Senior Back End Engineer (Data Platform)

Forma.ai is a Series B startup that's revolutionizing how sales compensation is designed, managed and optimized. We handle billions in annual managed commissions for market leaders like Edmentum, Stryker, and Autodesk. 

Our growth has been fuelled by our passion for fundamentally changing and shaping how companies use sales intelligence to drive business strategy.  

We’re welcoming equally driven individuals who are excited about creating something big! 

Engineers on this team build our rules-based calculation engine for processing sales commissions. This might sound simple if you have never been exposed to sales compensation plans, it is not.

We are low on meetings and high on accountability. Most of the team is in the EST time zone, with a few located in PST and Central as well. We are still evolving many areas of the platform, which means there is meaningful room to improve the design, reliability, and scalability of the systems we build.

Reporting to the Manager of Data Platform, you will play an important role in the evolution of our Spark-based data platform. You’ll design and build data-rich platform capabilities, contribute to system design discussions, and help ensure our data systems remain reliable, maintainable, and scalable as Forma grows.

As a Senior Engineer, Data Platform, you are expected to operate with strong ownership and sound technical judgment. This includes identifying risks in the work you own, surfacing edge cases, asking thoughtful questions, and proposing improvements that strengthen the quality and reliability of the platform.

You will:

• →Design, build, and improve Spark-based data pipelines and platform services.
• →Work with complex data models representing sales compensation plans, hierarchies, relationships, and enterprise datasets.
• →Build reliable, deterministic data systems that customers and internal teams can trust.
• →Improve testing, observability, data quality, and production reliability across the systems you work on.
• →Partner with Product, Engineering, and Analytics to translate complex business requirements into scalable data designs.
• →Participate in design reviews, code reviews, technical discussions, and knowledge sharing.
• →Use AI tooling to improve delivery speed while maintaining strong engineering standards.

• Strong experience building data systems or backend systems in production.
• Experience with Spark or similar data processing / ETL frameworks.
• Proficiency in at least one production-grade language such as Python, Java, Scala, Kotlin, Go, C#, or similar.
• Strong SQL, relational schema design, and data modeling skills.
• Experience with large-scale, hierarchical, graph-like, relationship-heavy, or workflow-driven datasets.
• Ability to reason through technical tradeoffs, identify risks, and propose practical improvements.
• Experience improving scalability, reliability, observability, or maintainability in data-intensive systems.
• Strong communication skills and comfort collaborating across Engineering, Product, and Analytics.

• Experience building SaaS products for mid-market or enterprise customers.
• Experience with rule-driven systems, validation workflows, calculation engines, or approval/governance platforms.
• Familiarity with AWS-based infrastructure and Kubernetes.
• Familiarity with graph databases or graph-based modeling concepts.
• Exposure to Sales Performance Management, RevOps, Incentive Compensation, or related domains.

• This position is for an existing vacancy
• Salary Range: 150-190K CAD

• Work well, together. We’re real. We have kids and pets. Mortgages and student loans. We’re in this together, so no matter how brilliant any one of us is, we always play nice with one another – no exceptions. 
• Be precise. Be relentless. We believe complacency breeds failure, so we set new goals as quickly as we achieve them. We persist in the face of adversity, learn from our mistakes, and push each other to continuously improve. The status-quo is kryptonite.
• Love our tech. Love our customers. Our platform solves a very complex problem in a currently underserved market. While everyone at Forma isn’t customer-facing, we’re all customer-focused. Maybe even slightly customer-obsessed. ­ 

Currently, Forma.ai does not use artificial intelligence as part of our recruitment process, specifically but not limited to the screening, filtering and shortlisting of applicants.  

Forma is a proud equal opportunity employer that is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. Every effort to accommodate candidates for accessibility will be made upon request. Information received related to accommodations will be addressed confidentially. We know that applying to a new role takes a lot of effort. You're encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't precisely match the job description. There are many paths to a successful career and we’re looking forward to reading yours.

We thank all candidates for their interest however only qualified applicants will be shortlisted.