Software Engineer (Canvas, AI & Agentic Engineering)

The Role: Building the Next Generation of Canvas

As a Software Engineer II, you will join the team behind Canvas —our high-scale video and media platform that allows millions of instructors and students globally to collaborate, create, and learn through interactive video and audio.

We are redefining how software is built and delivered. In this role, you won’t just write clean, scalable full-stack code; you will be an active driver of our AI SDLC (Agentic Software Development Life Cycle). You will leverage cutting-edge agentic workflows, build custom AI skills, and integrate Claude and autonomous developer agents into our daily engineering practices—delivering high-impact educational features faster, smarter, and with greater architectural rigor.

Tech Stack & AI Tooling

• Frontend: React, TypeScript, Modern JavaScript (ES6+), WebSockets, Video.js
• Backend: Ruby on Rails, Node.js, REST APIs, GraphQL
• Data & Storage: PostgreSQL, Redis
• Cloud & Infrastructure: AWS (EC2, CloudFront, S3, SQS, Lambda, RDS), Docker, Kubernetes
• AI & Agentic Tooling: Claude (Tool Use, Custom Skills, Model Context Protocol), GitHub Copilot, AI-assisted CI/CD workflows

What You Will Be Doing

• Build & Scale Canvas: Develop and maintain mission-critical video processing, transcription, accessibility pipelines, and interactive analytics services using TypeScript, React, and Ruby on Rails.
• Pioneer Agentic Engineering (AI SDLC): Build, refine, and deploy custom Claude skills, autonomous development workflows, and tool integrations that automate repetitive engineering tasks, generate synthetic test datasets, and accelerate the PR review cycle.
• Architect Resilient Cloud Services: Utilize AWS primitives (S3, SQS, Lambda, CloudFront, EC2, RDS) to achieve high availability, low latency, and rock-solid uptime for media streaming and transcode queues across millions of global users.
• Intelligent Product Capabilities: Partner with product and UX teams to integrate intelligent, AI-enhanced features into Canvas.

What You Will Need to Have

• 3+ Years of Enterprise Engineering Experience: Proven track record building, testing, and maintaining distributed web applications in production environments.
• Hands-on Agentic Engineering Expertise: Demonstrated experience incorporating Claude, Cursor, Copilot, or LLM agentic toolchains into production engineering workflows—especially building custom skills, system prompts, automated code refactoring pipelines, or autonomous agent loops.
• Solid TypeScript & JavaScript Proficiency: Deep experience building responsive, accessible, component-driven UIs in modern React.
• Backend Capability (Ruby on Rails): Practical experience with Ruby on Rails, or strong proficiency in another modern MVC/backend framework with a demonstrated passion and ability to quickly ramp up on Rails.
• Database & Cloud Foundations: Strong grasp of relational databases (PostgreSQL query optimization, migrations, indexing) and enterprise cloud deployments on AWS.
• Agile & DevOps Mindset: Working knowledge of Docker, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing (unit, integration, end-to-end), and infrastructure-as-code principles.

Nice to Have / Bonus Points

• Direct experience building developer tools, CLI utilities, or MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that interface with LLM agents.
• Understanding of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 AA) in enterprise educational applications.

Get in on all the awesome at Instructure!

We offer competitive, meaningful benefits in every country where we operate. While they vary by location, here's a general idea of what you can expect:

• Competitive compensation, plus all full-time employees participate in our ownership program - because everyone should have a stake in our success.
• Flexible work culture. Our remote, hybrid and in-office collaboration spaces vary by role, team and location.
• Generous time off, including local holidays and our annual “Dim the Lights” period in late December, when teams are encouraged to step back and recharge based on departmental needs.
• Comprehensive wellness programs and mental health support
• Learning and development resources, including professional development tools and tuition reimbursement, to support your growth
• The technology and tools you need to do your best work
• Motivosity employee recognition program
• A culture rooted in inclusivity, support, and meaningful connection

We believe in hiring great people and treating them right. The more diverse we are, the better our ideas and outcomes.

All employees must pass a background check as part of the hiring process. To help protect our teams and systems, we’ve implemented identity verification measures. Candidates may be asked to verify their legal name, current physical location, and provide a valid contact number and residential address, in accordance with local data privacy laws.

Any attempt to misrepresent personal or professional information will result in disqualification.

At Instructure, we believe in the power of people to grow and succeed throughout their lives. Our goal is to amplify that power by creating intuitive products that simplify learning and personal development, facilitate meaningful relationships, and inspire people to go further in their education and careers.

We do this by giving smart, creative, passionate people opportunities to create awesome. And that's where you come in: