Director / Sr. Manager of Software Engineering (SAAS/ AI/ ML)

Full Description

Director/ Sr.

Manager of Software Engineering

We’re seeking a senior software engineering leader (Director or an experienced Sr.

Manager ready to step up) to build and scale our Toronto engineering office.

This is a rare opportunity to help establish the foundation of an AI-driven SaaS company transforming semiconductor design.

In this role, you’ll grow a high-performing team, own technical delivery, and shape engineering culture—while staying close enough to the technology to influence architecture and design decisions.

You’ll work directly with the VP of Software and collaborate closely with engineering and science leaders in Silicon Valley to drive a shared technical and product vision.

This role is ideal for a leader who thrives at the intersection of team building, execution, and technical depth in modern SaaS and AI environments.

Hybrid with 4 days in office.

What You’ll Do

• Build and scale the Toronto office to 20–30 engineers across frontend, backend, AI/ML, data, and devtools.

• Establish a strong engineering culture focused on quality, ownership, and collaboration.

• Provide technical leadership through design reviews and architectural guidance.

• Own end-to-end delivery of product initiatives, partnering with product and AI teams.

• Hire, mentor, and develop engineers into future technical and people leaders.

• Act as a bridge between Toronto and California, enabling effective cross-site collaboration.

What We’re Looking For

• MUST have 12+ years of experience with progression from hands-on engineer to senior leadership.

• Proven success already leading and scaling teams of 15+ engineers in fast-moving environments.

• Strong technical credibility in cloud-native SaaS and AI/ML systems needed.

• Demonstrated ownership of complex, end-to-end software delivery.

• Excellent people leadership, communication, and cross-site collaboration skills.

• Working experience in start-ups a plus.

Screening Questions

• Scaling Teams: Describe a team or office you’ve built or scaled.

How large did it grow, and what were the biggest challenges?

• Technical Leadership: How do you stay technically credible while operating primarily as an engineering leader?

• Delivery Ownership: Tell us about a complex product or platform you owned from planning through delivery. What was your role?

• Culture & Talent: How do you hire and develop engineers to create a high-performance engineering culture?

• Distributed Collaboration: What strategies have you used to align and execute effectively across geographically distributed teams?

• AI/ML Experience : Have you led or directly supported the development and production deployment of AI/ML-powered features or platforms (e.g., model integration, ML pipelines, data infrastructure, or AI-driven SaaS products)?

Apply: sasha@talenttohire.com

Follow us at : https://www.linkedin.com/company/talenttohire