Software Engineering Team Lead

Accountabilities

• Development Support Leadership:Lead the development support team responsible for production incidents, bug fixes, technical investigations, and overall platform stability.

• Technical Escalation and Incident Management:Serve as the primary technical escalation point for complex production issues, coordinating investigations, root cause analysis, and post-incident reviews.

• Hands-On Software Development:Write, maintain, and improve high-quality production code across PHP backend services and React frontend applications, following established engineering standards.

• Database and Application Performance:Diagnose and resolve performance issues across PHP applications, MySQL databases, REST APIs, and frontend systems, including query optimization and database indexing.

• Root Cause Resolution:Identify recurring incidents and implement permanent engineering solutions that prevent repeated failures rather than relying on temporary fixes.

• Code Quality and Reviews:Conduct code reviews focused on maintainability, performance, security, consistency, and adherence to engineering best practices.

• Team Mentorship and Development:Coach junior and intermediate developers, provide technical guidance, and support the team's professional growth and problem-solving capabilities.

• Engineering Standards:Establish and maintain coding guidelines, development standards, testing practices, and consistent approaches to software quality.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration:Work with Product, Operations, Customer Success, and Engineering to prioritize incidents, communicate technical risks, and align support efforts with business needs.

• Monitoring and Observability:Improve monitoring, logging, alerting, and debugging tools to increase visibility into system health and accelerate issue resolution.

• Production Deployments and Release Management:Own production deployments and support release planning to ensure reliable and controlled software delivery.

• Developer Productivity and Tooling:Improve internal tools and workflows to help engineers work more efficiently and resolve issues faster.

• Architecture and Scalability:Participate in architecture discussions and recommend improvements to application reliability, scalability, and long-term maintainability.

• Technical Debt Reduction:Lead continuous improvement initiatives that address legacy issues, strengthen platform health, and reduce operational risk.

• Documentation and Knowledge Sharing:Maintain troubleshooting guides, incident documentation, and technical knowledge resources to improve consistency and team effectiveness.

• First-Year Impact:Improve platform stability, reduce recurring incidents and resolution times, build a high-performing support team, strengthen observability, and use AI-assisted development tools to accelerate engineering outcomes.

Requirements:

• Approximately 3–5 or more years of professional software development experience, with strong practical experience building and maintaining production applications.

• Strong proficiency in PHP and experience developing, debugging, and supporting backend applications in production environments.

• Solid knowledge of MySQL, including query optimization, indexing, database performance analysis, and troubleshooting.

• Hands-on experience developing modern frontend applications using React, JavaScript, and HTML5.

• Demonstrated ability to investigate and resolve complex production issues across full-stack applications and interconnected services.

• Experience leading developers or technical support teams, with the ability to coordinate work, prioritize incidents, and guide technical decisions.

• Strong understanding of software architecture, scalable application design, system reliability, and maintainable code.

• Experience conducting code reviews, mentoring developers, and promoting engineering standards and best practices.

• Familiarity with REST APIs and troubleshooting integrations between application components and external services.

• Strong debugging, analytical reasoning, and problem-solving skills, especially when working under pressure or addressing time-sensitive production issues.

• Experience improving application monitoring, logging, alerting, and observability is an advantage.

• Knowledge of Docker and containerized development environments is beneficial.

• Experience with AWS infrastructure and cloud-based application deployment is a plus.

• Familiarity with message queue systems such as RabbitMQ is desirable.

• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and release management practices is beneficial.

• Experience working within Agile software development teams is an advantage.

• Exposure to eCommerce, order fulfillment, logistics, or platforms such as Shopify and Amazon is desirable.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across technical and non-technical teams.

• Strong organizational skills and the ability to balance competing priorities while maintaining high-quality execution.

• A proactive, accountable mindset and enthusiasm for continuous learning, experimentation, and process improvement.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary:CAD $130,000–$135,000 annually.

• Comprehensive health coverage:Health and dental benefits for employees and their dependents, starting on day one.

• Paid time off:15 paid vacation days annually, plus five paid wellness days.

• Remote-first flexibility:Work from home, with access to an optional office in downtown Toronto.

• Home-office support:A new MacBook and a budget for workspace accessories and peripherals.

• Work-from-home stipend:Financial support to help establish a comfortable and productive remote workspace.

• Wellness benefits:Subsidized gym membership and full coverage for a Calm app subscription.

• Employee Assistance Program:Access to support services designed to promote mental well-being and work-life balance.

• Employee discounts:Access to savings through an employee discount program.

• Team connection:Social events and opportunities to build relationships with colleagues.

• Leadership access:Direct communication with senior leadership and opportunities to influence engineering priorities.

• Meaningful technical impact:The chance to improve software reliability and support technology powering eCommerce fulfillment at scale.

• Innovation and ownership:Freedom to experiment, enhance engineering processes, improve developer tools, and lead continuous improvement initiatives.

• Supportive culture:A collaborative and inclusive environment that values employee development, teamwork, and long-term success.