Principal Agentic Engineer - Talent Pipeline at APPLY in Toronto, ON

Job description

ABOUT APPLY APPLY is the Agentic Customer Experience (ACx) partner for the world's most ambitious consumer and entertainment brands. We bring together deep domain expertise across Retail, CPG, Sports, and Media with AI-native delivery capability, designing and delivering agentic solutions that turn CX vision into commercial reality. We are the partner of choice for brands like Arc'teryx, NFL, Lululemon, and Kraft Heinz. For more information, visit applydigital.com. APPLY TALENT PIPELINE: Interested in joining the APPLY team, but don’t see an open role you connect with? Submit your resume below and we’ll add you to our Talent Pipeline. When new opportunities open up at APPLY, we'll check our Pipeline. If your profile is a fit, we'll get in touch for an interview. Please review the requirements below to determine if you would be a good fit and submit your resume. LOCATION: APPLY is hybrid/remote friendly. The preferred candidate should be based in Canada, working in hours that align to PT or ET. THE ROLE: RESPONSIBILITIES Full-Stack Architecture & Technical Vision • Envision and architect end-to-end solutions for complex, enterprise-scale projects — spanning frontend, backend services, APIs, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure. • Provide clear technical direction across the full stack; ensure quality, coherence, and alignment of all technical solutions with business objectives. • Champion the design and implementation of highly scalable, secure, and maintainable software systems — API-first, cloud-native, and composable by default. • Own technical decisions across layers: from UI and component architecture to service design, data modelling, and infrastructure configuration. • Guide technology decisions that align with both business objectives and Apply's standard of engineering excellence. Agentic Engineering & AI-Native Delivery • Organize, distribute, and translate backlog requirements into detailed, spec-driven requirements that coding agents can implement autonomously. • Synthesize user stories, site maps, content strategy, design systems, and brand strategy into specifications that guide agent-driven development. • Apply spec-driven development (e.g. BMAD Method or equivalent) to ensure clarity, consistency, and quality across agent-orchestrated workflows. • Architect full-stack solutions, across UI, APIs, services, and data stores, that integrate seamlessly with AI-powered systems, including LLM APIs, RAG pipelines, and agent orchestration frameworks. • Design both user-facing experiences and backend service contracts that help products express goals, constraints, and context clearly to AI agents. • Integrate AI-powered APIs, LLM-driven features, RAG-based experiences, and AI-assisted developer workflows throughout the full application stack. Platform, Cloud & Composable Architecture • Design and implement microservices, APIs, and composable architectures using modern cloud platforms (GCP preferred; AWS/Azure experience valued). • Build and maintain backend services, data pipelines, and integrations with composable platforms: Contentful, Contentstack, Algolia, Cloudinary, commercetools, and similar MACH ecosystem products. • Implement enterprise-grade design systems, content models, component libraries, and the backend services that power them. • Ensure systems are performant and well-instrumented across all layers, from client-side rendering and GEO to API latency, caching, and data integrity. • Leverage containerization (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes), serverless patterns, and infrastructure-as-code where appropriate. Technical Leadership & Mentorship • Serve as a technical visionary, shaping the engineering culture and raising technical standards across multiple teams and practices. • Mentor and guide engineers in best practices: architectural decision-making, spec-driven development, AI-assisted workflows, and engineering craft. • Foster a culture of continuous learning, innovation, psychological safety, and