The Core Backend team owns the systems and internal tooling that every other product team at Top Hat depends on. You're working in the deepest parts of the codebase where a subtle failure has company-wide consequences and performance gains multiply across the system.
Your primary customers are other developers. You'll collaborate broadly, but success here means the platform is faster, more reliable, and easier to build on than it was before you touched it.
This role is for someone who removes unnecessary abstractions, who reaches for a profiler before a framework, and who finds genuine satisfaction in leaving a system measurably better than they found it.
What You'll Own
Core backend systems, libraries, and internal developer tooling used across product development and customer support
Performance, reliability, and architectural improvements to the system with the highest downstream impact
Code quality and technical standards for the system surface area you own
What We're Looking For
Experience
2+ years of industry, research, or graduate-level experience, including at least 2 years working in large codebases with complex algorithms and data structures. Open source contributions at this scale count.
We hire for systems depth first. If your background is in a different stack but you've worked at the level of compilers, databases, game engines, OS/browser internals, or high-frequency trading systems, we want to talk.
Technical Knowledge
Programming on Linux/BSD/MacOS
Python (FastAPI, Django)
SQL (PostgreSQL, MySQL)
Distributed Systems
Profiling & Optimization
Nice To Haves
TypeScript/JavaScript (React)
Cloud Experience (AWS, GCP, etc.)
Observability (OpenTelemetry, Datadog, etc.)
Infrastructure-As-Code (Terraform, Ansible, etc.)
Troubleshooting TCP/DNS/HTTP/SMTP/etc.
Database Administration, Maintenance & Scaling
Designing APIs for Customers
How You Work
You can communicate with developers and non-developers alike, and adjust your level of abstraction to fit the audience
You excel at written communication to both plan and document work on a geographically dispersed team
You break down ambiguous problems into concrete steps without waiting for full specifications
You build accurate mental models of large, unfamiliar codebases quickly and use them to identify what matters
You carefully consider the data structures and performance characteristics of your solutions
You take full ownership of quality: your own code and the code you touch, refactoring as necessary to maintain a long lived codebase
You understand the tradeoffs involved in using LLMs to solve problems and have a strong feel for the types of problems they excel at solving
Why team members love working at Top Hat:
A noble mission that creates meaningful, fulfilling work
A team that cares deeply for customers and for each other
Flexible, remote first work environment
Professional learning and development for all role levels
An awesome and welcoming Toronto HQ
Competitive health benefits that start on day one
A management team focused on performance, growth, engagement and connection
Our winning strategy and market potential
Innovative PTO policy with lots of time and space for self-care
Passionate customers that believe in us—and what we do
A chance to work with new tech like generative AI—and see the customer impact
