Our client, is seeking an experienced, hands-on Software Architect to join their high-growth Catalog & Search Platform Engineering organization.

In this strategic and hands-on technical role, you will shape the architecture and delivery of cloud-native search and browse capabilities powering critical digital discovery touchpoints (Search, Category, and Product Detail Pages) across high-traffic digital retail channels. Operating in an approximately 50/50 balance between systems design/architecture governance and hands-on engineering, you will lead the evolution of enterprise search engines, distributed backend APIs, and scalable data models.

Working with a distributed engineering pod across North America and offshore teams, you will partner closely with engineering squads and product management to design high-availability systems, establish CI/CD best practices, and direct technical solutions to complex platform challenges.

Duration: 6-Month Contract (Full-time engagement; highly extendable)

Work Arrangement: Remote (Strong preference for Vancouver, BC area; open to remote across North America with requirement to operate on Pacific Time with an 8:30 AM PST daily stand-up)

Advantages

- High-Traffic Digital Commerce Impact: Architect backend search, browse, and catalog discovery platforms that power upper-funnel experiences for millions of global digital consumers.
- Balanced Architecture & Engineering Scope: Enjoy a balanced role combining high-level systems design and architectural governance with hands-on coding and technical problem solving.
- Long-Term Extension Potential: Secure a strategic initial 6-month consulting assignment with strong multi-term extension potential.
- Modern Cloud-Native Tech Stack:



Design natively on AWS utilizing OpenSearch/Elasticsearch, microservices, containerization, and modern observability tools.

Responsibilities

- Search Engine & Platform Architecture: Architect, design, and manage large-scale search and catalog engines (OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, Lucene) supporting critical upper-funnel digital commerce discovery flows.
- Hands-on Design & Delivery (50/50): Balance architectural leadership and roadmapping with hands-on development, code reviews, and direct implementation alongside cross-functional engineering pods.
- System Design Artifacts: Create detailed architectural blueprints, including logical, conceptual, and data integration diagrams adhering to enterprise architecture standards.
- Cross-Functional Sprint Planning: Partner with product management and engineering leads to define technical roadmaps, sprint scope, QA strategies, and production reliability metrics.
- DevOps & Platform Automation: Leverage Terraform, Jenkins, Git, and automated CI/CD pipelines to streamline deployment velocity, code quality gates, and cloud provisioning.
- Reliability & Production Escalation: Serve as the senior technical escalation point for critical production incidents, ensuring rapid recovery, conducting root-cause analysis, and implementing resilient preventative controls.
- Global Team Alignment:



Collaborate daily with distributed engineering teams across North America and offshore development centers, maintaining smooth operational cadence during core Pacific Time business hours.

Qualifications

- Professional IT Depth: 8+ years of progressive post-baccalaureate experience in software engineering, technical systems design, and application architecture.
- Enterprise Search Engine Mastery: Hands-on experience building, scaling, and managing enterprise search engines using OpenSearch, Elasticsearch, or Lucene implementations.
- Cloud Platform Proficiency: Solid background in cloud-native application architectures, natively deployed on AWS (or comparable enterprise cloud platforms such as Azure or GCP).
- Backend Development Skills: Hands-on coding and systems design proficiency in backend languages such as Java, Go, or Python.
- Database & High Availability: Demonstrated experience designing for 24/7 high availability using relational databases and NoSQL solutions (e.g., DynamoDB, Elasticsearch).
- DevOps & Infrastructure as Code: Working familiarity with CI/CD automation and tooling, including Terraform, Jenkins, Git, Splunk, and APM monitoring suites.
- Communication & Technical Leadership: Proven ability to lead architectural design reviews, present tradeoffs to leadership, and mentor engineering teams across complex technical domains.
- Schedule Alignment: Ability to align with Pacific Standard Time (PST) working hours, including daily 8:30 AM PST stand-ups.

Summary

If you are a tech-savvy Software Architect or Staff/Principal Engineer who pairs 8+ years of software engineering depth with hands-on OpenSearch/Elasticsearch engine mastery, mode

📌 Software Development Engineer, Web Frameworks (Vancouver)
🏢 Amazon Development Centre Canada ULC
📍 Vancouver