Engineering Manager - Avrest

OpenTable; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 160,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Health benefits

Paid time off

Leadership development

Professional growth funds

Equity opportunities

Job summary

OpenTable is recruiting an Engineering Manager in Toronto for a hybrid role (in-office two days a week). You will lead backend engineering teams responsible for the Diner Platform’s critical systems, shaping architecture and driving delivery at scale.

The role combines people leadership with hands-on technical ownership in a high-scale distributed environment. Strong collaboration with Product, Design, and cross-functional partners is essential.

Qualifications

• Experience building and operating distributed, high availability backend systems.
• Leadership experience managing engineers including senior ICs.
• Strong collaboration with Product, Design, and cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a high performing backend team with a culture of trust and accountability.
• Set technical direction across core backend systems and APIs.
• Drive architectural decisions and ensure reliability, scalability, and operational excellence.
• Lead through design reviews, incidents, and production readiness.
• Partner with other teams to translate product goals into engineering plans and delivery.

Skills

Technical leadership

People leadership

Execution and collaboration

Tools

Kubernetes

Job description

This is a Toronto based hybrid 2x/week in office position.

About OpenTable

With millions of diners, 70,000+ restaurant partners and 25+ years of experience, OpenTable, part of Booking Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), is an industry leader with a passion for helping restaurants thrive. Our world‑class technology empowers restaurants to focus on what matters most – their team, their guests, and their bottom line – while enabling diners to discover and book the perfect restaurant for every occasion.

Every employee at OpenTable has a tangible impact on what we do and how we do it. You’ll also be part of a global team and its portfolio of metasearch brands. Hospitality is all about taking care of others, and it defines our culture.

The Role

We are looking for an Engineering Manager to lead critical backend engineering teams that power the core of OpenTable’s Diner Platform.

These teams sit at the center of the platform. The availability system powers fast and reliable search across a global network of inventory. The reservations system owns the full booking lifecycle, from slot locking through confirmations, changes, payments and downstream events.

This is a hands‑on leadership role that combines people leadership with strong technical ownership. You will shape architecture, guide execution, and develop engineers while working in a complex, high scale distributed systems environment. This posting is for an existing vacancy.

What You Will Do

• Build and lead a high performing team: Create a strong and inclusive team culture grounded in trust, accountability, and clear expectations. Coach engineers across all levels, with a focus on developing senior and staff level talent. Provide direct and actionable feedback, manage performance proactively, and hire and retain exceptional engineers and future leaders.
• Own technical direction and quality: Set technical direction across core backend systems in partnership with senior engineers. Drive architectural decisions across distributed systems, APIs, data models, and event driven pipelines. Stay close to the systems by reviewing designs, challenging assumptions, and guiding tradeoffs. Establish and maintain high standards for reliability, scalability, and operational excellence.
• Drive delivery and business impact: Translate product goals into clear engineering priorities and execution plans. Partner closely with Product and Design to reduce ambiguity and make sound decisions. Establish a strong operating rhythm for planning, execution, and continuous improvement. Surface risks early and ensure issues are resolved effectively.
• Operate and scale critical systems: Own the full lifecycle from design and development through deployment and operation. Lead through production incidents with clarity and urgency, and ensure follow through strengthens system resilience. Use data to inform technical investments and measure impact.
• Contribute across the organization: Collaborate across the Diner Platform and the broader engineering organization. Align team decisions with platform standards while influencing direction with practical insights. Continuously raise the bar for engineering quality, execution, and leadership.

What We Are Looking For

• Technical leadership: Experience building and operating distributed, high availability backend systems. Strong system design fundamentals including APIs, data modeling, scalability, and resiliency. Experience with event driven architectures and modern backend stacks such as .NET, Java, or similar technologies. Familiarity with data stores, caching technologies like Redis, and high throughput systems. Ability to make sound decisions in ambiguous and high stakes environments.
• People leadership: Experience managing and developing engineers, including senior individual contributors. A leadership style grounded in clarity, accountability, and respect. A track record of building strong teams and creating an environment where people can do their best work.
• Execution and collaboration: Strong partnership with Product, Design, and cross functional teams. Clear and effective communication across technical and non technical audiences. A bias toward action and ownership, with a consistent track record of delivering results.

Nice to have

• Experience with marketplaces, search, or transaction heavy systems.
• Experience operating multi region, low latency systems.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes and modern cloud infrastructure.
• Experience evolving legacy systems while continuing to deliver customer value.

Benefits and Perks

• Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year
• Focus on mental health and well-being:
  • Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth
  • Company-paid subscription to HeadSpace
  • Company-wide week off a year - the whole team fully recharges (and returns without a pile-up of work!)
• Paid parental leave
• Generous paid vacation + time off for your birthday
• Focus on your career growth:
  • Development Dollars
  • Leadership development
  • Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings
• Travel Discounts
• Employee Resource Groups
• 20 days of paid time off upon start
• Private health and dental insurance
• Life and Disability insurance

The best connections happen face-to-face, whether you’re sitting down to dinner or having coffee with a coworker. That’s why OpenTable has adopted a hybrid workplace model. This role aligns with that approach, with an expectation of coming into the office two days a week—giving employees the best of both worlds: in‑person collaboration and flexibility.

The expected range of compensation for this position based in Toronto, Canada, is $160,000-$190,000 CAD.There are a variety of factors that go into determining a compensation range, including but not limited to external market benchmark data, geographic location, and years of experience sought/required.

We offer a competitive base salary and benefits including: health benefits; flexible spending account; retirement benefits; life insurance; paid time off (including PTO, paid sick leave, medical leave, bereavement leave, floating holidays and paid holidays); and parental leave benefits. This role is eligible to be considered for an annual bonus and equity grant.

At OpenTable, we pride ourselves on fostering a global and dynamic work environment. As a team member with us, you will benefit from a schedule tailored to accommodate a global workforce operating across multiple time zones. While the majority of your responsibilities may align with conventional business hours, there will be instances where you are expected to manage communications - via calls, Slack messages, or emails - outside of regular working hours to effectively collaborate with international colleagues, respond to restaurant partners, and/or address urgent matters. OpenTable will always abide by and consider local laws and regulations.

Inclusion

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels they belong and can thrive. We know the best ideas come when we bring different voices to the table, so we're building a team as dynamic as the diners and restaurants we serve—and fostering a culture where everyone feels welcome to be themselves.