Software Engineer (Product Engineer)

ROLE

Product Engineer

LEVEL

Intermediate

EXPERIENCE

2–5 years

LOCATION

Calgary, AB

Build end-to-end. Think like a product owner. Ship like it matters.

If you’re the kind of engineer who can’t stop asking “is this the real problem?” who walks through a user flow and feels the friction before a single line of code has been written, who hears about how a business has been working for years and we can solve those problems and more.

Then keep reading.

We are hiring an intermediate Full-Stack Developer: a product engineer with 2–5 years of production experience who owns the process end-to-end.

Not just the code the problem definition, the user experience, and the business outcome.

You are the technical expert in the room, not just the person typing.

You surface trade-offs the client hasn’t thought of yet, and when scope is wrong, you say so with a better version in hand.

You build with AI as a first-class collaborator.

You move from a messy client conversation to a working prototype without three handoffs in between.

You care about what the thing does for a human, not just whether the tests pass.

Why this role exists

The line between product manager, designer, and developer has collapsed. The engineers who will define the next decade are the ones who can hold all three perspectives at once, talk to the client, understand the problem, sketch the solution, build it with AI-assisted tooling, and loop back to the client the same week.

One head, many brains and one shipped product. That is the shape of this role. We are not looking for a ticket-taker.

How Thrive works

Thrive Creative is a Calgary-based embedded engineering firm. We are not an agency that hands things off; we are a department-as-a-service that lives inside our clients’ businesses there success is our success. The person sitting at the keyboard is the same person on the client call, the same person sketching the flow, and the same person deciding what ships on Friday the same person working with others like them selves to drive results. That model only works if the engineers can own the full arc.

What you’ll actually do

• Own the conversation. Sit in discovery calls with clients and translate what you hear into scope, flows, and tickets. You will not wait for a spec to land in your inbox you and your team will create it
• Shape the product. Wireframe the experience before you build it. Sketch in Figma or whatever you like. Prototype it fast. Bring real artifacts to the client so they can react to something, not imagine it.
• Build the thing. Ship production-grade web and cloud applications. Modern JS/TS, React, Node, cloud-native on AWS. Clean commits, tested code, observability baked in.
• Work with AI. Use Claude, Cursor, and whatever else is on the frontier. Go faster without going sloppier. Know when to let the model drive and when to take the wheel back.
• Close the loop with clients. Write the weekly update. Demo the thing. Handle the awkward moment when the client wants scope that will break the timeline calmly, with options.

Who we’re looking for

Must-haves

• 2–5 years of professional software development experience. You have shipped production code, handled incidents, and lived with the consequences of your own commits.
• Strong in a modern web stack: JavaScript/TypeScript, React, REST or GraphQL APIs, Git, exposure to cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred; Azure or GCP fine).
• You already use AI coding tools daily and have real opinions about where they help and where they hurt.
• Bootcamp, CS degree, or self-taught we care about the work, not the path.
• You can hold a conversation with a non-technical client without retreating into jargon. You surface trade-offs, push back when scope is wrong, and propose the better version.
• You think commercially. You ask whether a feature will actually move the client’s revenue, retention, or conversion, not just whether it matches the ticket.
• You walk through a user flow and feel the friction. You suggest things the client hasn’t thought of because you can see where the experience breaks down.
• You can hold a conversation with a non-technical client without retreating into jargon. You can explain a trade-off in plain English.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in an agency, consulting, or client-facing environment.
• Infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, CDK), CI/CD pipelines, or serverless architecture.
• Background in a second discipline. design, product, analytics, growth.
• You have shipped a side project, written something publicly, or built something nobody asked you to build.
• Common sense

The opportunity

This is a chance to work on varied, real-world client problems, not the same product for three years with no visible change to that product. In a typical month you might help architect an AWS migration, sketch a user flow for a nonprofit, pair with a specialist on a Stripe integration, demo a feature to a stakeholder or change the world if it’s a light afternoon. You’ll work alongside a small, sharp team that covers strategy, delivery, design, and cloud engineering, plus a network of 50+ specialists we pull in as projects demand. The variety and proximity to senior operators across disciplines is the fastest career accelerant we know of. you’ll pick up design instincts, client craft, and commercial judgment by doing the work next to people who already have them. If you already have strong engineering chops and want to round out into a true end-to-end product engineer, this is the seat.

How we work

• No handoffs. We are embedded with our clients we are commited to their long term prosperity. They treat us like a partner, not a vendor. That shapes everything! cadence, ownership, how we argue, how we grow.
• AI-native, tool-fluent. You will be in design, ticket creation, iteration,Code, and Claude or your AI tooling in the same day. That is the job that is the fun
• Grown-up communication. We do the work. We do not dress it up. Tone with clients is direct and confident, never salesy.
• Visible and trusted. You will own real work from day one. The team will back you. We will also tell you when something landed wrong or could be improved.

What we offer

• Competitive salary aligned to Western Canada for intermediate engineers, with clear paths to increase as you grow into end-to-end ownership.
• A sharp, senior team to work alongside and a 50+ specialist network that expands what you’re exposed to.
• Variety of client work across stacks, industries, and problem types. You will not get bored.
• Hybrid or Remote work out of Calgary, flexible hours, and a culture that respects focus time.
• Support for certifications (AWS, in particular) and a learning and conference budget.

How to apply

Send us something that shows you. A portfolio, a GitHub, a Loom, a weird side project, a thing you wish existed if you don’t have those, then a witty cover letter explaining why you will succeed try not to make it longer than a paragraph. A resume is fine but it is not the interesting part. Tell us about a time you owned something end-to-end — talked to the user, designed it, built it, shipped it, heard the feedback. That story tells us more than a list of technologies. If you never have no worries, tell us why you would want to do all that Apply to: careers@thrivecreat.com

Thrive Creative Ltd. is an equal-opportunity employer. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences, and we build teams that reflect the clients and communities we serve.