Lead Software Engineer

You are as unique as your background, experience and point of view. Here, you’ll be encouraged, empowered and challenged to be your best self. You'll work with dynamic colleagues - experts in their fields - who are eager to share their knowledge with you. Your leaders will inspire and help you reach your potential and soar to new heights. Every day, you'll have new and exciting opportunities to make life brighter for our Clients - who are at the heart of everything we do. Discover how you can make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.

Job Description:

Role Summary:

Our teams are dedicated to supporting, enhancing and discovering new ways to help our clients achieve lifetime financial security, live healthier lives and connect with us. Through innovation and collaboration, we're striving to deliver best-in-class technology solutions for our digital clients. 

We’re building new Sun Life capabilities from the ground up, and as a Lead Software Engineer on our team, you’ll take ideas from napkin sketches to production systems, making the technical calls that matter while shaping how we build, ship, and learn.   

This is a hands-on leadership role for an engineer who thrives in ambiguity, moves quickly without sacrificing fundamentals, and cares deeply about creating products people use. 

What will you do? 

Own products end to end 

• Break down product and technical initiatives into well-scoped, sequenced work items 
• Define technical approaches, dependencies, and milestones before work starts 
• Identify risks early and adjust scope or approach to protect delivery timelines 
• Make pragmatic technical decisions that balance speed, quality, scalability, and business impact. 
• Own outcomes. If something isn’t working, you fix it. 

Build fast, learn faster 

• Prototype quickly, launch MVPs, run experiments, and validate ideas with real users. 
• Unblock others by resolving architectural or integration challenges  
•  Be the technical decision-maker when trade-offs are required 
• Instrument everything, gather feedback, and iterate based on data. 

Lead by building 

• Guide the technical direction of the team. 
• Establish lightweight architecture and engineering practices that enable speed without chaos. 
• Provide clear technical leadership through code reviews, design discussions, and mentorship. 

Collaborate across disciplines 

• Work directly with product managers, designers, and business stakeholders to turn ambiguous problems into working software. 
• Clearly communicate trade offs, risks, and timelines to both technical and nontechnical audiences. 
• Work closely with control partners (IT Security, Legal, Risk, Compliance) to ensure compliance and security 

Shape the future 

• Champion modern engineering practices, tools, and technologies that give us a competitive edge. 
• Build reusable components and technical foundations that accelerate future products. 

What You Bring:

Engineering Depth and Versatility: 

• Minimum 8 years of progressive information technology experience with full application development life cycle and systems integration experience 
• Strong experience with Spring Boot, Microservices and API Development 
• Proficient with SOAP/XML, REST/JSON 
• Experience using DevOps tools (e.g. BitBucket, CDD, Jenkins) 
• Understanding of Javascript and jQuery 
• Experience with MS 365 
• Experience with ServiceNow (SNOW) 
• Extensive multi-platform integration experience 
• Accessibility, security, or compliance experience in regulated environments 
• Cloud and delivery fluency (AWS, CI/CD, Containers, etc…) 

Leadership & Communication: 

• Proven ability to influence technical direction without relying on hierarchy. 
• Experience mentoring engineers and raising the bar through example. 
• Strong communication skills. You can explain complex systems simply and persuasively. 
• High-Impact Work: Build products that directly shape Sun Life's future, with your code/design reaching real users quickly 
• Leadership Opportunity: Lead technical direction, mentor others, and shape the engineering culture of a growing team 
• Autonomy and Ownership: Make decisions, drive solutions, and see the direct impact of your work 
• Learn and Grow Fast: Exposure to new technologies, business problems, and the full product lifecycle in a compressed timeframe 
• Collaborative, Innovative Culture: Work with passionate, talented people who move fast and support each other.  

What’s in it for you:

• We’re honoured to be recognized as a 2024 Best Workplaces in Ontario by Great Place to Work® Canada.
• We are thrilled to be recognized by Excellence Canada with their top-level certification, the Canada Order of Excellence for Mental Health at Work®,  for prioritizing employee well-being, fostering a positive work culture, and achieving excellence in mental health.
• Wellness programs that support the three pillars of your health – mental, physical, and financial
• The opportunity to move along a variety of career paths with amazing networking potential.
• As a hybrid organization, you and your leader use business and Client need to choose where you work, at home or in the office

The Base Pay range is for the primary location for which the job is posted. It may vary depending on the work location of the successful candidate or other factors. In addition to Base Pay, eligible Sun Life employees participate in various incentive plans, payment under which is discretionary and subject to individual and company performance. Certain sales focused roles have sales incentive plans based on individual or group sales results.  

Diversity and inclusion have always been at the core of our values at Sun Life. A diverse workforce with wide perspectives and creative ideas benefits our Clients, the communities where we operate and all of us as colleagues. We welcome applications from qualified individuals from all backgrounds.

Persons with disabilities who need accommodation in the application process, or those needing job postings in an alternative format, may e-mail a request to [email protected].

We are proud to be a hybrid organization that offers our employees the choice and flexibility to work from both the office and virtually based on the needs of the business, our Clients and you! Several work options are available and can be discussed throughout the selection process depending on the role requirements and individual needs.

We may use artificial intelligence to support candidate sourcing, screening, interview scheduling.

We thank all applicants for showing an interest in this position. Only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

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