Senior Developer

Hybrid: Markham, Ontario

Job Description:

About Us

Pet Valu is Canada’s leading pet specialty retailer, dedicated to strengthening the bond between dedicated pet lovers and their pets. With 50 years of animal care expertise, we operate over 800 stores across Canada under several banners, including Pet Valu, Bosley’s, Total Pet, Paulmac's Pet, Tisol & Chico. Guided by our mission to deliver products, care, expertise, and memorable moments, Pet Valu is a place where people build meaningful careers while making a positive impact on pets and communities.

Job Overview

We are seeking a seasoned and forward-thinking Senior Applications Developer with deep expertise in cloud-native application development, particularly within the Microsoft Azure ecosystem. This role exists to participate in the design, development, and evolution of scalable, secure, and high-performance applications that power our business. As a senior member of the team, you will play a pivotal role in shaping technical direction, mentoring developers, and driving initiatives that enhance our digital platforms. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to deliver impactful solutions that align with our strategic goals and elevate the customer experience. This is a unique opportunity to influence our cloud strategy, champion engineering excellence, and make a lasting impact across the organization.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

- Design and Development : Significantly contribute to the design, lead the development, and deployment of scalable, secure, and high-performance applications in Microsoft Azure. Provide deep participation and contribution to the full application lifecycle—from requirements gathering and architecture through development, testing, deployment, and long-term maintenance.
- Cloud Architecture : Partner with cloud architects and technical leads to define and implement robust cloud-native solutions that align with business goals, architectural standards, and industry best practices.
- Azure Services Utilization : Expertly leverage Azure services such as Azure Functions, App Services, Logic Apps, Cosmos DB, Service Bus, Azure Storage, and others to build resilient, cloud-native applications that are optimized for performance and cost.
- API Development : Design, develop and maintain RESTful APIs and microservices with a focus on scalability, security, and maintainability. Champion best practices in API design and integration patterns.
- Code Quality & Best Practices : Set and uphold high standards for code quality by writing clean, maintainable, and well-tested code. Lead code reviews, identify technical debt, and drive continuous improvement in development practices across the team.
- DevOps & CI/CD : Architect and implement robust CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or equivalent tools. Promote DevOps culture by automating deployments, improving release cycles, and ensuring system reliability.
- Monitoring & Troubleshooting : Proactively monitor application health using Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and other observability tools. Lead root cause analysis and resolution of complex production issues, ensuring minimal impact to users.
- Collaboration : Work closely with cross-functional teams—including developers, product managers, QA, and business stakeholders—to ensure technical solutions align with business objectives. Translate complex requirements into actionable development plans.
- Documentation : Create and maintain comprehensive technical documentation, including architecture diagrams, system workflows, and API specifications. Ensure documentation is current, accessible, and supports knowledge sharing across teams.
- People Leadership & Mentorship: Foster a culture of growth and collaboration by mentoring junior and intermediate developers, providing constructive feedback, and modeling engineering excellence. Contribute to team health by promoting shared ownership, continuous learning, and inclusive practices.

Skills, Experience, Education, Certifications

Required:

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
- Minimum of 6 years of professional experience in software development, with 4 years focused on Azure cloud platform and related services.
- Deep expertise in Azure cloud services, including but not limited to Azure Functions, App Services, AKS, Azure Cosmos DB, Event Hubs, Service Bus, and Azure SQL Database.
- Proven experience with cloud-native application design patterns such as microservices, serverless, and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Advanced proficiency in programming languages such as C#, .NET, JavaScript (Node.js), or Python.
- Strong experience with RESTful API design, microservices architecture, and integrating third-party services.
- Demonstrated hands-on experience in implementing CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps or other relevant tools (Git, Jenkins, etc.).
- Deep understanding of security best practices in cloud applications, including identity and access management (IAM), encryption, and secure coding practices.
- Experience with performance tuning, diagnosing, and optimizing cloud-based applications.
- Hands-on experience with agile development methodologies and participating in sprint planning, retrospectives, and daily stand-ups.
- Familiarity with services like JIRA, Confluence and Azure DevOps Boards.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and organizational skills, with a proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with experience working in globally distributed teams.

Preferred:

- Relevant certifications in Azure development or architecture (e.g., Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate, Azure Solutions Architect Expert) are a strong asset.
- Experience with MuleSoft or other middleware and/or integration platforms is a plus.

Compensation:

The targeted salary range for this position is $130,000-$150,000 annually. The final offer will be based on factors such as market location, relevant skills, experience and internal equity.

Ready to join the team?

We’re looking for passionate people who bring strong skills and live our core values of safety, compassion, expertise, and efficiency every day. If you’re energized by doing meaningful work, taking pride in what you deliver, and making a real impact for pets, people, and communities, you’ll feel right at home here. Join us and build a career where purpose, care, and excellence come together - because love lives here™.

Why work for us?

At Pet Valu, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We’re passionate about creating an environment where you feel supported, included, and empowered to grow - both personally and professionally. Some of the perks of working with us include:

- Hybrid, Flexible Work Options

- Comprehensive health and dental benefits

- Employee Share Purchase Plan with company matching

- Learning and Development support tailored to you

- An inclusive, collaborative culture where your voice matters

- Fun company events that keep us connected

- Preferred rates for car rentals, hotels, phone plans and gym discounts

- Generous employee discounts on our products

Pet Valu is an equal opportunity employer committed to inclusion and accessibility. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the recruitment and selection process, in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA).

At Pet Valu, we are committed to transparency and fairness in our hiring practices. This posting is for an existing vacancy. Pet Valu may use AI enabled technology to assist in the recruitment process for positions. The use of AI helps us ensure we are providing an equitable and streamlined recruitment experience for all applicants. While AI tools support our recruitment process, all decisions throughout the process are made exclusively by Pet Valu’s hiring team. At no stage does AI determine recruitment outcomes.