Staff Engineer - User Experience (Backend)

About Us We’re looking for a Staff Engineer - User Experience (Backend) to join our Patient Platform team and shape the systems that power patient-facing experiences across our health technology platform. This team owns the APIs, orchestration services, and communication infrastructure that enable secure, reliable interactions between patients and our platform (Email, SMS, notifications). We are at a critical stage of growth, scaling our platform, modernizing legacy services, and strengthening our event-driven architecture to support increasing patient volume and communication complexity. This role will play a central part in defining how our backend systems evolve as we scale. As a Staff Engineer - User Experience (Backend), you will be the technical authority for the Patient Platform domain, translating architectural strategy into scalable, production-ready distributed systems in partnership with cross-functional teams. You will drive the evolution of our API-first architecture (including BFF and orchestration patterns), define and enforce API contracts, and modernize tightly coupled services into scalable, event-driven components. This is an opportunity for a senior technical leader who thrives in ambiguity, moves pragmatically, and enjoys balancing hands-on engineering with architectural influence. You will strengthen reliability, observability, and fault tolerance across distributed systems, scale and harden our patient communication platform (Email, SMS, notifications), and design secure systems handling sensitive patient and identity data in regulated environments. Additionally, you will champion best practices in automated testing, CI/CD, and secure development while elevating engineering standards through mentorship, design reviews, and technical leadership. We have a strong preference for candidates based in Vancouver, BC who are able to work in a hybrid capacity. However, we are open to remote candidates across Canada. This role does not provide visa sponsorship. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in Canada at the time of hire and must not require employer sponsorship for a work visa (current or future). Help reshape the world through proactive healthcare while working with cutting-edge technology and high performing teams with deep expertise - join us to make a difference in people’s lives! What You’ll Do • Lead design and modernization of our patient-facing backend services • Drive API design best practices, including BFF and orchestration patterns • Define and enforce API contracts and cross-service communication standards • Design and implement event-driven workflows using AWS EventBridge and async messaging • Improve reliability and fault tolerance of communication pipelines (email, SMS, notifications) • Ensure secure authentication and authorization is consistently implemented across APIs • Untangle tech debt and make high-leverage decisions that improve engineering velocity • Design secure, scalable systems that handle sensitive patient and identity data • Mentor engineers across the team and elevate system design standards • Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Architecture, Security, QA, Clinical, and Frontend teams • Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to cross-functional stakeholders and leadership, influencing architectural direction and product decisions • Advocate for improvements in developer experience, testing practices, and system observability What You’ll Bring • 10+ years of backend engineering experience, including platform or high-scale distributed systems • Strong experience in Python (FastAPI, Flask) or similar modern backend frameworks • Deep expertise designing event-driven architectures in AWS (EventBridge, SQS/SNS, Lambda, ECS) • Experience building and operating async task processing systems (e.g., Celery or similar) • Proven ability to define and govern REST and/or GraphQL APIs at scale • Strong understanding of service boundaries, microservices, and async service-to-service communication • Experience designing highly observable systems (metrics, tracing, alerting — e.g., Datadog or similar) • Experience implementing secure authentication and authorization (OAuth2, JWT, service-to-service security) • Experience working with Postgres, DynamoDB, and distributed caching systems (e.g., Redis) • Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/CDK) and mature CI/CD practices Experience designing systems in regulated environments handling sensitive data (HIPAA, PHI/PII) • Excellent technical communication skills and demonstrated cross-team architectural influence • Ability to operate effectively in ambiguity and drive clarity across teams Nice to Have • Experience building or scaling communication platforms (email delivery systems, SMS gateways, notification orchestration) • Familiarity with BFF patterns supporting React or modern frontend applications • Hands-on experience with contract testing frameworks (e.g., Pact) • Experience navigating the challenges of a startup transitioning into a scale-up • Experience with healthcare or regulated environments (HIPAA, PHI/PII) • Familiarity with security and privacy standards (e.g., HIPAA, ISO 27001, ISO 13485) Our Values First: we are Pioneers • Transforming healthcare requires divergent thinking, bias for action, disciplined experimentation, and consistent grit and determination to maintain momentum. This journey is as challenging as it is rewarding. Second: we are Platform-Builders • We’re always building foundations that allow us to achieve tomorrow more than we did today. We never lose sight of what’s ahead – in a mindset of ownership and duty to our mission. Above all: we are Patients • We could all be the next person who walks through our very doors, seeking clarity or peace of mind. We are proud of our impact on our patients’ lives, and we won’t stop till everyone can benefit from our work. What We Offer • An avenue to make a positive impact on people's lives and their health • We believe in preventative healthcare for everyone, including our team - Prenuvo provides free, whole-body scans to each team member • Growth opportunities are at the heart of our people journey, we’re doing big things with bright minds - there is no single path to success, it can be shaped along the way • Building strong relationships is at the core of everything we do - our team gets together each week to connect, share, and socialize • Recognizing time away to restore is vital to our wellbeing - we have a flexible vacation policy and we will encourage you to use it • We offer a comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, vision, including Mental Health coverage, to support you and your family • Prenuvo offers eligible Canadian employees access to both RRSP and TFSA retirement savings plans, with immediate, optional enrollment and the flexibility to invest and save for the future on your own terms. While Prenuvo provides access to these plans, the company does not currently offer matching contributions. • The base salary for this role ranges from $180,000- $210,000 in local currency, depending upon experience and geographic location We are an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. As part of the hiring process, successful candidates will undergo a background check in compliance to applicable federal, provincial, and state rules. Please be advised that official communication from our recruitment team will only come from our authorized domain [prenuvo.com]. If you are contacted by a recruiter, please ensure their email address ends with @prenuvo.com. We do not use third-party recruitment services or any other email domains for hiring purposes. If you receive communication that you believe to be fraudulent, please report it immediately to jobs@prenuvo.com.