Contract Software Engineering Manager Jobs in Toronto, ON

What you'll do

1. Shape and implement platform architecture

• Own the technical shape of domain services and initiatives and its key integrations, covering APIs, data flows, shared services, environments, deployment paths, and operational dependencies.
• Be hands-on: prototype or implement critical paths, review production code, debug cross-system failures, pair with engineers, and remove technical blockers.
• Make architecture decisions explicit and pragmatic, balancing scalability, performance, security, privacy, resilience, maintainability, cost, and delivery speed.

2. Lead technical delivery and readiness

• Translate product goals into complete, testable requirements, technical specifications, acceptance criteria, dependency maps, and clear decision records.
• Own the technical path to green: clarify the critical path, expose risks early, align decision owners, and make milestone confidence visible through evidence.
• Drive staging readiness, environment automation, release workflow, rollback planning, production support ownership, and post-launch hypercare.
• Protect continuity through documentation, pairing, and knowledge transfer as project staffing and ownership change.

3. Establish engineering and operational standards

• Set a practical definition of done across design, implementation, testing, observability, documentation, rollout, and support readiness.
• Embed reliability practices through meaningful SLOs, monitoring, alert quality, runbooks, incident learning, data-quality checks, and measurable post-release outcomes.
• Create reusable patterns and lightweight architecture reviews that reduce fragile coupling, duplicated capability, and unsupported operational knowledge without adding unnecessary process.

4. Multiply engineering capability

• Coach engineers and technical leads through architecture, coding, debugging, delivery, operational ownership, communication, and decision-making.
• Make the engineering growth framework concrete through clear expectations, actionable feedback, mentoring, stretch opportunities, and evidence of progression.
• Help teams adopt AI-assisted engineering safely across coding, reviews, testing, documentation, requirements analysis, and decision support, with appropriate verification and data protection.
• Create an environment where people can challenge designs, learn from incidents, and contribute across product boundaries; this role influences people but is not defined as a line-management position.

5. Connect technical choices to customer and business outcomes

• Make complex trade-offs understandable to Product, Design, QA, Data, Sales, Operations, and leadership, and turn decisions into clear action.
• Align application and portfolio architecture with customer value, commercial outcomes, and the Consumer Conversion operating model.
• Set a high bar for clarity, follow-through, transparency, and respectful challenge across teams.

What we're looking for

• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including significant hands-on technical leadership across complex, customer-facing products.
• Demonstrated success owning platform architecture and delivery across multiple teams, systems, or product domains.
• Strong language-agnostic full-stack background and experience building scalable web- based applications and integrations.
• Practical experience with distributed systems, APIs, data flows, cloud infrastructure, platform capabilities, and modern software architecture patterns; AWS experience is a must.
• A track record of improving requirements quality, technical design, release readiness, observability, and operational outcomes through direct engineering involvement.
• Experience leading through ambiguity, recovery, staffing transitions, or competing priorities while remaining close to the work.
• Proven use of AI-assisted engineering tools in daily work, with sound judgment around verification, security, privacy, and quality.
• A genuine commitment to coaching, inclusive leadership, feedback, and the growth of engineers and technical leaders.
• Exceptional communication skills and the ability to adapt your approach across engineers, product partners, executives, and customers.
• Data-informed decision-making balanced with empathy, pragmatism, and a strong sense of ownership.

What success looks like
In your first 6-12 months, you will have established a trusted platform architecture for E-Commerce, improved confidence in its requirements and release path, and made operational readiness visible. You will also have delivered or materially advanced the highest-risk technical paths, created practical shared patterns across various platforms within the domain, and helped engineers grow through hands-on technical leadership.

For a career where you can drive our business and shape your future, apply now.