Lead Software Engineer (JAVA, API)

Sun Life; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Wellness programs

Career growth opportunities

Job summary

Sun Life is seeking a Squad Tech Lead to guide a new agile team in Canada, delivering large-scale web applications and AI-enabled features. You will balance hands-on coding with leadership, collaborate across squads, and drive secure, high-quality software practices.

You will mentor developers, design scalable architectures with microservices, and ensure reliable deployments using Docker/Kubernetes and CI/CD pipelines.

Qualifications

• 8–10 years of IT experience with full software development life cycle and systems integration experience.
• Proven experience leading and mentoring development teams.
• Experience with AI-assisted development tools, notably GitHub Copilot.
• Hands-on experience designing, developing, and deploying AI agents.
• Strong knowledge of LLMs, prompt engineering, and AI APIs.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Agile teams to design, develop and deliver high quality web applications.
• Lead AI-assisted development practices using Copilot to accelerate velocity.
• Design, develop and integrate AI agents and conversational interfaces.
• Champion secure coding practices and remediate security vulnerabilities.
• Coach and mentor team members and provide technical direction.

Skills

Java & Spring Boot

Microservices

API Development

React

GitHub Copilot

Security best practices

CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

JUnit

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Docker

Kubernetes

Bitbucket

Jenkins

SonarQube

Checkmarx

Snyk

Veracode

RESTAssured

Job description

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.

At Sun Life, we're driven by our Purpose: helping our Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. Our values shape how we work: caring, authentic, bold, inspiring, and impactful.

When you join Sun Life, you'll work with passionate colleagues and empowering leaders who support your growth and celebrate your contributions, so you can make a meaningful difference in our Clients' lives.

Discover how you can make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.

Job Description:

Lead Software Engineer - Squad Tech Lead

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 are currently seeking a Squad Tech Lead to provide technical design, development, support and analysis for large-scale applications and systems in a new agile team within the Canadian IT Platforms and Engineering team. This permanent role combines hands‑on technical work with leadership responsibilities. The successful candidate is a team player with excellent technical and problem‑solving skills, is aware of industry trends, questions the status quo and can identify and propose alternatives. Come join us as we continue to intensify the focus on our digital journey, building APIs and improving our client experience.

What will you do?

• Collaborate with skilled Agile team members to understand user needs and design, develop and deliver high quality web applications that meet those needs
• Configure and design applications and workflows, using outside the box thinking, to create innovative ways to advance our client first strategy
• Lead AI-assisted development practices, leveraging GitHub Copilot and other AI coding tools to accelerate development velocity and improve code quality
• Design, develop, and integrate AI agents and conversational interfaces to enhance application capabilities and deliver intelligent automation solutions
• Champion secure coding practices and lead efforts to identify, prioritize, and remediate application security vulnerabilities using SAST/DAST tools
• Conduct security code reviews and ensure compliance with security standards and best practices throughout the development lifecycle
• Coach, mentor and collaborate with members of the design and development team
• Provide technical direction and guidance to projects, ensuring risks are mitigated and projects are implemented successfully
• Establish coding standards and technical best practices across the squad
• Conduct code reviews and mentor team members on technical excellence
• Support developers in removing technical blockers and guide technical implementation of user stories and features
• Communicate technical risks, dependencies, and constraints to stakeholders
• Participate in planning and refinement sessions with technical perspective and collaborate with Product Owner on technical feasibility and estimates
• Drive quality standards and testing practices; identify technical debt and propose solutions
• Monitor system performance and reliability and champion continuous improvement initiatives
• Contribute to defining timelines and plans; analyze and estimate feasibility, cost, time and scope
• Ensure coding, testing, debugging, and implementation activities are completed as required
• Participate in agile ceremonies and support on-call and incident response when needed
• Represent the squad's technical interests in cross-squad discussions and collaborate with other Tech Leads across squads for consistency

What you need to succeed ?

• Minimum 8 to 10 years of progressive information technology experience with full application development life cycle and systems integration experience
• Demonstrated experience leading and mentoring teams of developers
• Proven experience with AI‑assisted development tools, particularly GitHub Copilot, and ability to train teams on effective AI pair programming techniques
• Hands‑on experience designing, developing, and deploying AI agents using agent orchestration platforms
• Working knowledge of Large Language Models (LLMs), prompt engineering, and integrating AI APIs
• Experience building conversational interfaces, chatbots, or intelligent automation solutions that enhance user experiences
• Good application security knowledge with demonstrated experience identifying and remediating security vulnerabilities (OWASP Top 10, SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, authentication/authorization flaws)
• Hands‑on experience with security scanning tools (e.g., SonarQube, Checkmarx, Snyk, Veracode) and implementing security fixes
• Understanding of secure SDLC practices, threat modeling, and security testing methodologies
• Expert‑level knowledge of Java and Spring Boot
• Strong experience with Microservices and API Development
• Advanced understanding and hands‑on experience with front‑end development, particularly React and Web Accessibility
• Containerization experience with Docker and Kubernetes
• Advanced overall understanding of Web applications and server technologies
• Working experience with middleware technologies, web and web hosting technologies
• Experience with Kafka
• Proficiency with SOAP/XML, REST/JSON
• Experience with Unit testing tools (e.g., JUnit, Mockito, RESTAssured)
• Hands‑on experience using DevOps tools (BitBucket, CDD, Jenkins)
• Understanding of JavaScript and JQuery
• Ability and desire to lead with excellent communication skills

Special Requirements

• Periodic weekend/after‑hours work may be required to support project implementations and system upgrades

What’s in it for you?

• 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 needs 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 [e-mail].

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.

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.

Salary Range:

90,000/90 000 - 140,000/140 000

Job Category:

IT - Application Development

Posting End Date:

28/08/2026