Head of Engineering -AI

GuruLink; Toronto; On-site; CAD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in Toronto is seeking a founding engineer to architect their innovative AI-centric platform. The role involves building and leading a high-performing engineering team, driving technical strategy, and executing hands-on development. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience in software engineering, particularly with AI/ML technologies, and a strong leadership background.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of progressive experience, with 3-5 years leading engineering teams.
• Data-focused software engineering background with expertise in ML/AI.
• Strong technical abilities and ownership of product development.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical vision, strategy, and architecture.
• Recruit, mentor, and inspire an AI-first engineering team.
• Drive innovation through R&D and hands-on MVP development.

Skills

Leadership

Machine Learning

AI/ML Tools

Software Engineering

Communication

Education

Advanced degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering

Tools

AWS

GCP

Python

Java

C++

Typescript

Job description

Location: Toronto, Ontario

Our client is on a mission to reinvent how modern enterprises build and evolve their core business software, empowering businesses with a truly adaptive, intelligent and efficient platform that with AI seamlessly woven into every layer. They're creating a modular, cloud-native, AI-centric engineering platform that brings data, workflows, and decision intelligence together in a single, developer-friendly environment. With our client's software, product teams can model complex business processes, generate secure APIs, and roll out new functionality in days—not quarters.

Our client has secured strong seed-level funding and seeks to partner with an innovative engineering leader to build the core team in their vibrant, modern Liberty Village HQ.

Our client seeks a senior leader to join as their founding engineer. In this role you will:

Architect the Future: Own the technical vision, strategy and architecture, including technical roadmapping.
Build & Lead: Recruit, mentor, and inspire world-class AI-first engineering team.
Drive Innovation: Champion R&D and ensure cutting-edge tech.
Hands-on Execution: Initially, core MVP development.
Strategic Partnership: Collaborate closely with the CEO and founding team.

Must Have Skills:

- ~10+ years of progressive experience, with 3-5 leading high-performing engineering teams.
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a similar program from an accredited university.
- Data-focused software engineering background with expertise in ML/AI and in-depth understanding of LLMs/generative AI.
- Strong technical abilities and excitement to take ownership of the product; you are likely hands-on today and keen to stay on top of new technologies. You won't be spending your days coding, but must be technically savvy and will be heavily involved in system design, architecture, technical decision making, code reviews and mentorship.
- The successful candidate will likely be a polyglot, with a background in modern object oriented languages (Python, Java, C++, Typescript, etc).
- Hands-on experience with a variety of AI/ML/genAI tools and processes (OpenAI, Claude, etc)
- Hands-on experience with cloud computing infrastructure (ex. AWS, GCP), and scalable, distributed systems.
- Experience in a variety of environments, ideally both early-stage startups and enterprise; you’ve worked on complex and large-scale enterprise software, and also enjoyed working in a scrappy startup without a lot of structure in your career.
- Experience building an engineering team. You will be their first technical hire, with 6+ engineering hires set for the coming months.
- Excellent communication skills and experience collaborating seamlessly with business, product and development teams.
- Local to Toronto or willing to relocate; the role will initially be in-office then move to hybrid.

Nice to Have Skills:

- Previous experience working on large enterprise systems
- Experience with language design, compilers, and runtimes is highly desirable.
- Experience with Rust, or a strong interest in picking it up.
- Have AI-native mindset - you lean heavily into tools like Cursor, Aider, RooCode, Cline by default backed by strong systems design
- Have used tools like LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen, Pydantic, OpenAI Agents SDK or similar to build agentic workflows into software products
- Previous experience as either a startup founder, founding engineer, or very early joiner in a startup or on a critical product.
- French/English bilingual