Platform Engineer, E-Commerce, Search and AI

Job Title: Platform Engineer, E-Commerce, Search and AI
Location: Toronto, ON (Hybrid)
Estimated Duration: Full Time/Permanent
Client: Canadian Tire
About Us
Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (“CTC”) is one of Canada’s most admired and trusted companies. With more than 90 Owned Brands, 1,700 retail locations, financial services, exemplary e-commerce capabilities, and exciting market-leading merchandising strategies. We dream big and work as one to innovate with purpose for our customers at every level of our business, investing in new technologies and products, and doubling down on top talent to drive the company forward. We offer competitive salaries and wages to CTC employees, as well as store discounts, supported learning through our Triangle Learning Academy, Canadian Tire Profit Sharing, and retirement and savings programs for eligible employees. As part of our enhanced flex benefits program, we offer mental health benefits in the amount of $5,000 per year for benefits-eligible employees and their families, including total well-being, and mental health tools and resources for all employees. Join us in helping to make life in Canada better through living and working our Core Values: we are innovators and entrepreneurs at our core, outcomes drive us, inclusion is a must, we are stronger together and we take personal responsibility. It is an especially exciting time to join CTC and its family of companies where career opportunities are wide-ranging! Join us, where there's a place for you here.
About Us:
We are one of Canada’s most admired and trusted companies. With world-class owned brands and exciting market-leading merchandising strategies, we are continually innovating with purpose: to excite and serve Canadian customers from coast-to-coast. We are connected to communities, big and small, from coast-to-coast, offering products and services that reflect the diverse nature of every one of them. From sports to outdoors, automobiles to homes, we know and understand life in Canada like no other retailer can.

We are always on the lookout for curious, creative people who are able to navigate and excel in a rapidly evolving retail environment. If you’re ready to take on new challenges – be it in digital, IT, marketing, data & analytics, merchandising, or one of the many other roles we have – there is a place for you here, so apply today.

Overview:
We're looking for an experienced and visionary Platform Engineer to lead the technical design and oversight of our core e-commerce search engine and AI application development initiatives. The ideal candidate will be a hands-on leader, shaping our technical roadmap, ensuring system scalability, performance, and reliability, and driving innovation in how customers discover products and interact with our intelligent systems. This role demands a deep understanding of complex search technologies, machine learning workflows, and high-volume, low-latency e-commerce platforms.

Responsibilities:
Technical Strategy & Architecture

• Define the designs and technical standards for the e-commerce search platform (e.g., expertise in Google Vertex Ai search for commerce, and search capability like Bloomreach, Elastic Search or Solar would be valuable) and the associated AI/ML microservices (e.g., personalization, recommendation, natural language processing).
• Develop a strategic roadmap for the evolution of the application portfolio, focusing on scalability, resilience, and cloud-native patterns (e.g., microservices, serverless). Evaluate and recommend new technologies, frameworks, and tools to improve developer efficiency, system performance, and business outcomes.
• Ensure the designs align with security best practices, data privacy regulations, and governance policies.

Technical Leadership & Governance

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to development and data science teams, ensuring adherence to the defined architecture and coding standards.
• Conduct regular technical design reviews, design sessions, and code audits to ensure the delivery of high-quality, maintainable software.
• Collaborate with Architects, Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and stakeholders to translate business requirements into robust, scalable technical solutions.
• Oversee performance testing and optimization efforts, particularly for search query response times and AI model inference latency.

E-commerce Search & AI Focus

• Design solutions to enhance search relevance, ranking algorithms, and user experience features (e.g., facets, filtering, autocomplete).
• Design and implement MLOps pipelines for the deployment, monitoring, and retraining of AI models, ensuring fast and reliable deployment cycles.
• Drive the integration of AI-powered features into the core e-commerce platform, focusing on measurable impact on conversion and revenue.

Qualifications:
Required Experience

• 7+ years in software development with 3+ years in a Platform Engineering, Architecture, or equivalent leadership role.
• Proven experience designing and scaling high-traffic, low-latency e-commerce or equivalent transactional systems.
• Expert-level knowledge of distributed search engines (e.g., Elasticsearch, Solr) including indexing strategies, query optimization, and cluster management.
• Demonstrated experience with AI/ML application development and MLOps principles, including experience with major cloud AI services (e.g., AWS SageMaker, Google AI Platform, Azure ML).
• Deep expertise in cloud architecture on one or more major providers (Azure, GCP), utilizing services like containers (Kubernetes/Docker), serverless functions, and data stores.

Technical Skills

• Proficiency in at least one modern programming language relevant to e-commerce and AI (e.g., Python, Java, Go).
• Strong understanding of data modeling, database technologies (SQL and NoSQL), and data warehousing concepts.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to a non-technical audience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience in Natural Language Processing (NLP) or Recommendation Systems specifically within an e-commerce context.
• Certifications in cloud architecture (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional).

Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (“CTC”) is one of Canada’s most admired and trusted companies. With more than 90 Owned Brands, 1,700 retail locations, financial services, exemplary e-commerce capabilities, and exciting market-leading merchandising strategies. We dream big and work as one to innovate with purpose for our customers at every level of our business, investing in new technologies and products, and doubling down on top talent to drive the company forward. We offer competitive salaries and wages to CTC employees, as well as store discounts, supported learning through our Triangle Learning Academy, Canadian Tire Profit Sharing, and retirement and savings programs for eligible employees. As part of our enhanced flex benefits program, we offer mental health benefits in the amount of $5,000 per year for benefits-eligible employees and their families, including total well-being, and mental health tools and resources for all employees. Join us in helping to make life in Canada better through living and working our Core Values: we are innovators and entrepreneurs at our core, outcomes drive us, inclusion is a must, we are stronger together and we take personal responsibility. It is an especially exciting time to join CTC and its family of companies where career opportunities are wide-ranging! Join us, where there's a place for you here.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging 

We are committed to fostering an environment where belonging thrives, and diversity, inclusion and equity are infused into everything we do. We believe in building an organizational culture where people are consistently treated with dignity while respecting individual religion, nationality, gender, race, age, perceived ability, spoken language, sexual orientation, and identification. We are united in our purpose of being here to help make life in Canada better.

Accommodations  

We stand firm in our Core Value that inclusion is a must. We welcome and encourage candidates from equity-seeking groups such as people who identify as racialized, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+, women, people with disabilities, and beyond. Should you require any accommodation in applying for this role, or throughout the interview process, please make them known when contacted and we will work with you to help meet your needs.