Senior Software Engineer - Salt Lake City

About the role

Our cloud-native solutions serve more than 8,000 educational institutions in over 100 countries. We are redefining software engineering by embedding Artificial Intelligence throughout our development lifecycle to multiply engineering velocity, code quality, and security. We are seeking an autonomous, high-impact Senior Software Engineer to join our core product engineering team dedicated to Canvas LMS—the cornerstone open-source ecosystem powering global education (accessible at https://github.com/instructure/canvas-lms). In this role, your playground will be your entire team’s area, and you will drive work from definition to delivery with minimal support, unblocking yourself and others.

Responsibilities

• Own and drive work from definition through delivery within our Canvas LMS core product engineering team.
• Architect, develop, and maintain complex backend services and features for Canvas and related open-source products.
• Masterfully leverage AI-powered engineering tools (Claude Code, Gemini, Github Copilot, and others) to scale productivity, automate repetitive tasks, expand test coverage, and accelerate the development cycle.
• Review and maintain large portions of the Canvas codebase, providing thoughtful, high-quality code reviews focused on maintainability, scalability, and security.
• Collaborate closely with Product and Design teams to translate requirements and user experience prototypes into robust, accessible APIs and services.
• Continuously build and refine internal tools or workflows (such as ticketing hooks, cloud development environments, or IDE extensions) to increase team efficiency and velocity.
• Mentor junior and mid-level engineers, support peer growth, and contribute to a strong, collaborative engineering culture.
• Play a key role in incident response, production issue resolution, and blameless post-mortems to continually improve product reliability.
• Participate in the recruitment process by interviewing candidates and providing evidence-based evaluation.

Requirements

• Demonstrated experience delivering scalable, enterprise-grade SaaS applications as a software engineer (ideally in a cloud-native environment).
• Advanced proficiency with AI-augmented engineering workflows, using tools like Claude Code, Gemini, Github Copilot, or related developer agents.
• Familiarity with Git/Github and Gerrit version control workflows.
• Strong command of architectural best practices, system design, and test-driven development.
• Experience collaborating with Product and Design teams, including translating Figma prototypes into functional backend systems.
• A strong understanding of accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA standards, semantic HTML, interoperability with assistive technologies).
• Exposure to modern cloud infrastructure (AWS, Docker, DataDog, Observe) and observability tooling.
• An autonomous, proactive work style—comfortable navigating ambiguity, independently unblocking yourself and others, and working under strategic direction.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to mentor others and contribute to a positive, high-performance engineering team culture.

Qualifications

• Expertise in Ruby on Rails, Node.js, React.js, and Postgres.
• Exposure to modern cloud infrastructure (AWS, Docker, DataDog, Observe) and observability tooling.
• An autonomous, proactive work style—comfortable navigating ambiguity, independently unblocking yourself and others, and working under strategic direction.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to mentor others and contribute to a positive, high-performance engineering team culture.

Skills

• Expertise in Ruby on Rails, Node.js, React.js, and Postgres.
• Advanced proficiency with AI-augmented engineering workflows, using tools like Claude Code, Gemini, Github Copilot, or related developer agents.
• Familiarity with Git/Github and Gerrit version control workflows.
• Strong command of architectural best practices, system design, and test-driven development.
• Experience collaborating with Product and Design teams, including translating Figma prototypes into functional backend systems.
• A strong understanding of accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA standards, semantic HTML, interoperability with assistive technologies).
• Exposure to modern cloud infrastructure (AWS, Docker, DataDog, Observe) and observability tooling.
• An autonomous, proactive work style—comfortable navigating ambiguity, independently unblocking yourself and others, and working under strategic direction.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to mentor others and contribute to a positive, high-performance engineering team culture.

Benefits

We offer competitive, meaningful benefits in every country where we operate. While they vary by location, here's a general idea of what you can expect:

• Competitive compensation, plus all full-time employees participate in our ownership program - because everyone should have a stake in our success.
• Flexible work culture. Our remote, hybrid and in-office collaboration spaces vary by role, team and location.
• Generous time off, including local holidays and our annual “Dim the Lights” period in late December, when teams are encouraged to step back and recharge based on departmental needs.
• Comprehensive wellness programs and mental health support.
• Learning and development resources, including professional development tools and tuition reimbursement, to support your growth.
• The technology and tools you need to do your best work.
• Motivosity employee recognition program.
• A culture rooted in inclusivity, support, and meaningful connection.

Pay

$150K - $200K

Schedule

Full-time