Senior Backend Engineer

Tucows Domains is the world's largest wholesale domain registrar, responsible for maintaining the health, neutrality, and openness of an important-but largely invisible part of the Internet: the domain name system (DNS).

As part of Tucows-one of the world's largest Internet companies-Tucows Domains has a rich history of helping make the Internet better, operating globally under the Ascio, Enom, Hover and OpenSRS brands.

We embrace a people-first philosophy that is rooted in respect, trust, and flexibility. We believe that whatever works for our employees is what works best for us. It's also why the majority of our roles are remote-first, meaning you can work from anywhere you can connect to the Internet! Today, over one thousand people from over 20 countries are part of our team.

If this sounds exciting to you, join the herd!

Description

We are looking for an experienced backend engineer who enjoys solving complex problems, sharing knowledge, and building reliable software.

As a Senior Backend Software Engineer, you will design, build, and maintain the services, databases, and APIs that support our products. This is a hands-on individual contributor role that also includes responsibility for technical direction and coordinated delivery across multiple systems.

You will lead design discussions, break down complex initiatives, coordinate technical work, and collaborate with Product, Operations, and other engineering teams to deliver secure, reliable, and maintainable software.

This is a remote position for applicants based in Canada.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, and maintain secure, scalable, and reliable backend systems.
• Provide technical direction across multiple applications and services.
• Lead architecture and design discussions and document important technical decisions.
• Translate business and product requirements into practical technical plans.
• Break down initiatives, coordinate technical work, and manage dependencies and blockers.
• Collaborate with Product, Operations, and other engineering teams to coordinate delivery.
• Design and maintain APIs, database schemas, integrations, and data contracts.
• Improve system performance, security, observability, and maintainability.
• Review code and technical designs and help maintain engineering standards.
• Debug complex production issues and lead the technical response to incidents.
• Write and maintain automated tests, technical documentation, and CI/CD workflows.
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to other engineers.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 6+ years of professional backend software engineering experience.
• Experience providing technical direction while remaining hands-on.
• Experience leading complex initiatives across multiple systems or services.
• Strong experience with Python, Go, or similar backend languages.
• Experience designing RESTful APIs using frameworks such as FastAPI or Gin.
• Experience with relational databases, preferably PostgreSQL, including schema design and query optimization.
• Strong understanding of HTTP, REST, JSON, XML, and related web technologies.
• Experience supporting production systems and responding to incidents.
• Experience with automated testing, Continuous Integration, Git, and modern development workflows.
• Strong communication, problem-solving, and collaboration skills.
• Experience working in a remote, distributed team.

Nice to Have

• Experience with RabbitMQ or other message brokers.
• Experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Experience with Docker, Docker Swarm, Nomad, or Kubernetes.
• Knowledge of OAuth 2.0, JWT, OpenAPI, and API security practices.
• Familiarity with networking, Linux, infrastructure operations, or Internet protocols such as DNS, EPP, and RDAP.

The base salary range for this position is $145,000 - $155,000 CAD for Canadian residents. Other countries will differ. Range may vary on a number of factors including, but not limited to: location, experience and qualifications. Tucows believes in a total rewards offering that includes fair compensation and generous benefits. Learn more about Tucows Benefits.

What we stand for

Want to know more about what we stand for? At Tucows we care about protecting the open Internet, narrowing digital divide, and supporting fairness and equality.

Diversity and Inclusion

We also know that diversity drives innovation. We are committed to inclusion across race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status. We celebrate multiple approaches and diverse points of view.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request an accommodation.

We use AI-enabled tools throughout our recruitment proc