About the Role

Illuminex AI is a startup and Creative Destruction Lab graduate that aims to build inspection automation for airports internationally, using AI and sensor fusion. The company is deploying its InspectEx multi-sensor inspection platform across airports in North America and internationally. Illuminex's systems combine perception and positioning data to detect foreign object debris, pavement distress, non-compliant snowbanks, and a growing range of airfield inspection requirements, all in real time.

 

We are looking for senior engineering talent who can own feature and product deliverables through the entire lifecycle, from concept to completion. We need someone who can interface with customers to gather requirements, test product, and solve problems; who can leave the existing codebase better than they found it; and who can share their knowledge to up-level the entire team.

 

As a Senior Software Engineer, you will build and own the software platform that powers InspectEx, including the services, APIs, data pipelines, and applications that turn sensor and computer-vision output into operational intelligence for airports. You will primarily focus on development of the core inspection software, spanning customer-side and cloud-deployed systems. If you like hard problems, production systems that run in the real world, and seeing your work go live at operational airports, this is the role.

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What You Will Own: 

You will own significant features and systems end to end, from a high-level product requirement through design, implementation, testing, rollout, and operation. You will set the bar for code quality on the team, mentor through review, and make architectural decisions that hold up as we scale.

 

• Design and build cross-service features for the InspectEx platform, with clear service contracts, considered failure modes, and sound rollout plans

• Raise the bar on code quality through thoughtful, teaching-oriented PR review

• Build observability, deployability, and operability into systems from the start

• Conduct on-site testing where required to ensure that the product works well in real-world conditions, not just the lab

• Work directly with customers and partners in technical discussions, listening for the underlying problem rather than just the stated request

 

Qualifications Required

Note: we are looking for 7+ years of professional software engineering experience in industry. Academic and research work do not count toward this requirement

 

• Demonstrated ownership of complex production systems

• Full-stack experience across frontend, backend, and data storage

• Solid experience with containerized microservice architectures: Docker, Docker Compose, multi-stage builds, service orchestration

• Ability to decompose high-level product requirements into concrete cross-service designs with clear contracts, considered failure modes, and a migration/rollout plan

• Ability to identify code smells, anti-patterns, and subtle correctness issues (race conditions, resource leaks, error-handling gaps) during review, and distinguishes substantive issues from stylistic preference

• Comfortable making and defending architectural decisions, and equally comfortable changing course when evidence warrants

• Willing and able to travel to customer sites (airports, industrial facilities) for on-site debugging, installations, and design conversations

• Patient with on-site troubleshooting where conditions are messy and the production environment doesn't behave like the lab

• Linux systems fluency: networking, processes, filesystems, and debugging production issues without a debugger

 

 

Nice to Have

• Messaging systems (RabbitMQ, Kafka, etc.) and an understanding of distributed messaging failure modes such as delivery semantics, idempotency, ordering, and backpressure

• Strong fluency in Python and its ecosystem

• Solid working C++ proficiency (C++14/17 minimum), enough to read, debug, and extend GStreamer plugins, DeepStream custom parsers, and CUDA-adjacent code without hand-holding

• Working knowledge of computer vision / ML inference pipelines (GStreamer, DeepStream, ONNX, TensorRT), or the demonstrated ability to ramp up quickly

• Hands-on experience with NVIDIA Jetson devices (Orin, Xavier, or similar): flashing JetPack, working with L4T, ARM64 vs. x86_64 build differences, and reasoning about thermal/power/memory constraints in embedded deployments

• Experience integrating industrial sensors (cameras, LiDAR, GPS/IMU) at the driver, protocol, or SDK level, and debugging across the hardware/software boundary

• Familiarity with NVIDIA's DeepStream SDK and the surrounding GStreamer plugin ecosystem, or comparable production experience with custom GStreamer pipelines

• Experience with the SOC 2 certification process

 

 

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: $130,000 – $165,000 CAD, based on experience

• Equity: 0.2% - 0.4% early-stage ownership with annual performance-based refresh eligibility

• Purpose Leave: 30-day sabbatical at 75% pay, available every two years

• Vacation: 3 weeks to start, growing to 5 weeks by year three

• Travel: All work-related travel expenses and per diems covered

• We are outcome-focused. Manage your time in the way that works best for you. Core availability hours are generally 9am–3pm ET.

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About Illuminex AI

Illuminex AI is a Toronto-based technology company transforming inspection workflows for critical infrastructure, starting with airfields. Our InspectEx platform is live across airports in Canada, the United States, and internationally, and we are growing. This is an early and important hire. The people we bring on now will shape how we operate as we scale.

 

Illuminex AI is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive, supportive, and kind environment for all employees.

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