Senior Software Developer

Join a Company in Transformation: Build, Scale, and Launch New Assessment Experiences on a Modern Stack

If you’ve spent years solving real-world problems in code, thrive on change, and love building in that pivotal space where a company is modernizing its products, architecture, and ways of working, this is that moment.

At Acuity Insights, we help education programs identify the human-centred skills in applicants that define excellence in a changing world, skills like critical thinking, collaboration, and resilience, and we enable learners to develop those skills once they enter their programs, all while helping institutions manage the operational complexity of education through technology that keeps the human element front and centre.

“There’s a lot of change, but it’s also a rare chance to help shape the foundations. Not often do you get to be part of rebuilding how a company builds.” - Software Developer at Acuity

You’ll join Team Spark, a cross-functional squad leading the next generation of Acuity’s assessment tools, including Video Interview and Professional Skills Development, as they move from pilot to full launch.

Here, you’ll have the opportunity to shape modern, impactful products, strengthen systems for scale, and help define how a product-led engineering culture takes shape.

This is a fully remote role open to candidates based anywhere in Canada.

What You’ll Build and Shape

As a Senior Software Developer on Team Spark, you’ll help shape two products that redefine how programs discover and develop future professionals, from admissions to graduation.

You’ll work at the intersection of code, product, and problem-solving: translating real user challenges into scalable systems and thoughtful experiences. You’ll contribute not only to implementation but also to early product conversations, helping decide what’s essential, balancing scope and time with the drive for quality and long-term impact.

“It’s not always comfortable, but that’s what makes it valuable. We’re learning how to build like a product company, that’s growth for all of us.” - Software Developer at Acuity

You’ll build in a modern TypeScript-based stack: React on the frontend, Node/NestJS + Postgres/GraphQL on the backend, and AWS (CDK, ECS, S3, CloudFront) in production, with Datadog powering observability and performance insights.

You’ll help strengthen the technical foundations, improve developer velocity, and contribute to patterns and systems that make innovation sustainable, not just for Team Spark, but across Acuity’s evolving platform.

How You’ll Build With Us

You’ll spend your time where it matters most, solving problems, shaping solutions, and helping the team deliver with confidence and clarity. About a third of your focus will be hands-on implementation, with the rest dedicated to design decisions, technical planning, and collaboration across squads.

You’ll:

• Strengthen and scale video-assessment workflows for Video Interview, improving performance, accessibility, and reliability.
• Evolve the Professional Skills Development experience to support longitudinal skill growth and feedback.
• Design and maintain scalable, reusable systems and APIs that power multiple products.
• Partner with Product and Design to define problems clearly and shape solutions iteratively, balancing speed with sustainability.
• Contribute early to planning, helping scope milestones that balance ambition with realism.
• Collaborate with platform, data, and design-system teams to align on shared architecture and consistent delivery practices.
• Model clarity through documentation and communication that keeps complex projects on track.
• Mentor teammates through pairing, reviews, and thoughtful feedback.
• Champion a pragmatic approach to testing and quality, using automation and visibility to keep releases fast and reliable.

“It feels good to see the platform improving with every sprint, we’re building real momentum, together.” - Software Developer at Acuity

Here, thoughtful engineering isn’t about perfection; it’s about progress. You’ll have the freedom to move fast, learn continuously, and evolve systems supported by a team that values safety, feedback, and shared ownership.

Why This Work Matters

Education is changing, and so are the skills that define success. Programs are under pressure to understand applicants and support learners more holistically, yet most still rely on disconnected systems and manual processes that can’t capture the full picture of a person.

For developers, that means tackling complex, meaningful problems: scaling qualitative assessment, connecting data across systems, and making it all usable, fair, and accessible.

In this role, you’ll take emerging products from pilot to launch, strengthen their foundations for scale, and shape how they integrate within Acuity’s unified platform. It’s a rare opportunity to build systems that bridge people and technology, where every improvement directly supports a fairer, more human approach to education.

“You can build good software anywhere. Here, you’re building something that actually matters, something that helps people see potential in themselves and others.” — Software Developer at Acuity

You’ll build in an environment that’s evolving, where developers, designers, and product teams are redefining how we design, build, and deliver software that actually matters.

Your Squad and Collaborators

Our engineering organization is built around small, focused squads that own distinct product areas within Acuity’s unified platform. Each squad includes software developers and a product manager, working closely with design, research, and platform teams to bring ideas to life.

You’ll be part of Team Spark, a cross-functional squad responsible for Acuity’s newest assessment-based products, Video Interview and Professional Skills Development.

You’ll collaborate closely with peers across other squads, platform services, data, and Casper, to ensure a consistent architecture and seamless learner experience. Communication is direct, collaboration is frequent, and progress often starts with a shared prototype or quick sync across teams.

Collaboration here isn’t a handoff; it’s a conversation. Everyone contributes to testing, documentation, and quality. You’ll work alongside teammates who care deeply about clean systems, thoughtful problem-solving, and building products that make education more human.

What Helps You Thrive Here

• You Think in Outcomes. You connect your work to the problem it solves, caring as much about user value and impact as you do about clean architecture.
• You Build with Judgment. You balance speed and quality, knowing when to experiment and when to invest in scale and stability.
• You’re Fluent Across the Stack. You bring strong backend development skills and hands-on experience with JavaScript and TypeScript, and you’re comfortable working in cloud environments like AWS, using tools such as Lambda, API Gateway, or CDK to deliver reliable, scalable solutions.
• You Design for the System. You’ve built and deployed distributed systems, designed APIs, and developed full-stack solutions with scale, performance, and maintainability in mind.
• You Collaborate with Courage. You share ideas, challenge assumptions, and bridge perspectives between product, design, and engineering.
• You’re Pragmatic. You evolve systems thoughtfully rather than rebuilding for the sake of it, balancing progress with stability.
• You Care About Tooling and Quality. You advocate for CI/CD, feature flags, automated testing, and shared QA ownership, treating quality as a collective responsibility.
• You Thrive in Change. You find energy in transformation. You iterate fast, learn continuously, and help shape how we work as we modernize our stack and practices.
• You Communicate with Clarity. You make complex things understandable, for teammates, Product, and Design alike.
• You Mentor Through Action. You lift others through pairing, reviews, and thoughtful feedback, leaving code, teams, and processes better than you found them.
• You Stretch with Safety. You take risks, experiment, and grow in an environment built on trust.
  

“This is the kind of environment that makes you better, not just as a coder, but as a teammate. You learn how to lead from where you are.” - Software Developer at Acuity

We’ve Got You Covered

You do your best work when you’re trusted to lead with autonomy, given room to grow, and supported with the resources you need to make an impact. At Acuity, we design our support with that in mind. Our benefits include:

• Transparent compensation. For this role, a base salary of $160K–$180K CAD, aligned to experience, scope, and impact.
• Learning that grows with you. A $3,000 annual learning budget for technical mastery, leadership development, or curiosity projects.
• Shared success - employee stock options so you participate directly in the value you help create.
• Flexibility and balance. Remote-first across Canada with the option to work abroad up to six weeks per year.
• Time to rest and recharge. Self-directed vacation (typically 4–6 weeks annually) plus a two-week year-end rest period across the company.
• Comprehensive care. Health and dental benefits from day one for you and your dependents.
• Future-proofing.  2% GRSP matching to support long-term financial security.
• Family support. 16-week parental leave top-up, available to all parents.
  

What to Expect From the Process

We view hiring as a two-way conversation, a chance for both of us to explore alignment in skill, impact, and culture.

1. Application Review & Response. Every application is reviewed by a real person. You’ll hear back either way.
2. Conversation with a Recruiter. A human conversation to learn about your career journey and interests, and share details about the role, team, and culture.
3. Conversation with the Manager. A video call with your potential manager (Joshua) to discuss your experience and day-to-day realities of the role.
4. Technical Exercises & Team Conversations. A live technical session (pairing or system design) followed by meetings with developers and PMs to explore collaboration and fit.
5. Decision & Follow-Up. After feedback is consolidated, the hiring manager makes a decision, typically within 2–4 business days.
6. Offer Conversation & References. If it’s a mutual match, we’ll review the offer together.

We use AI note-taking tools to improve accuracy, but every decision is made by people who care. We know the process is a time investment, and we aim to make each step thoughtful and worthwhile.

Our Story & Purpose

We believe everyone has incredible potential, and our mission is to help uncover it, nurture it, and bring it to life.

Our journey began with a simple idea: assess people not just by academic metrics, but by who they are. That vision started with Casper, developed with McMaster University to measure human skills like empathy and professionalism, and grew with One45, created at the University of British Columbia to help medical programs manage curriculum and assessment digitally.

Now united as Acuity Insights, we’re building a connected platform that supports learners and programs from admissions to graduation, serving partners across North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. 

We’re trusted by leading education institutions and powered by a team that believes technology can help build a fairer, more human world.

Life at Acuity Insights

We’re a remote-first team of 140+ people who care deeply about our work and each other. We collaborate across time zones, connect intentionally through virtual rituals and co-working days, and live our values, Caring, Curious, and Driven, in everything we do.

We’re intentional about growth: scaling the company without losing what makes it special. We prioritize trust, flexibility, and inclusion, giving people the autonomy to do their best work and the space to keep learning.

If you’re looking for purposeful work, room to grow, and the chance to build systems that shape how people learn and lead, we’d love to meet you.