About us
Appnovation is a global, full-service digital partner that combines Strategy, Experience & Design, Engineering and Managed Services. We build digital solutions that deliver real impact today and serve as foundations for future growth. Bold ambition. Practical action. Endless possibilities.
Appnovation Technologies is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Tech Lead / Platform Architect - Contractor - to join our forward-thinking team, based in Canadá (Remote). This role is crucial in delivering technical excellence and innovation across a transformational loyalty and engagement platform serving millions of users in the financial services sector. As the Tech Lead / Platform Architect, you will own the end-to-end technical solution for a high-volume transaction processing platform, ensuring it meets stringent latency (<200ms), reliability (99.9% uptime), and security (PCI-DSS) requirements. You will lead the technical strategy, guide implementation decisions, and ensure seamless integration between multiple systems including loyalty engines, marketing automation platforms, and 60+ point-of-sale systems. This role requires strong technical leadership to bridge business requirements with scalable, secure architectural solutions
Key Responsibilities:
- Defining and owning the overall platform architecture for a system handling 10,000+ transactions per second
- Leading technical decisions on microservices decomposition, event streaming patterns, and API contract design
- Ensuring sub-200ms response times through performance architecture and optimization strategies
- Designing integration patterns for 60+ POS systems and partner loyalty programs
- Establishing security architecture to meet PCI-DSS compliance requirements
- Collaborating with client architects (Octopus Cards Limited and AIGENS) to ensure seamless platform integration
- Mentoring development team and conducting architecture reviews
- Creating and maintaining technical documentation including architecture decision records (ADRs)
- Managing technical risk assessment and mitigation strategies
- Leading vendor technical discussions and integration planning sessions.
Must-Have:
- At least 8-10 years of experience in distributed systems architecture with focus on high-volume transaction processing
- Proven track record architecting platforms serving 1M+ users with strict latency requirements
- Strong expertise in AWS cloud architecture including EKS, Aurora, ElastiCache, and API Gateway
- Experience with event-driven architectures using Kafka or similar streaming platforms
- Deep understanding of microservices patterns including circuit breakers, saga patterns, and service mesh
- Hands-on experience with PCI-DSS compliance and security architecture
- Background in financial services, payment processing, or loyalty platforms preferred
- Experience leading technical teams and driving architectural decisions.
Nice-to-Have:
- AWS Solutions Architect Professional certification
- Experience with loyalty or rewards program platforms
- Knowledge of Adobe Journey Optimizer or Braze
- Experience with high-frequency trading or real-time payment systems
- Understanding of POS system integration patterns
- Background in migrating large-scale systems (1M+ users).
- You are a strategic technical leader who combines deep architectural expertise with practical implementation experience.
- You thrive in complex, high-stakes environments and can effectively communicate technical concepts to both engineering teams and business stakeholders.
What Appnovation Offers
- Challenging and rewarding work with real impact
- Direct Access to Cutting-Edge AI Platforms
- Diverse and Inclusive Culture
- Growth opportunities for personal and professional development
- A collaborative and innovative work environment where your ideas are valued
- Exposure to exciting projects and high-profile clients
- Supportive work environment with access to company leaders
Accommodations are available upon request throughout the recruitment process.
