Lead Software Engineer

Join a Challenger

Being a traditional bank just isn’t our thing. We are big believers in innovating the banking experience because we believe Canadians deserve better options, and we challenge ourselves and our teams to creatively transform what’s possible in banking. Our team is made up of inquisitive and agile minds that find smarter ways of doing things. If you’re not afraid of taking on big challenges and redefining the future, you belong with us. You’ll get to work with people who will encourage you to reach new heights. We like to keep things fun, ask questions and learn together.

We are a big (and growing!) family. Overall we serve more than 670,000 people across Canada through Equitable Bank, Canada's Challenger Bank™, and have been around for more than 50 years. Equitable Bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, Concentra Bank, supports credit unions across Canada that serve more than six million members. Together we have over $125 billion in combined assets under management and administration, with a clear mandate to drive change in Canadian banking to enrich people's lives. Our customers have named our EQ Bank digital platform (eqbank.ca) one of the top banks in Canada on the Forbes World's Best Banks list since 2021. 

The Work

Equitable has transformed to a hybrid-agile delivery methodology with cross-functional Pods dedicated to launching new products, features, and ongoing business value for portfolios. The Software Developer Lead is an exciting role at Equitable which is accountable to lead and manage Pod delivery. Our vision is that the Lead and their Pod should be empowered and autonomous to drive production changes, with broader support from shared services teams such as Dev Ops & Release Management, Infrastructure, and Security.

The Software Developer Lead will be partnered with a Product Owner and Project Manager to drive the team to complete Discovery & Planning (initiation, scoping and planning), design & build Sprints, solution testing/hardening, releases to production, and ongoing build-measure-learn releases. As the Lead for the Pod, the Software Developer Lead will work with the team to set the approach for how the team will deliver code, including tailoring the Bank’s methodology and artefacts. The Lead will work with the core leads to provide status updates based on delivery progress, velocity/trends, quality, RAID, and impediments.

The incumbent will ensure that the solution being delivered is cohesive and meets intended business value across the collaborative team of BAs, Developers, QA / Automated QA and external Technology partners as required. In addition to project delivery, the Lead Software Developer and Pod team will also manage, plan and deliver backlog enhancements and fixes as ongoing releases for the aligned business portfolio.

While not a direct manager, using their experience, the Software Developer Lead will be required to train, guide, coach and/or mentor those in the Pod.

• Plan and Manage the technology delivery of one or more projects/ new products
• Partner with Project Managers and Product Owners to lead the Pod team to identify scope, user experiences and prioritize delivery via MVP/Release plan. Tailor delivery approach as required.
• Co-facilitate Agile ceremonies (with Scrum Managers), including story-point estimation, story elaboration, sprint grooming, task assignment & management to completion, retrospectives, etc.
• Coordinate with shared service teams, such as Dev Ops, Infrastructure, & Security to release changes to production
• Collaborate with Technology Directors & Architecture to establish the high-level architecture and components of the solution
• Measure build progress, velocities, trends and quality to provide delivery status updates
• Identify and resolve impediments / RAID across Technology teams
• Drive continuous improvements within the Pod delivery and support overarching improvements towards the technology delivery methodology, tools and processes

• Minimum 7 years’ experience in the financial services industry and good knowledge of personal and commercial banking digital products
• Solid programming skills and experience troubleshooting applications (Spring based), including working with debuggers, flow analyzers and configuration tools.
• Experience with Services Oriented Architecture and RESTful Architecture, web services
• Post-secondary degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical degree or equivalent experience is required
• Familiar with Atlassian tools, including JIRA workflow
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills
• Hands-on problem solving skills to remove technical impediments and manage closure of RAID
• Ability to organize and coordinate senior resources with cross-functional skillsets as a holistic group with close collaboration and cooperation
• Experience working in a highly collaborative and customer-centric environment

• Experience or familiarity with Open APIs, Technical Product Management, MicroService / Enterprise Service Bus architecture, cloud IaaS / PaaS, and mobile platforms
• Expertise with Confluence and JIRA

What we offer [For full-time permanent roles]

💰 Competitive discretionary bonus 

✨ Market leading RRSP match program

🩺  Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability benefits

📝  Employee Share Purchase Plan

👶🏽 Maternity/Parental top-up while you care for your little one

🏝 Generous vacation policy and personal days 

🖥  Virtual events to connect with your fellow colleagues

🎓  Annual professional development allowance and a comprehensive Career Development program

💛  A fulfilling opportunity to join one of the top FinTechs and help create a new kind of banking experience

The incumbent will be working hybrid and in office time will be spent working from Equitable Bank’s additional office space located at 351 King Street East, Toronto, ON.

Equitable Bank is deeply committed to inclusion. Our organization is stronger and our employees thrive when we honour and celebrate everyone’s diverse experiences and perspectives. In tandem with that commitment, we support and encourage our staff to grow not just in their career path, but personally as well. 

We commit to providing a barrier-free recruitment process and work environment for all applicants. Please let us know of any accommodations needed so that you can bring your best self to the application process and beyond. All candidates considered for hire must successfully pass a criminal background check and credit check to qualify for hire. While we appreciate your interest in applying, an Equitable recruiter will only contact leading candidates whose skills and qualifications closely match the requirements of the position.

We can’t wait to get to know you!