Staff Software Engineer (Full Stack)

Engineering
Remote
Lead / Principal
Ontario, Canada
Full-time

About the Role

Floating Binary is seeking an experienced Staff Software Engineer to help lead the technical development and evolution of Okulo, our software platform that helps small and growing businesses manage hiring, contracts, background checks, and people operations in one place.

We're looking for an exceptional engineer who combines deep technical expertise, strong architectural judgment, and a practical approach to building reliable, scalable software.

As a Staff Software Engineer, you'll play a key role in shaping the technical direction of Okulo. You'll work closely with the founder and engineering team to design systems, solve complex technical challenges, establish engineering standards, and deliver high-impact product capabilities.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. You'll be expected to write production code, lead critical engineering initiatives, and make architectural decisions that balance product needs, technical quality, security, and long-term maintainability.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Architecture & Leadership

Lead the design and evolution of scalable, secure, and maintainable software architecture.
Drive technical decisions across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and system integrations.
Establish engineering standards, design patterns, and best practices across the codebase.
Evaluate architectural trade-offs and make pragmatic decisions that balance delivery speed with long-term sustainability.
Identify and address technical risks, scalability challenges, and architectural bottlenecks.
Lead technical design discussions, architecture reviews, and complex engineering initiatives.

Software Development & Delivery

Design, build, test, deploy, and maintain production-grade applications and services.
Take ownership of technically complex, high-impact features and systems from conception through production.
Build and maintain APIs, distributed workflows, integrations, and asynchronous processing systems.
Develop performant, accessible, and maintainable user interfaces.
Improve application performance, system reliability, observability, and operational efficiency.
Troubleshoot complex production issues and lead root-cause analysis.
Ensure engineering solutions meet security, privacy, and data protection requirements.

Engineering Excellence & Collaboration

Collaborate with the founder and product stakeholders to translate business objectives into technical strategy.
Provide technical guidance, mentorship, and constructive code reviews to other engineers.
Improve development workflows, automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and deployment processes.
Define and promote standards for code quality, documentation, security, and maintainability.
Drive initiatives that reduce technical debt and improve developer productivity.
Contribute to technical planning, prioritization, and delivery estimates.
Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, continuous learning, and engineering excellence.

Required Qualifications

8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with demonstrated technical leadership on complex production systems.
Advanced proficiency in TypeScript and JavaScript.
Deep experience developing backend applications and services using Node.js.
Strong experience with React, Next.js, and modern frontend architecture.
Proven ability to design and evolve scalable, distributed, and multi-tenant software systems.
Strong understanding of API design, asynchronous processing, data modeling, and system integration patterns.
Experience designing and operating cloud-native applications on Google Cloud Platform, AWS, or equivalent platforms.
Strong understanding of application security, authentication, authorization, and data isolation.
Experience with automated testing, CI/CD, observability, and production incident management.
Demonstrated ability to make architectural decisions and communicate technical trade-offs effectively.
Experience mentoring engineers, leading technical initiatives, and influencing engineering practices.
Excellent problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications

Hands-on experience with Firebase, Firestore, Cloud Functions, and Google Cloud infrastructure.
Experience architecting and operating multi-tenant B2B SaaS platforms.
Experience with event-driven architectures, background processing, and distributed systems.
Experience integrating AI models, LLM APIs, or intelligent automation into production applications.
Familiarity with document processing, electronic signatures, identity verification, or workflow automation.
Experience with infrastructure as code, containerization, and cloud security.
Experience building systems with data residency, audit logging, and compliance requirements.
Previous experience as a Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, or technical lead in a product engineering organization.
Experience working in early-stage startups or lean engineering teams.

What We're Looking For

We're particularly interested in engineers who demonstrate:

Technical depth: You understand how systems work beyond the framework level and can solve difficult architectural and engineering problems.
Ownership: You take responsibility for technical outcomes, not just individual tasks.
Pragmatic judgment: You know when to invest in robust architecture and when a simpler solution is appropriate.
Product thinking: You understand how engineering decisions affect customers, business priorities, and delivery timelines.
Technical leadership: You raise the engineering standards of the people and systems around you.
Autonomy: You can navigate ambiguity, define technical approaches, and execute without constant direction.
Clear communication: You can explain complex technical concepts and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

What We Offer

Significant influence over the technical architecture and direction of an emerging SaaS platform.
Ownership of complex engineering initiatives and critical platform capabilities.
Direct collaboration with the founder and engineering team.
A hands-on technical leadership role with meaningful autonomy.
Opportunities to work across cloud infrastructure, AI integrations, distributed systems, and modern web technologies.
A flexible remote working environment.
Opportunities to shape engineering practices and contribute to the growth of the technical team.
Competitive compensation aligned with experience and responsibilities.