Lead Software Engineer - Product Builder

sunlife; Southwestern Ontario; On-site; CAD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Sun Life is seeking a senior software engineer to join our in-house accelerator, owning the full product lifecycle from concept to launch while writing production-grade code in a regulated environment.

You will design microservices, leverage AI-assisted development, mentor engineers, and work with product managers and designers to deliver scalable cloud solutions.

Qualifications

• 7-10 years hands-on engineering experience.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools in daily software development.
• Designing and building microservices, APIs, and distributed systems that scale.

Responsibilities

• Own products end-to-end from concept to launch.
• Write production-quality code daily and guide technical direction.
• Collaborate with product managers, designers, and stakeholders to turn ambiguous problems into working software.

Skills

Engineering leadership

AI-assisted development

Microservices & APIs

Distributed systems

Cloud (AWS/Azure)

CI/CD pipelines

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or related

Tools

AWS

Azure

Docker

Kubernetes

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

About the Job

This is a hands‑on, execution‑heavy role within Sun Life's startup‑style innovation team focused on rapidly designing, building, and scaling transformative digital products- including an agentic AI platform and new client experience solutions. Reporting to the Director of Engineering, In‑House Accelerator, you will own the full product lifecycle from concept to launch, writing production code, making pragmatic architecture decisions, and shipping working software quickly in a regulated environment. This role demands both technical excellence and entrepreneurial ownership, combining the agility of a startup with the resources and impact of a global enterprise. You will build products from zero, deliver them to users, and own the outcomes of your work.

What You'll Do?

• Own products end‑to‑end
• Use AI‑assisted development and coding agents to accelerate prototyping, implementation, testing, debugging, and code review without compromising engineering quality.
• 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.
• Instrument everything, gather feedback, and iterate based on data.
• Lead by building
• Write production‑quality code daily while guiding 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 non‑technical audiences.
• 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 & versatility
• 7-10 years of hands‑on engineering experience, with recent, demonstrable coding work.
• Demonstrated experience using AI‑assisted development tools as part of day‑to‑day software development, with strong practices for prompting, code review, testing, security, and validating AI‑generated code.
• Experience designing and building microservices , APIs, and distributed systems that scale.

Product mindset

You think in terms of user value , not just technical elegance.

You're comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and adjusting as you learn.

You bias toward action, experimentation, and learning over perfection.

Cloud & delivery fluency

Hands‑on experience deploying and operating software in the cloud (AWS, Azure).

Comfortable with CI/CD, containers, and shipping code to production frequently.

A solid handle on performance, observability, security, and resilient system design.

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.

Nice to Have

• Experience in startups, accelerators, or innovation labs.
• Experience with AI/ML systems building with LLMs, prompt engineering, or agentic architectures.

Why This Role?

• High-Impact Work: Build products that directly shape Sun Life's future, with your code reaching real users quickly.
• Leadership Opportunity: Lead technical direction, mentor others, 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