Staff Software Engineer - Growth Platform

Kibbi; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 191,000 - 262,000; Full time

Job summary

Faire is hiring a Staff Software Engineer to lead the Growth Platform, shaping the technical vision for messaging, targeting, and developer tooling that power growth across the company.

You will partner with product engineers, translate ambiguous opportunities into scalable platform systems, and influence product strategy with a strong focus on efficiency and impact. This role offers a hybrid work model with strong career growth in a fast-moving, global company.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Experience building high-scale platforms, infrastructure, or reusable systems that enable other teams to move faster.
• Demonstrate strong internal customer empathy and track record of high adoption and good developer experience for platforms/tools.
• Strong experience in either backend (Kotlin/Java/C#/APIs/DBs/distributed systems) or frontend (React/TypeScript/JS).
• Have led large, ambiguous cross-functional initiatives with measurable impact.
• Experience with experimentation, A/B testing, and data-driven product development.
• Think in systems, leverage, and long-term scalability beyond features.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and evolution of Growth Platform capabilities: messaging infrastructure, targeting, developer tooling, and growth primitives.
• Partner with internal platform users to understand pain points and improve developer experience.
• Architect scalable systems to rapidly launch, validate, and scale growth initiatives.
• Build frameworks and abstractions to reduce cost/complexity of new growth initiatives.
• Influence product strategy with technical insight and growth levers.
• Improve developer productivity and cross-team efficiency through tooling and processes.
• Mentor engineers and raise technical quality and business impact.
• Act as cross-team technical leader, aligning stakeholders and driving execution.

Skills

8+ years software engineering

High-scale platforms

Developer empathy

System design

Backend development

Frontend development

Kotlin

Java

APIs

Databases

Distributed systems

AWS

React

TypeScript

Tools

Kotlin

Java

JUnit

Hibernate

Guice

Jersey

MySQL

CockroachDB

AWS

React

TypeScript

Job description

About Faire

Faire is a technology wholesale platform built on the belief that the future is local. Independent retailers around the globe collectively represent a multi-hundred-billion-dollar wholesale market that has historically been fragmented and offline. At Faire, we're using the power of tech, data, and machine learning to connect this thriving community of entrepreneurs across the globe. Picture your favorite boutique in town — we help them discover the best products from around the world to sell in their stores. With the right tools and insights, we believe that we can level the playing field so businesses can grow and local communities can thrive.

We’re looking for smart, resourceful and passionate people to join us as we power the shop local movement. If you believe in community, come join ours.

Help Build The Engine Behind Faire’s Growth

Faire is building the operating system for local retail. Every day, hundreds of thousands of independent retailers and brands rely on Faire to discover products, grow their businesses, and compete with large marketplaces. Growth is a company-level priority at Faire because every improvement in acquisition, activation, conversion, retention, and expansion directly impacts the success of local entrepreneurs around the world.

We’re hiring a Staff Software Engineer to help lead the technical vision and evolution of Faire’s Growth Platform - the communication systems, targeting capabilities, experimentation infrastructure and developer tooling that power growth across the company.

This is not just a builder role, you will set technical direction, shape strategy, and lead complex, cross-functional initiatives that accelerate Growth teams across multiple product areas. You’ll partner deeply with Product Engineers to translate ambiguous opportunities into scalable platform systems.

You’re Excited About This Role Because…

• You want to build foundational systems that accelerate growth across multiple teams and product surfaces
• You enjoy solving challenging technical problems related to messaging, communication, personalization, targeting, and developer velocity
• You care deeply about internal customer experience and enjoy building tools, platforms, and workflows that make other teams dramatically more effective
• You get excited about creating leverage through platforms, abstractions, and tooling rather than only shipping individual features
• You get excited about driving large business impact in a Growth environment.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the design and evolution of Faire’s Growth Platform capabilities, including communication and messaging infrastructure, targeting systems, developer tooling, and reusable growth primitives
• Partner closely with internal platform users to understand pain points, improve developer experience, and create highly usable self-serve growth tooling
• Architect scalable systems that enable teams to rapidly launch, validate, and scale growth initiatives
• Build frameworks and abstractions that reduce the cost and complexity of launching new growth initiatives
• Influence product and business strategy through deep technical insight and a strong understanding of growth levers
• Improve developer productivity and organizational efficiency by evolving platform tooling, frameworks, and operational processes
• Mentor and guide engineers across teams, raising the bar for technical quality, systems thinking, and business impact
• Operate as a cross-team technical leader, aligning multiple stakeholders and driving execution across organizational boundaries

We’re Excited About You Because You

• Have 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Have experience building high-scale platforms, infrastructure, or reusable systems that enabled other engineering teams to move faster
• Demonstrate strong internal customer empathy and a track record of building platforms or tooling with high adoption and strong developer experience
• Have strong experience in either:
  • Backend development (e.g., Kotlin, Java, C#, APIs, databases, distributed systems), or
  • Frontend development (e.g., React, TypeScript/JavaScript, modern UI frameworks, performance optimization).
• Have consistently led large, ambiguous, cross-functional initiatives with measurable impact
• Have strong experience with experimentation, A/B testing, and data-driven product development.
• Think in terms of systems, leverage, and long-term scalability, not just feature delivery.
• Are comfortable defining technical direction in loosely defined problem spaces.
• Demonstrate strong product and business acumen, connecting engineering decisions to growth outcomes.
• Have a track record of mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction beyond your immediate team.
• Are highly autonomous, strategic, and execution-oriented in fast-moving environments.
• Have a strong foundation in computer science fundamentals or equivalent industry experience.

Technologies We Use & Teach

• Backend: Kotlin, Java, JUnit, Hibernate, Guice, Jersey, MySQL, CockroachDB, AWS
• Frontend: React, TypeScript/JavaScript
• Infrastructure & Data: HTTP, JSON, Protocol Buffers, experimentation frameworks, analytics tooling

Salary Range

Canada: the pay range for this role is $190,500 - $262,000 per year.

Hybrid Faire employees currently go into the office 3 days per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and a third flex day of their choosing (Monday, Wednesday, or Friday). Additionally, hybrid in-office roles will have the flexibility to work remotely up to 4 weeks per year. Specific Workplace and Information Technology positions may require onsite attendance 5 days per week as will be indicated in the job posting.

Why you’ll love working at Faire

• Move fast: You'll own meaningful problems that serve customers around the globe with the agency to move fast and see your results clearly.
• Equipped to scale: We invest in what matters, including the latest enterprise AI tools, to help you work smarter and get more out of every day.
• Best in class: Our team is full of sharp, kind, and generous colleagues who care about their craft and about helping you grow in yours.
• Real rewards. Competitive pay, equity, and comprehensive benefits designed to support your life inside and outside of work.
• Belonging: We're intentional about building an environment where every Faire employee has equal access to opportunities, growth, and success.

Faire was founded in 2017 by a team of early product and engineering leads from Square. We’re backed by some of the top investors in retail and tech including: Y Combinator, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Forerunner Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Founders Fund, and DST Global. We have headquarters in San Francisco and Kitchener-Waterloo, and a global employee presence across offices in Toronto, London, and New York. To learn more about Faire and our customers, you can read more on our blog.

Faire provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Faire is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. Accommodations are available throughout the recruitment process and applicants with a disability may request to be accommodated throughout the recruitment process. We will work with all applicants to accommodate their individual accessibility needs. To request reasonable accommodation, please fill out our Accommodation Request Form (https://bit.ly/faire-form)

Privacy

For information about the type of personal data Faire collects from applicants, as well as your choices regarding the data collected about you, please visit Faire’s Privacy Notice (https://www.faire.com/privacy)