Intermediate Backend Engineer

About ANVIL

ANVIL is a trusted partner in the defence industry, delivering cutting-edge solutions that enhance military capabilities and operational effectiveness. We extend our expertise to public safety, law enforcement, and national security organizations, accelerating mission-critical decision-making through analytical tools, automations, and game-changing machine learning capabilities. ANVIL helps organizations discover, manage, enrich, fuse, and exploit the information available to them in support of Information Dominance and Decision Advantage.

Job Type: Full Time Remote (Hybrid option available for those in the Ottawa area - 55 Murray Street Office)

Total Compensation: CAD $105,000.00 - $145,000.00 base salary - Placement within range based on experience and qualifications

Vacancy Status: This posting is for an existing vacancy at ANVIL. We are actively hiring for this role

Role (Description)

As an Intermediate Backend Engineer, you will play a critical role in designing, building, and maintaining the server-side systems that power our mission-critical software. You will develop reliable and well-structured APIs, model and manage data with care, and ensure that the services you build are robust, observable, and easy for other engineers to reason about and integrate with.

You will work closely with engineering and product teams to define data contracts, shape API design, and deliver backend capabilities that underpin complex analytical and operational workflows. In this role, you will bring a thoughtful approach to type consistency and data integrity, contribute to event-driven and streaming architectures, and collaborate across the stack to ensure that the systems you build meet the reliability standards that mission-critical environments demand.

We are looking for a well-rounded engineer with genuine experience across the backend stack. This would be someone who understands not just how to build an endpoint, but how data flows through a system, where it can break down, and how to design services that hold up under real-world operational pressure.

This is a full-time position based in Ottawa / Remote. Eligible candidates must either possess or be eligible to obtain a Government of Canada Top Secret security clearance.

Required Qualifications

Security Clearance

Eligible for Government of Canada Top Secret security clearance

Experience

• 3+ years of hands-on experience in backend engineering, with production-grade work in Python
• Demonstrated experience designing and building REST APIs, including thoughtful handling of resource modelling, error responses, versioning, and documentation
• Familiarity with real-time (WebSocket, SSE) and event-driven (Kafka, Redpanda) patterns
• Proven experience working with SQL databases in production, with a preference for candidates with Postgres depth (including schema design, query optimization, and migration management)
• Demonstrated understanding of type consistency and data contracts (including how to define, enforce, and evolve shared interfaces between services and across team boundaries)

Skills & Competencies

• Strong grasp of backend fundamentals: service design, data modelling, concurrency, and error handling
• Ability to write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code that other engineers can confidently build on
• Clear understanding of how data flows through distributed systems and where consistency, validation, and failure modes need to be designed for explicitly
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate technical decisions and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences

Preferred Qualifications & Competencies

• Experience with knowledge management systems, case management systems, or relevant defence industry applications
• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies and sprint-based development cycles
• Experience working in or closely with defence, public safety, or national security organizations
• Familiarity with containerization and deployment tooling (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and integrating backend test suites into automated build processes
• Exposure to observability practices including structured logging, metrics, and distributed tracing

Key Responsibilities

API & Service Development

• Design and implement well-structured APIs that are intuitive, consistent, and reliable for consuming teams
• Define and maintain clear data contracts and shared interface schemas, collaborating closely with frontend and data engineers to manage changes without introducing breakage
• Contribute to backend architecture discussions with a focus on simplicity, maintainability, and long-term operational health

Data & Database Management

• Design and manage Postgres schemas that reflect sound data modelling principles and support evolving product requirements
• Write efficient, well-considered queries and contribute to database migration strategies that minimize risk to production systems
• Ensure data integrity and type consistency are enforced at the right layers of the stack

Testing & Quality

• Write unit and integration tests that validate service behaviour, edge cases, and failure modes with clarity and reproducibility
• Participate in code reviews, providing and incorporating constructive feedback to uphold code quality and shared standards
• Identify and resolve backend defects early in the development cycle, documenting issues with clear reproduction steps and impact assessments

Project Support & Communication

• Participate actively in sprint planning, daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives
• Review and provide feedback on requirements, design documents, and API specifications
• Communicate development progress and technical blockers to stakeholders clearly and proactively
• Work closely with cross-functional teams to maintain and exceed quality and delivery standards

Why Join Us?

Our Mission

This is more than just a job; you'll be part of a team of dedicated professionals who share a common goal: to increase the safety and security of Western democracies through the effective use of data. Our workplace is not just a job; it's a community of like-minded people working together to make a positive impact on the world we live in.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive salaries
• Flexible health benefits package through Equitable
• Industry-leading employer retirement contributions match

Work Environment

• Hybrid work model combining remote flexibility with meaningful in-person collaboration
• Modern office in the historic Carriageway building in beautiful downtown Ottawa
• Access to downtown amenities, transit, and Ottawa's vibrant cultural scene

What You'll Experience

• Work alongside dedicated professionals who value excellence and collaboration
• Contribute to building the team behind technologies with real-world security impact
• Ground-floor opportunity to shape people operations as ANVIL scales
• Join a culture where your expertise and ideas matter

Application Process

To apply for this role, please submit your CV and cover letter. The application process will likely include:

• A preliminary call with our team, which will be a chance for you to find out more about ANVIL and the role.
• An initial interview to discuss your experience and suitability for the role.
• A practical exercise to assess your approach to common scenarios in the role.

ANVIL welcomes and encourages applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available on request for candidates participating in all aspects of the selection process.

Use of AI in Recruitment: ANVIL does not use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for this position. All applications are reviewed by members of our recruitment team.