Staff Software Engineer, Backend

Harvey Harvey · AI Frontier · Toronto, ON · Engineering

Staff Backend Software Engineer at Harvey, a company transforming legal and professional services with agentic AI. The role focuses on building and owning the foundational backend platform, including authentication, permissions, notifications, and document management integrations, as well as enterprise-facing collaboration features. The engineer will work on systems that enable secure, reliable, and flexible user experiences, directly impacting how users engage with Harvey's AI-powered legal tools. This position requires experience in distributed systems, scalable architectures, and enterprise SaaS patterns, with a focus on shipping user-facing features and supporting multiple product lines.

What you'd actually do

  1. Design and build foundational backend infrastructure including authentication, permissions, feature flagging, notifications, and document management integrations
  2. Build and evolve Harvey’s internal product platform, accelerating development across multiple product lines and engineering teams
  3. Lead development of enterprise-facing features, such as secure multi-party collaboration, cross-organization workflows, and robust admin controls
  4. Maintain high standards for security, privacy, and system reliability, particularly in handling sensitive legal data
  5. Collaborate cross-functionally with product, AI, design, and GTM teams to deliver delightful, enterprise-ready experiences

Skills

Required

  • 5+ years of backend software engineering experience
  • Experience working across the stack to ship user-facing features
  • Strong knowledge of distributed systems
  • Strong knowledge of REST/gRPC APIs
  • Strong knowledge of databases
  • Strong knowledge of scalable service architectures
  • Experience building backend platforms
  • Strong programming skills
  • General Computer Science knowledge

Nice to have

  • Familiarity with enterprise SaaS patterns
  • Familiarity with role-based access control (RBAC)
  • Familiarity with feature flag systems
  • Familiarity with third-party integrations
  • Interest in enterprise SaaS patterns
  • Track record of shipping highly intuitive products
  • Strong attention to detail

What the JD emphasized

  • enterprise-grade platform
  • user-facing features
  • AI-powered legal tools
  • foundational backend infrastructure
  • secure multi-party collaboration
  • cross-organization workflows
  • robust admin controls
  • sensitive legal data