Engineering Assistant I

At Loblaw Digital, we know that our customers expect the best from us. Whether that means building the best, most innovative online shopping experience, or designing an app that will impact the lives of people across the country, we’re up for the challenge. From our office in Downtown Toronto, we’ve created leading eCommerce experiences in the online grocery shopping, beauty, pharmacy, and apparel spaces, and we’re only just getting started.

As a Staff Backend Developer at Loblaw Digital, you will serve as a strategic technical leader across core platform experiences within the Engage domain, including Gateway orchestration, Server-Driven UI (SDUI), and BFF (Backend for Frontend) architecture.

You’ll partner deeply with cross-functional teams spanning Mobile, Web, Design, Product, and Infrastructure to architect scalable APIs, power dynamic experiences, and enable composable feature delivery across banners like PC Express, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Joe Fresh. This is a critical leadership role that shapes the technical direction of shared infrastructure powering millions of customer interactions per day.

Technical Strategy & Architecture:

Own and advocate for the long-term technical vision behind server-driven page composition and orchestration layers (e.g. layout resolver, view resolver).

Lead and contribute to high-impact Technical Design Documents (TDDs) with clear tradeoffs, scaling patterns, and roadmap implications.

Systems Design & Implementation:

Build and optimize high-throughput backend services using Node.js, TypeScript, and Java/Kotlin, with integration to systems like Helios, Assetful, and upstream services.

Partner with Frontend and Mobile Staff Developers to define the API contracts, SDUI component APIs, and backend composition rules.

Guide vertical teams (PDP, Browse, Homepage) in integrating with shared BFF and SDUI systems, ensuring performance and developer experience.

Represent Gateway and BFF concerns in domain-wide conversations around performance, experimentation, personalization, and SSR.

Drive initiatives that improve developer productivity, such as API mocking frameworks, CI pipelines, and schema validators for SDUI layout payloads.

Contribute to platform-wide observability (Snowplow, OTEL), error handling, and tracing efforts to support performance-led engineering.

Deep expertise in at least one backend language (Node.js/TypeScript preferred, Java/Kotlin acceptable).

• Proven experience designing composable APIs, orchestration layers, or middleware gateways.
• Experience leading backend architecture for dynamic frontend experiences (e.g., SDUI, layout-as-data, CMS-driven rendering).
• Strong knowledge of API contract design, caching, observability (OTEL, Datadog), and production hardening techniques.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional projects and mentor other engineers.
• js, React SSR, or Framer Motion is a plus.

Understanding of performance instrumentation, deep linking, and BFF unification strategies.

Building or operating high-throughput API Gateways (internal or external-facing).

Experience with Apigee Edge/X, Kong, Express Gateway, or custom Node.js middleware orchestration layers.

Designing or integrating with layout-as-data systems (e.g., Building or scaling layout resolver/view resolver services that power mobile/web SDUI clients.

Backend for Frontend (BFF)

Leading development of BFFs that orchestrate multiple upstream services and expose clean APIs to the frontend/mobile.

Proven success in reducing complexity through thoughtful contract design and caching strategies.

Supporting multi-surface delivery (web, native iOS/Android, kiosk/tablet) through adaptive response logic.

At Loblaw Digital, we seek great people to continually strengthen our culture. If you have big ideas, undeniable enthusiasm, and thrive in a collaborative, creative, and diverse group, we’ll get along just fine.

Full time

Loblaw Digital recognizes Canada's diversity as a source of national pride and strength. We have made it a priority to reflect our nation’s evolving diversity in the products we sell, the people we hire, and the culture we create in our organization. Accommodation is available upon request for applicants with disabilities in the recruitment and assessment process and when hired.

Upholding the law is part of our Code of Conduct – it reinforces what our customers and stakeholders expect of us.

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