Job Description

What is the opportunity?

As a Staff Software Engineer within RBC Borealis' Lumina Production Engineering team, you will serve as a technical leader responsible for developing and maintaining the critical infrastructure that powers RBC's next-generation AI and innovation platforms. You'll work at the intersection of software engineering and operations, ensuring our cutting-edge systems remain reliable, performant, and capable of supporting RBC's digital transformation initiatives.

Production Engineers at RBC Borealis build the foundational systems that enable every major innovation initiative within Lumina's portfolio. Working alongside industry-leading engineers within RBC's innovation hub, you'll contribute to code and systems that directly power breakthrough AI capabilities, advanced analytics platforms, and next-generation customer experiences.

What will you do?

Production Infrastructure Ownership

Own and operate backend services that power Lumina's AI/ML platforms, real-time analytics engines, and experimental customer-facing applicationsOperate the infrastructure components that drive RBC Borealis' advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science initiativesManage core services including large-scale data processing pipelines, model serving infrastructure, feature stores, and high-throughput API gatewaysPartner with innovation teams to ensure seamless integration of experimental technologies into RBC's enterprise architecture
 

Technical Leadership & Engineering Excellence

Lead engineering initiatives by example, mentoring team members and driving technical excellence across Borealis innovation projectsWrite, review, and optimize high-performance code that operates at enterprise scale within fast-moving innovation cyclesDevelop comprehensive documentation, capacity planning models, and operational runbooks for rapidly evolving systemsDebug complex production issues live on cutting-edge AI/ML infrastructure and experimental platforms
 

Operational Excellence & Incident Response

Participate in on-call rotations and serve as an escalation contact for critical service incidents affecting Lumina's innovation platformsDrive post-incident reviews and implement systematic improvements to prevent recurrence in rapidly evolving systemsPartner with SRE teams to establish and maintain service level objectives (SLOs) for experimental and production AI workloadsChampion proactive monitoring, alerting, and automated remediation strategies for novel technology stacks
 

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Work closely with data scientists, ML engineers, and product teams to ensure reliable deployment and operation of AI/ML models and featuresCollaborate with enterprise security, compliance, and risk teams to maintain regulatory requirements while enabling rapid innovationPartner with Borealis platform teams to optimize infrastructure for AI workloads and experimentation velocityInterface with external technology partners and vendors supporting RBC's innovation initiatives
 What do you need to succeed?

Must have:

8+ years of experience in production engineering, platform engineering, or similar roles supporting large-scale distributed systems or AI/ML platformsProficiency in at least one of: Python, Go, or Java, with demonstrated experience building production services that support data-intensive workloadsExtensive experience with container orchestration platforms (Kubernetes, OpenShift) and cloud-native architectures, particularly for AI/ML workloadsDeep understanding of both analytical and transactional data stores from a data engineering platform perspective (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Kafka, Redis, vector databases)Strong experience with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Ansible), and GitOps workflows supporting rapid iteration cyclesProven track record of operating mission-critical systems with high availability requirements in dynamic, fast-paced environmentsExperience with modern observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack) and distributed tracing for complex data pipelinesSolid understanding of networking fundamentals, load balancing, and content delivery networks supporting high-throughput applicationsBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience supporting AI/ML infrastructure, model serving platforms, or data science workloads in productionKnowledge of enterprise governance, compliance frameworks, and regulatory requirements in innovation contextsFamiliarity with modern identity and access management protocols (OAuth2, JWT, mTLS) and zero-trust architecturesExperience with event-driven architectures, streaming data platforms, and real-time analytics systemsUnderstanding of capacity planning and performance optimization for GPU workloads and high-throughput data processingPrevious experience with incident management processes and on-call responsibilities in rapidly evolving technical environmentsExperience in financial services, fintech, or other innovation-focused technology organizationsAdvanced degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or related technical field
 

What makes you stand out:

Track record of leading technical initiatives that improved reliability and performance of AI/ML or data-intensive systemsExperience mentoring engineers in fast-paced innovation environments and contributing to technical community growthDemonstrated ability to balance technical debt reduction with rapid feature delivery and experimentationStrong communication skills with ability to influence both technical and business stakeholders in an innovation contextPassion for automation, eliminating manual operational overhead, and enabling developer productivity in AI/ML workflows
 

Note: This role requires participation in on-call rotations to ensure 24/7 operational support for critical Lumina systems and innovation platforms. Candidates should be comfortable with incident response responsibilities and working in a fast-paced production environment supporting cutting-edge technology initiatives.

About RBC Borealis

RBC Borealis is the driving force behind Royal Bank of Canada’s AI and data innovation. As part of Canada’s largest financial institution, we bring together a team of architects, engineers, scientists, and product experts on a mission to revolutionize finance through world-class research, solutions, and a resilient data platform. With locations across Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver, we’re at the forefront of AI research and platform development. With a focus on cutting-edge research in areas like time series forecasting, causal machine learning, and responsible AI, we are seamlessly integrating AI research and data engineering, to solve critical challenges in the financial industry. We are building intelligent, and scalable, data-driven solutions that will help communities thrive and drive innovation for our customers across the bank.

Job Skills

Active Learning, Agile Methodology, Application Integrations, Detail-Oriented, Emerging Technologies, Enterprise Application Delivery, Group Problem Solving, Programming Languages, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Additional Job Details

Address:

RBC WATERPARK PLACE, 88 QUEENS QUAY W:TORONTO

City:

Toronto

Country:

Canada

Work hours/week:

37.5

Employment Type:

Full time

Platform:

TECHNOLOGY AND OPERATIONS

Job Type:

Regular

Pay Type:

Salaried

Posted Date:

2025-11-21

Application Deadline:

2026-02-28

Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the day prior to the application deadline date above

Inclusion and Equal Opportunity Employment

At RBC, we believe an inclusive workplace that has diverse perspectives is core to our continued growth as one of the largest and most successful banks in the world. Maintaining a workplace where our employees feel supported to perform at their best, effectively collaborate, drive innovation, and grow professionally helps to bring our Purpose to life and create value for our clients and communities. RBC strives to deliver this through policies and programs intended to foster a workplace based on respect, belonging and opportunity for all.

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RBC is presently inviting candidates to apply for this existing vacancy. Applying to this posting allows you to express your interest in this current career opportunity at RBC. Qualified applicants may be contacted to review their resume in more detail.