Staff Backend Engineer - Second Horizon | Canada | Remote

Job Overview

We’re looking for a Staff-level Backend Engineer to help build the first production services for this context layer management system.

You will design and ship the core backend architecture that powers ingestion, context storage, retrieval APIs, and agent-facing integrations.

This is an early-stage role on a high‑autonomy team, so you should be comfortable working through ambiguity, making pragmatic architectural decisions, and building systems that can evolve from internal dogfooding to production‑grade Saa S.

Location

This is a remote opportunity for candidates from the U. S. or Canada. Residents of Quebec are not eligible for this role.

Key Responsibilities

• Build the core backend services: design, implement, test, and operate the first services for context ingestion, context indexing, retrieval orchestration, API access, source configuration, and system administration.
• Create a scalable Saa S foundation: define and build the architecture for a multi‑tenant service, including tenant isolation, usage tracking, quotas, audit logs, background jobs, and reliable service boundaries.
• Power agent‑facing retrieval workflows: build APIs and service interfaces that allow AI agents, MCP tools, CLIs, and internal applications to retrieve relevant context, provenance, confidence signals, and warnings.
• Work across product and infrastructure: partner with the team to make practical trade‑offs between fast experimentation and long‑term reliability, especially as the project moves from prototype to production.
• Operate what you build: instrument services with metrics, logs, traces, alerts, and dashboards. Use observability tools to understand system behaviour and improve reliability.
• Contribute to technical direction: shape the architecture, service boundaries, storage choices, API contracts, deployment patterns, and engineering practices for a new product area.
• Effective communication: work in a dynamic, collaborative environment and communicate effectively across teams.
• Ownership and impact: take full ownership of the AI solutions you develop, ensuring they are innovative, scalable, maintainable, and aligned with real user workflows.
• What We’re Looking For
• Strong engineering skills: solid experience building production‑grade, user‑facing software systems.

Self‑starter, capable of tackling complex engineering problems with minimal supervision.

• AI experience with a practical mindset: familiar with AI technologies and frameworks, focusing on delivering high‑quality solutions that work in the real world.
• Quick iteration and experimentation: comfortable releasing prototypes, collecting feedback, and iterating pragmatically.
• Proven initiative: take ownership and drive projects forward, pushing boundaries to find the most impactful solutions and defining scope where it is loosely defined.
• Collaborative attitude: communicate effectively with peers, open to feedback, and bring a solutions‑oriented mindset.

Requirements

• Experience with LLMs, prompt engineering, and building applications powered by Gen AI.
• Proven track record of delivering software that made it into production and is actively used by users.
• Exposure to working in cloud‑native environments (e. g., AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Experience using observability tools to understand and troubleshoot system behaviour.
• Nice to Have
• Experience building or working with agent frameworks or multi‑agent workflows.
• Experience as a data analyst or working with data platforms (e. g., Looker, Tableau, Power BI, Snowflake, Databricks).
• Experience building tools for data engineering.

Compensation and Benefits

In Canada, the base compensation range for this role is CAD $186,368 – $223,642.

Actual compensation may vary based on level, experience, and skillset as assessed in the interview process.

Benefits include equity, bonus (if applicable), and other benefits listed here.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Grafana Labs is an equal opportunities employer.

We welcome applications from everyone regardless of race, colour, nationality, origin, caste, sex, gender reassignment identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, religion or belief, disability, veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, maternity, marital, family or carer status, or any other characteristic which is protected by local law.

We believe that equality and diversity build a strong organisation, and we work hard to ensure that is the foundation of our organisation as we grow.

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