Web Platforms Engineer

About the role

About us

Appnovation is the AI Product Company. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with teams around the world, Appnovation builds AI products, delivers enterprise AI and digital solutions, and co-invests with clients to bring new AI products to market.

Open source has been the foundation of Appnovation's work since 2007, and it remains the foundation underneath every AI product the company builds today. Appnovation teams work with organizations in highly regulated industries, including global leaders such as Pfizer, Google and AstraZeneca, to help them adopt AI they can govern and own.

Senior Manager, Web Platform Engineering

Technology is foundational to all of Appnovation’s offerings, from consulting to digital innovation to digital product and service creation. The technology department is focused on delivering software solutions that enable rich consumer experiences, from mobile and web applications to advanced analytics and machine learning, to content and engagement management service enablement platforms.

Inherent throughout our tech capabilities is deep expertise in the Software Development Life Cycle, a drive for creativity, a passion for the craft, and collaboration with other disciplines - all foundational ingredients in successful digital experiences and client partnerships.

We are seeking a Web Platform Engineer to be the hands-on technical expert for the web and content management (CMS) platforms of a global life sciences client. This is an architect-engineer role: you will help set technical direction, and you will also dig into the code yourself. You will lead the technical side of a CMS evaluation and modernization effort, quickly prototype new platform capabilities, and shape the platform layer that teams use to build and run patient and healthcare professional (HCP) websites at scale. You will work closely with the client's infrastructure, engineering and product teams, turning website needs into clear platform and integration requirements. The role is focused on web and CMS platforms only.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

- CMS Evaluation and Selection: Lead the technical side of evaluating modern CMS and digital experience platforms, including headless and AI-enabled options. Assess them against criteria such as AI-assisted authoring and site creation, integration fit, security, hosting on client-controlled infrastructure, and long-term cost, and make clear, evidence-based recommendations.

- Rapid Prototyping and Technology Assessment: Build quick proofs of concept for new platform features and emerging tools (for example, new Adobe Edge Delivery Services capabilities such as Document Authoring) and come back with a clear recommendation on whether and how to adopt them.

- Platform Capability Ownership: Shape, maintain and evolve the web platform layer that sits on top of the CMS, including tooling for creating new sites, reusable components and templates, automated testing, and managing content at scale.

- Migration and Modernization: Define the target architecture and migration approach for moving websites from legacy platforms, such as Drupal and in-house site builders, onto the selected platform, including reusable patterns, risks, dependencies and quality gates.