Principal Engineer

Title:
Principal/ Senior Principal Engineer (flexible based on profile)

Location:
Greater Vancouver BC, Canada, Fully Remote (prefer BC located). We are also open to Seattle, WA candidates who do NOT need visa sponsorship to work in US. Candidates must be able to travel to Vancouver BC at 2 days notice.

Visa Sponsorship:
SmartVerify is able to sponsor work permit and PR in Canada

Compensation
: Commensurate with experience and fit. CAD$150-$175K base, with equity TBD.

Company Overview

SmartVerify is a funded, seed-stage startup built with all ex-AWS professionals. SmartVerify is on a mission to empower enterprises to own their data security in the age of AI.

Traditional application security is no longer enough. In a world of third-party applications, AI agents, and LLMs, the focus must shift to the data layer itself. SmartVerify is building the foundational, mission-critical layer that manages all data orchestration between applications and datasets. We act as a universal, non-disruptive policy engine that provides Just-in-Time (JIT) access, granular control, and continuous verification, ensuring that our customers' data remains secure.

Role:

We are seeking a
Principal Engineer (SDE)
with deep expertise in
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
to design, build, and scale next-generation cloud-native systems. This role blends hands-on software development with technical leadership—driving architecture, mentoring teams, and ensuring our platforms meet the highest standards of performance, security, and reliability.

The role is scoped for a Principal/Senior Principal. You will be own end-to-end architecture for the entire service, and will be the primary expert helping the engineering team with challenging problems on scaling, resilience, security and performance. You will work directly with the CEO.

Key Responsibilities

Drive Technical Strategy:

• Lead end-to-end design, development, and delivery of complex cloud-native applications on AWS.
• Partner with the founding team and advisors to define the architecture and roadmap for a highly available (Multi-AZ), secure, and scalable SaaS platform.

Insist on the Highest Standards:

• Design secure, cost-efficient, and high-availability systems leveraging
  multi-account, multi-region architectures
  .
• Champion engineering best practices, including robust testing, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools like Terraform/CloudFormation, and comprehensive documentation.

Be Hands-On:

• Architect and implement solutions using AWS services such as
  Lambda, ECS, DynamoDB, S3 and CloudFront
  .
• Actively participate in design reviews, architecture discussions, and code reviews to ensure quality and technical rigor.
• Write high-quality, maintainable code in modern languages such as
  Java, Python, Rust/Go

Technical Leadership

• Have a long-term perspective on architecture, driving trade-offs between short term technical deliverables, and long term strategic objectives that the service must achieve
• Conduct code reviews and mentor junior and mid-level engineers. Ability to mentor and grow engineers is critical.

Qualifications

• Education:
  BS/MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Experience:
  8–12+ years in software engineering, with a hands-on SDE role within the last 5 years.
• A minimum of
  2 years of experience as a Software Development Engineer (SDE) at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  .

Preferred Qualifications

Familiarity with building multi-cloud infrastructure and services across AWS, GCP, and Azure.

Success in This Role

You will be successful if you can:

• Drive high-impact architectural decisions that shape the company's cloud strategy.
• Empower your team through mentorship and technical excellence.
• Deliver scalable, secure, and resilient systems that delight customers