Location: Toronto, Ontario
Our client is building an AI-native operating layer for modern enterprises — a platform that blends deterministic execution with governed, production-grade AI. They’re early-stage, already shipping core technology, and have proven the concept with a working compiler, runtime, and reference implementations. The foundation is real. What’s next is scale.
This is not a “blank page” startup. The hard ideas are already working. The challenge now is turning a powerful prototype into an industrial-grade system that can run the most demanding business workloads.
THE OPPORTUNITY:
As a Founding Platform Engineer, you’ll design and build the next generation of the company’s core runtime in Rust. This layer is responsible for executing business logic, managing entity lifecycles, and enforcing correctness at enterprise scale.
You’ll own the system’s performance envelope, its execution model, and the evolution path from an existing managed-language implementation to a zero-GC, sub-millisecond Rust runtime. Your work will determine whether the platform can meet the throughput, latency, and reliability requirements of mission-critical enterprise systems.
This is deep infrastructure work with real stakes: correctness, determinism, and performance under load are non-negotiable.
WHAT YOU'LL OWN:
- Runtime architecture & performance: Design and implement a Rust runtime that delivers deterministic behaviour with predictable, enterprise-grade performance.
- Execution model: Rebuild and optimize a hierarchical state-machine engine that governs entity behaviour, transitions, guards, and side effects.
- High-performance querying: Create a query layer capable of traversing large graphs of business entities with consistent, low-latency results.
WHAT YOU'LL DO:
First 90 Days
- Learn the existing runtime, entity model, and state semantics
- Design a Rust-based architecture with clean boundaries for migration
- Implement core lifecycle primitives with rigorous, property-based testing
- Establish benchmarks and performance baselines across critical paths
First Year
- Deliver a production-ready Rust runtime with full execution, persistence, and query support
- Reach sub-millisecond p99 latency for entity transitions under realistic load
- Build tooling that allows legacy and Rust components to coexist during migration
- Define and enforce correctness invariants across runtime boundaries
WHY JOIN:
- Build the core: You’re not adding features to the edge of a product. You’re defining the engine everything else runs on.
- Real technical depth: Deterministic execution, distributed persistence, state machines, and performance at scale. This is serious systems engineering.
- Founding impact: Shape architecture, culture, and direction from day one, with equity that reflects your role in building the company.
Special Perks:
- Salary: Competitive, based on experience
- Equity: Meaningful early-team package
- Benefits: Health, dental, vision (Canada)
- Location: Hybrid in Toronto (2–3 days/week in office)
Must Have Skills:
MUST HAVE:
- 5+ years building production systems in a systems language (Rust, C++, or C)
- Strong Rust fluency: ownership model, async ecosystems (e.g., Tokio), and unsafe boundaries
- Solid distributed systems fundamentals (consistency, failure modes, replication)
- Experience with state machines, workflow engines, or similar execution models in production
- Proven ability to optimize systems at a low level (profiling, memory layout, cache behaviour)
Nice to Have Skills:
NICE TO HAVE:
- Experience with C# / .NET
- Background in compilers, interpreters, or language runtimes
- Exposure to enterprise platforms (ERP, CRM, workflow engines)
- Open-source contributions in systems or infrastructure projects
