Job Description Insight Global is seeking an Application Architect specialized in Integration to join one of Canada's largest Retailers. This individual will be responsible for designing and evolving the integration layer for retail e-commerce—spanning APIs, asynchronous messaging, and event-driven systems. You’ll partner with product, engineering, and client stakeholders to define integration patterns, enforce standards, and guide delivery teams toward scalable, resilient, and observable solutions. This is a contract role with a path to full-time conversion for someone excited to grow with a company that invests in long-term development. Key Responsibilities: • Lead the architecture of the integration layer (API gateways, service mesh, event backbone, messaging) to enable scalable, decoupled systems. • Define and socialize API and event contracts (OpenAPI/Swagger, AsyncAPI), versioning strategy, and backward compatibility rules. • Establish event-driven patterns (pub/sub, event sourcing, CQRS, outbox, saga orchestration/choreography) and ensure idempotency and eventual consistency. • Create canonical data models and schema governance (e.g., Avro/JSON Schema with Schema Registry). • Select and standardize integration patterns (sync vs. async, request/reply, fan-out, bulk/batch vs. streaming, CDC) with clear decision records (ADRs). We are a company committed to creating diverse and inclusive environments where people can bring their full, authentic selves to work every day. We are an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer that believes everyone matters. Qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment regardless of their race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, marital status, national origin, ancestry, genetic factors, age, disability, protected veteran status, military or uniformed service member status, or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations, and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please send a request to HR@insightglobal.com.To learn more about how we collect, keep, and process your private information, please review Insight Global's Workforce Privacy Policy: https://insightglobal.com/workforce-privacy-policy/. Skills and Requirements Industry Experience • 5+ years in software engineering with 2+ years in an architecture/technical-lead capacity focused on systems integration. • Experience across retail e-commerce workflows (catalog/PIM, search, cart/checkout, payments, order/fulfillment, customer/loyalty). Technical Proficiency (Integration-First) • API Management/Gateways: Azure API Management, Apigee, Kong or equivalent; OpenAPI, API lifecycle, throttling/quotas, monetization a plus. • Messaging & Streaming: Kafka/Confluent (preferred), Azure Event Hubs, RabbitMQ, Azure Service Bus, SNS/SQS, or Pub/Sub; Schema Registry, partitions, consumer groups, DLQs. • Event-Driven Architecture: CQRS, event sourcing, outbox/saga, choreography vs. orchestration; AsyncAPI. • Data & Consistency: SQL/NoSQL patterns, eventual consistency, transactional messaging, CDC (Debezium or equivalent). • Backend: Node.js or ASP.NET Core for service/API development; REST and GraphQL where appropriate (BFF, federated gateways). • Security: OAuth2/OIDC, JWT, mTLS, secrets management (Key Vault/Secret Manager), least-privilege IAM. • Infra & Ops: Azure (preferred) or GCP; Kubernetes & Docker; CI/CD; IaC (Terraform/Bicep); blue/green or canary releases. • Observability: OpenTelemetry, distributed tracing, structured logging, metrics/alerts (Prometheus/Grafana, Azure Monitor, Datadog, etc.). • Service mesh (Istio/Linkerd), gRPC, GraphQL federation. • Experience with high-throughput peak events (holiday traffic, drops, flash sales) and back-pressure strategies. • Knowledge of data privacy/regulatory constraints (PCI, GDPR/CPRA) in integration design. • Experience introducing platform engineering practices for reusable integration scaffolding.