Head of Engineering

WHO IS RATEHUB?

We’re a company on a mission - We are a unique Canadian Fintech that serves as a one-stop shop for all financial needs of the consumer - Save, Spend, Borrow, Invest, and Protect. Every member of our team, from product & engineering to sales, marketing, finance, operations, and everything in between is obsessed with one goal: helping Canadians make better financial choices. And we’re delivering on that mission. Through our cutting-edge digital platforms and our award-winning in-house brokerages, we help over 2 million Canadians each month make a positive impact on their finances. Our diverse range of services include a mortgage brokerage, a life insurance brokerage, a home and auto insurance brokerage, a mortgage originations and servicing business, a financial services marketplace, and a trusted content business across Ratehub and MoneySense. 365 days a year, we offer Canadians the best online mortgage experience, personalized credit card and loan options, and more affordable home and auto insurance policies than they’d typically get from their existing financial advisers. 

Changing the way people make financial decisions isn’t easy, though. We know that achieving our mission is full of challenges - some complex and unexpected - but they’re always exciting, rewarding, and fun to tackle as a team. This is where you come in. We are looking for passionate, driven individuals to join us and help lead the way to continued growth.

We're looking for a visionary technology leader to join us as Head of Engineering, a critical role that will drive our transformation from a transactional business to a membership-driven model. The ideal candidate will lead product innovation with a member-centric approach, leveraging cutting edge technology and data. As Head of Engineering, you’ll be passionate about building scalable consumer software products, driving iterative, data-driven development in close collaboration with business unit leaders and product managers. You will be a strategic operator who excels at execution and on-time delivery of high-quality, differentiated products that drive measurable commercial value. In addition, you’ll be a strong people leader, capable of mentoring and scaling high-performance engineering teams. Your ability to empower your team and foster a culture of success will be key to achieving our long-term goals.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead, grow, and oversee the entire software engineering function at Ratehub, including managers, frontend and backend engineers, and quality assurance specialists
• Define and execute the technical vision and strategy that accelerates Ratehub’s growth by delivering best-in-class experiences for members, brokerage agents, and external partners
• Own the technical planning, implementation, and delivery strategy, collaborating closely with the business stakeholders and product team to ensure successful project execution while maintaining the long-term health of our systems
• Navigate complexity and ambiguity, bringing structure, best practices, and clarity to complex challenges, with a focus on technical excellence and efficiency
• Empower engineers to identify improvements and explore implementation options, evaluating trade-offs and ensuring architectural decisions support sustainable and scalable growth.
• Act as a people leader, mentoring and developing the next generation of engineering leadership within Ratehub, setting high standards of excellence, and guiding the team to achieve them
• Foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, and growth, both within the engineering team and across the broader organization.

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS

• Overall 15+ years of software development experience with a minimum of 5 years leading a technology-focused company.
• Bachelor's or advanced degree in a technical discipline, such as Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field
• Deep understanding of the full spectrum of web-based, cloud-hosted technologies including Kubernetes, JavaScript-based SPA frameworks, static site generation / server rendering, distributed systems and both event-driven and request/response microservice architectures.
• Expertise in leading, coordinating and improving technical discovery, planning, implementation, delivery and cleanup within matrix-based agile (scrum) teams, with a focus on efficient execution and ROI.
• Must have a solid understanding of modern software development practices, operations and security principles, architecting systems for extension, system telemetry, infrastructure as code, automation and CI/CD.
• People management experience in hiring, performance management and growth
• Experience leading other leaders in a software engineering organization
• Experience working with cross-functional leaders as one unit & setting organizational goals and objectives.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Must be able to effectively communicate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
• Ability to make difficult decisions and to manage through change with appreciation for the impacts and consequences of those changes.
• Ability to build and manage financial plans to meet organizational objectives.
• Experience working in product engineering and/or SaaS software delivery is a plus
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

OUR TECH STACK

• Languages/Framework: JavaScript/TypeScript Next.js/React/Node/Express, PHP/Laravel, Java
• Databases: PostgreSQL, MongoDb, Redis
• Eventing/Pub-Sub: Kafka
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Argo Workflows
• Packaging and Deployment: Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, GCP/GKE
• Observability and Monitoring: New Relic, Heap

CULTURE FIT

• Members first - we prioritise the interests and needs of our members above all else.We solve member pain points and focus on member satisfaction. We start with members, and end with the P&L.
• Growth mindset  - we set ambitious goals and challenge the status quo. We take responsible risks and are accountable for our actions.
• Better together - we are One team with One common goal. We make our footprint bigger than our foot, leave our egos at the door, support each other to achieve great results as One company. 
• Run after problems - we tackle problems head on and focus on finding solutions. Obstacles are seen as opportunities for growth and innovation. We have the hard conversations and choose the harder right over the easier wrong. And we do it with a smile.
• Measure Learn Iterate Innovate - we focus on getting things done. We measure what matters, iterate, learn, iterate many times in a data-driven way, which is how we will innovate.

JOB PERKS

• Competitive salary: We know it’s expensive to live/work in Canada
• Remote-first organization: we love opportunities to get together as a team, but for the most part we offer our employees the flexibility to work anywhere in Canada
• Flexible hours: Enjoy a couple more hours of sleep in the morning, if you want
• Benefits: Health is wealth! A benefits package with no employee contribution required
• Perks: RRSP matching program, individual training allowance, fun team socials (remote AND in-person) and more!