driven design

Multi-tenant systems

Backend languages

Payment gateways

Fraud detection

Education

5+ years in a senior engineering role

Degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Ruby

Golang

Node.js

Postgres

Redis

ElasticSearch

DynamoDB

Job description

Thinkific is a software platform that gives anyone the ability to easily create and sell online courses, build vibrant communities, and monetize memberships. We believe in impactful and innovative work : our team of 260+ Thinkers is building and expanding an incredible product that empowers Creator Educators and businesses around the globe while working collaboratively to learn, grow, and succeed together. Join us to see how we’re building one of the best workplaces in Canadian tech!

We believe every candidate should have a fair, inclusive, and overall great experience when exploring a new role with Thinkific. That starts with outlining our hiring process so you know what to expect every step of the way—click here to learn more :

We’re looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join the TCommerce team, responsible for all payments initiatives at Thinkific. As a Staff Software Engineer, you are one of our “power implementers.” You will work and lead projects that have a direct impact on revenue for both Thinkific and our users, shaping the future and expansion of our payments platform worldwide while supporting local payment specificities.

You’ll work closely with Principal Engineers, and Architects to lead with technical excellence shaping the technical direction of large projects while also investing time to coach and mentor other Engineers on the team. You'll represent our concerns across the business and likewise represent the business concerns to the rest of your team.

Your goal will be to help guide and execute on projects related to our backend architecture. Here’s how you’ll accomplish this :

• Drive and deliver major engineering initiatives with long term impact of our Payments products and architecture.
• Contribute to the technical strategy, helping the business make technical decisions by providing high level technical estimates, options, and feasibility opinions, and creating and reviewing proposals for new technologies, patterns and implementations.
• Collaborate with engineering managers, product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to define requirements and specifications for software projects.
• Advocate for Engineering best practices by sharing knowledge, teaching others new skills, and contributing to improve engineering standards, tooling, and processes, additionally, you will bring new ideas and design patterns to strategic and technical planning initiatives.
• Lead team discussions, mentor other engineers to grow and improve the team's productivity.
• Role model with clean, efficient, and maintainable code in accordance with best practices and coding standards.
• Creating complex architectural frameworks for components and features of new software programs.
• Thinking critically to overcome challenges that arise during the development and implementation of a project.
• Communicate with senior leaders and executives to determine the organization's unique software needs, presenting progress reports to senior leaders.
• Participate in our on-call rotations for troubleshooting production issues.

The person we have in mind likely :

• Has 5+ years of experience working in a senior engineering role, and is an expert in backend architectural approaches such as event-driven architecture, domain-driven design, and multi-tenant systems
• Experience working in Payments domain, In-depth understanding of payment gateways, processors such as Stripe, PayPal.
• Experience with implementing and integrating various payment methods (credit / debit cards, digital wallets, bank transfers).
• Familiarity with industry standards and compliance requirements such as PCI-DSS, PSD2
• Knowledge of fraud detection and prevention mechanisms in payment systems.
• Understanding of tax handling, reconciliation, settlements, and chargebacks processes.
• Understands and is proficient in multiple backend languages, such as Ruby, Golang, or Node and also has expert-level knowledge of relational and non-relational database technologies such as Postgres, Redis, ElasticSearch, DynamoDB
• Is experienced with asynchronous job processing, using queuing technologies such as SNS, SQS, and Sidekiq
• Loves to learn and grow. They’ve found (and keep looking for) ways to level up their skills in this field, whether that’s through formal education, gaining professional experience, or maybe even building their own business

These things would also be nice, but we think you could learn them on the job :

• Experience with AWS cloud infrastructure and streaming technologies such as Kafka, Spark, Kinesis
• An understanding of how to work with infrastructure as code technologies, such as Terraform
• Experience with containers and orchestration via Docker and Kubernetes

The recruitment compensation range for this position is $144, - $179, Your specific compensation within this range is determined based on your job-related skills, knowledge, experience, and our internal equity assessment.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging & Accessibility

This is just our initial idea of who we’re looking for! At Thinkific, we know that people have unique career journeys. If your experience is close to what we’ve described but you feel that you might be missing a few of the requirements, please still apply! We believe in equal opportunity and are committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging across every facet of our business.

We’re also committed to providing a comfortable and accessible interview experience for every candidate. If there are any accommodations our team can make throughout our hiring process (big or small), please let us know.

What you can expect if you join Thinkific :

An amazing team of talented, passionate, and kind Thinkers. Together, we’ve built an amazing, award-winning culture —we’re a Certified Great Place to Work and one of Canada's Top Small & Medium Employers!

The chance to build, improve, and innovate on a platform that’s driving positive impact for thousands of businesses and millions of students around the world.

A competitive compensation package including base salary, equity, team-wide bonuses, and an Employee Share Purchase Plan.

Flexible Paid Time Off to maintain mental and physical health. Our team is encouraged to take a minimum 4 weeks of vacation, plus Thinker Holidays (extended long weekends in the summer) and time off for the December holiday season.

Health Benefits and Wellness : Comprehensive benefits starting on Day 1 include health, vision, and dental coverage for you and your family, $3,000 for mental health care, a short-term health plan, and an additional health or personal spending account. Plus, family friendly benefits include generous parental leave top-ups for up to 32 weeks, as well as fertility coverage and personalized return to work options.

Flexible Work . Choose to work from home from anywhere in Canada, at our Vancouver HQ, a co-working space, or anywhere there’s wifi for a change of scenery.

Learning & Growth. An annual $1500 USD Learn and Grow fund for conferences, seminars, or courses, plus training, mentorship, coaching, and internal promotion opportunities.

A home office setup so you’re ready to succeed with a company-owned Macbook Pro and a budget to order a desk, chair, or any accessories to help you work comfortably and productively.

Eats and Treats. $50 CAD per month to treat yourself with snacks, lunch, or groceries to cook at home.

A place where you can bring your whole self to work . We know that different perspectives lead to amazing ideas, more innovation, and, ultimately, our success as a company. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds, experiences, beliefs, identities, and statuses.Whoever you are—we can't wait to meet you!

The Thinkific Vancouver office operates on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the (Musqueam), (Squamish), and (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations of the Coast Salish People. We encourage everyone to about the original caretakers of the land that you currently occupy.