Principal Backend Engineer

Job description

Principal Backend Engineer Aspira | Phoenix Engineering About Aspira
For forty years, Aspira has been the market-leading software and services provider for the great outdoors, primarily for state and provincial parks and wildlife agencies.

As part of our constant evolution, we're executing an aggressive multi-year transformation to accelerate revenue growth, optimize cost structures, and maximize shareholder value while expanding our market position.


The Ideal Candidate
As a Principal Back End Engineer at Aspira, you will be a key technical leader within our engineering team, driving the design, development, and optimization of robust back-end systems that are crucial to the company’s operational success and scalability.

This role combines in-depth coding expertise, architectural design, and strategic leadership, ensuring that all back-end solutions are scalable, efficient, and aligned with both technical and business objectives.

The Principal Back End Engineer will collaborate with cross-functional teams, mentor junior engineers, and play a critical role in shaping the technical roadmap for our back-end infrastructure.



In this role, you will be building highly scalable serverless applications on AWS.

You will work closely with product managers, front-end engineers, and other stakeholders to design and implement solutions that leverage modern technologies and best practices.

Your extensive experience in serverless architecture, along with your deep knowledge of AWS Services like CloudFront, S3, DynamoDB, AppSync, Lambda, EventBridge, and StepFunctions, will be instrumental in ensuring the reliability and efficiency of our technical infrastructure.


Key Responsibilities
• Lead the design, development, and deployment of scalable, high-performance back-end services, APIs, and system architectures.

• Optimize build pipelines, deployment processes, and overall system performance while reducing technical debt.

• Define and implement comprehensive testing strategies (unit, integration, load) to ensure code quality, reliability, and security.

• Collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, front-end engineers, and security teams to align technical roadmaps and ensure compliance with best practices.

• Mentor and guide back-end engineers, driving technical discussions, code reviews, and fostering a culture of learning and excellence.

• Take ownership of complex projects, managing timelines, identifying risks, and ensuring timely, high-quality delivery.

• Continuously improve infrastructure and development processes by introducing new tools, technologies, and methodologies.

• Uphold company values by promoting teamwork, accountability, compliance, and ethical standards in all work.
Qualifications
• Proven track record of designing and delivering high-quality, scalable back-end systems, with a strong foundation in serverless architecture, performance optimization, and distributed computing.



• Strong experience in designing and implmenting GraphQL APIs.

• Extensive experience with DynamoDB, Dynamo Streams, and single table design.



• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to address complex technical challenges and develop innovative, efficient solutions that meet business needs.



• Exceptional leadership and mentoring capabilities, with a history of guiding engineering teams to deliver high-performance, secure, and reliable back-end services.



• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.



• Proficiency in implementing best practices for back-end security, including knowledge of encryption, authentication mechanisms, and secure data handling.



• Adaptability to evolving technologies and industry trends, with a proactive approach to adopting and integrating new tools and methodologies to enhance back-end development and infrastructure.


Desired Hardware and Software Competencies
· Proficient in software development tools (IntelliJ, Visual Studio Code, Eclipse) and version control systems like Git for managing distributed codebases.

· Expertise in containerization and orchestration technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm) for deploying and managing scalable microservices.

· Strong experience with database technologies (SQL and NoSQL) such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, DynamoDB, and Redis, with skills in designing and optimizing complex data structures.

· Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab CI, CircleCI) and cloud infrastructure (AWS services like CloudFront, S3, Lambda, DynamoDB), including monitoring and logging with CloudWatch.
Desired Education and Experience
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; Master’s degree preferred.



• 10+ years of professional experience in back-end software development, with a focus on designing and deploying scalable systems.



• 5+ years of experience in a senior or lead engineering role, demonstrating strong leadership and project management skills.



• Extensive experience with back-end technologies and frameworks, including Node.js, Java, Python, and major database systems (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB).



• Proven expertise in cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI).



• Demonstrated success in implementing robust security practices and managing complex, high-performance systems.

Required Skill Profession

Other General