Leads Developer Experience and Release Engineering architecture and delivery for a globally distributed organization. The role establishes automated, deterministic, and agent-evaluated software quality gates across the SDLC; implements policy-as-code, contract testing, progressive delivery, error-budget controls, and automated rollbacks; and drives adoption of standardized tooling and practices. Responsibilities include transformation planning, delivery-risk management, metrics-driven improvement, stakeholder communication, and recruiting and developing engineering teams across Toronto and Bengaluru.
At Index Exchange, we’re reinventing how digital advertising works—at scale. As a global advertising supply-side platform, we empower the world’s leading media owners and marketers to thrive in a programmatic, privacy-first ecosystem.
We’re a proud industry pioneer with over 20 years of experience accelerating the ad technology evolution. Our proprietary tech is trusted by some of the world’s largest brands and media owners and plays a crucial role in keeping the internet open, accessible, and largely free.
We process more than 550 billion real-time auctions every day (in comparison, Google processes 8.5 billion searches per day) with ultra-low latency. Our platform is vertically integrated from servers to networks and runs primarily on our own metal and cloud infrastructure. This end-to-end infrastructure is designed to provide both stability and agility, enabling us to adapt quickly as the market evolves.
At the core of it all is our engineering-first culture. Our engineers tackle internet-scale problems across tight-knit, global teams. From moving petabytes of data and optimizing with AI to making real-time infrastructure decisions, Indexers have the agency and influence to shape the future of advertising. We move fast, build thoughtfully, and stay grounded in our core values.
What We’re Looking For:
A transformational engineering leader who brings innovation and human-centered thinking to how Index Exchange builds and ships software. This person owns architecture and delivery of Index Exchange’s Developer Experience and Release Engineering capabilities, driving the transformation from siloed, human-gated software delivery to a fully gated Software Development Life Cycle capable of handling both human and agentic development at scale.
This role leads a globally distributed engineering team, architects the automated and agent-evaluated gates that verify software quality and release readiness, and partners closely with peer Quality & Delivery leaders to jointly sequence and deliver a shared transformation agenda.
Core Responsibilities
Functional & Delivery Leadership
- Own architecture and delivery of Developer Experience and Release Engineering, elevating both from foundational capability to a demonstrably mature, industry-leading practice.
- Architect deterministic and agent-evaluated gates across the Define, Build, Verify, Release, and Operate states of the software delivery lifecycle, including policy-as-code enforcement, contract testing, mutation scoring, and SLO-driven progressive delivery with error budgets and automated rollbacks.
- Partner with peer engineering leaders across Quality & Delivery to jointly architect and sequence the gated SDLC roadmap, ensuring Developer Experience, and Release Engineering practices integrate cleanly with adjacent Test Engineering and Application Services capabilities.
- Bring a demonstrated history of transformation in Release Engineering with a clear, independent point of view on where discipline needs to go next.
- Assess current-state Developer Experience and release practices, tooling, and workflows to identify friction, gaps, and opportunities, and translate findings into prioritized, actionable plans.
Operational Excellence
- Foster continuous, iterative collaboration within the Engineering organization to make Developer Experience and Release Engineering first class components of the culture and processes.
- Own planning, execution, and delivery outcomes for Developer Experience and Release Engineering.
- Apply appropriate governance, standards, and policy-as-code practices to centralize tooling, pipelines, and enablement functions.
- Use delivery and quality metrics (e.g., change failure rate, lead time, deployment frequency, MTTR, or equivalent DORA/SPACE-aligned measures) to evaluate the effectiveness of gates and controls and drive continuous improvement.
- Identify and proactively manage delivery risk, release risk, and cross-team dependencies as the organization moves toward a fully gated, agentic-capable SDLC.
People Leadership & Global Collaboration
- Drive adoption of new standards or tooling across teams.
- Communicate findings, recommendations, plans, and progress clearly to technical and non-technical audiences, including senior leadership
- Recruit, onboard, and develop engineers across Toronto and Bengaluru.
- Set clear expectations, provide regular feedback, and actively manage performance and career growth.
- Foster a collaborative, inclusive team culture across time zones and regions.
Here’s What You Need:
- Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
- 12+ years of experience in commercial software development environments.
- 5+ years of engineering management experience leading delivery-focused teams.
- Applied, hands-on experience architecting policy-as-code enforcement and SLO-driven progressive delivery (e.g., contract-broker deploy gates, error-budget-based release throttling, automated rollbacks).
- Experience architecting or directing both deterministic and agent-evaluated automated gates within a software delivery pipeline.
- Experience engaging stakeholders and conducting discovery or assessment work to evaluate current-state practices and identify gaps.
- Strong analytical and synthesis skills, with the ability to translate ambiguous inputs into clear problem statements and actionable plans.
- Demonstrated success leading globally distributed teams across multiple time zones.
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to operate effectively in a matrixed organization, partnering with leaders across the organization.
Why you’ll love working here:
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans for you and your dependents
- Paid time off, health days, and personal obligation days plus flexible work schedules
- Competitive retirement matching plans
- Equity packages
- Generous parental leave available to birthing, non-birthing, and adoptive parents
- Annual well-being allowance plus fitness discounts and group wellness activities
- Commuter benefits and discounts, where available
- Employee assistance program
- Mental health first aid program that provides an in-the-moment point of contact and reassurance
- One day of volunteer time off per year and a donation-matching program
- Monthly town halls and regular community-led team events
- Multiple resources and programming to support continuous learning
- A workplace that supports a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment – learn more here
Equal employment opportunity
At Index Exchange, we believe that successful products are built by teams just as diverse as the audience who uses them. As such, we are committed to equal employment opportunities. We celebrate diversity of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. Additionally, we realize that diversity is deeper than any status or classification—diversity is the human experience. For those who show grit, passion, and humility—Index will welcome you.
Accessibility for applicants with disabilities
Index Exchange welcomes and encourages individuals with disabilities to apply to work with us.
If you require an accommodation, please share the details of your request and any information how we can assist you with the hiring recruiter when they contact you. Index Exchange will make reasonable efforts to ensure accommodation requests are met throughout the recruitment process.
Index everywhere, Index anywhere
Our corporate headquarters are in Toronto, with major offices in New York, Montreal, Kitchener, London, San Francisco, and many other global cities. As a major global advertising exchange, we are committed to operating as a tightly knit global team and embracing and empowering talent wherever our colleagues may be.
AI Disclaimer: Automated tools including artificial intelligence may be used to assist in screening and assessing applicants for this role. All hiring decisions involve human review.
Vacancy Status: This posting is for an existing vacancy.
Index Exchange Kitchener, Ontario, CAN Office
305 King St. W, Suite 801 , Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, N2G 1B9
Index Exchange North York, Ontario, CAN Office
North York, Canada
Index Exchange Toronto, Ontario, CAN Office
8 Spadina Ave. Suite 2900, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5V 0S8
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