Lead Software Engineer - Product Builder

Sun Life Financial; Southwestern Ontario, King; Hybrid; CAD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Sun Life is seeking a hands-on software engineering leader to own the full product lifecycle within a startup-style accelerator. You will design, build, and scale digital products, including an AI platform, in a regulated enterprise.

You’ll ship working software quickly, mentor engineers, and collaborate with product teams to turn ambiguous problems into concrete solutions. You’ll lead by example, balancing speed and quality, and shape the engineering culture as you drive architectural

Qualifications

• 7–10 years of hands-on engineering experience.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools in daily software development.
• Experience designing and building microservices and distributed systems.
• Strong product mindset and user-value focus.
• Hands-on cloud deployment and operations (AWS/Azure).
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and lead technically.

Responsibilities

• Own products end-to-end from concept to launch.
• Use AI-assisted development, prompts, and agentic tooling to accelerate prototyping and coding.
• Make pragmatic architecture decisions balancing speed, quality, and scalability.
• Provide technical leadership through code reviews and design discussions.
• Collaborate with product managers and designers to translate problems into working software.

Skills

Engineering depth

AI-assisted development

Microservices

Product mindset

Cloud fluency

Leadership

Tools

AWS

Azure

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, and 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 with passionate, talented people who move fast and support each other.

What’s in it for you?

Being a member of the Sun Life family, a group of people united by our Purpose: to help Clients and Employees achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. An environment of continuous learning, development, and improvement. Internal mobility is supported by leaders who are dedicated to fueling your professional growth. 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

25/09/2026

Shine together

At Sun Life, you can be your most brilliant self. Our supportive, flexible, and inclusive work environment is one where you – and your career – can thrive. Whatever your aspirations, collaborative leaders and colleagues are ready to help you learn, grow, and succeed. Make life brighter We’re a global company with a passion for people. Our purpose is to help Clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives. As a team of 30,000 across 26 countries, our impact is far-reaching, and locally relevant There’s power in numbers. As part of Sun Life’s growing team, you have an impact on people in your community and around the world. Shape the future With an optimistic eye on a brighter future, we drive to innovate. Be part of leading change, push boundaries and try new ways of working. Use data to drive bold actions. Be agile and pivot as we test and learn. At Sun Life, we’re driving transformation, sustainability and innovation for our Clients, employees, partners, and communities. Join us. Together, we can make the future brighter. Join a top employer for a brighter future. Visit Sun Life Careers