Manager, Software Engineering

Helcim Inc.; Calgary; Hybrid; CAD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Helcim Inc. in Calgary is seeking a Manager, Software Engineering to lead two squads of core platform engineers, balancing people leadership, technical direction, and delivery.

You will partner with product managers to refine components touching Merchant LifeCycle and Risk in real-time. This hybrid role emphasizes collaboration with Product, Design, and DevOps, ensuring engineers understand the customer impact and the why behind their work.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience managing software engineers.
• 5+ years as hands-on software developer.
• Committed to inclusive, high-performing teams with psychological safety.
• Set clear goals, conduct regular 1:1s, and provide career guidance.
• Proactive in identifying and growing future leaders.

Responsibilities

• Drive technical direction and decision-making with support from senior engineers.
• Oversee design reviews, implementation plans, and ensure technical alignment across projects and other engineering teams.
• Champion best practices in CI/CD, observability, automated testing, and system architecture.
• Ensure that all code is robust, testable, and scalable.
• Manage the operational health of your systems, including SLAs and incident response.
• Translate business and product goals into clear technical plans and milestones.
• Balance feature delivery with platform investments and debt management.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, DevOps, and security teams to drive alignment and delivery.

Skills

People management

Talent development

Cross-functional collaboration

Technical leadership

Customer impact focus

Tools

CI/CD tooling

Job description

We’re looking for a Manager, Software Engineering to lead 2 squads of our core platform. You will manage a combined team of ~10 talented software engineers and partner closely with dedicated product managers with each squad to build, scale, and refine critical components of our systems touching Merchant LifeCycle and Risk - high-throughput systems that differentiate legitimate growth from sophisticated bad actors in real-time. This role balances people management, technical leadership, and delivery execution including cross department roadmap alignment.

This is a hybrid position based in our Calgary office. We believe that in-person collaboration a few days a week strengthens communication and team cohesion.

People Leader

• You have at least 3 years of experience managing software engineers, with a proven ability to coach, develop, and retain top talent.
• You previously spent at least 5 years as a hands-on software developer, giving you the technical depth needed to support and guide your team.
• You’re committed to building inclusive, high-performing teams and fostering psychological safety.
• You set clear goals and expectations, conduct regular 1:1s, and provide thoughtful feedback and career guidance.
• You’re proactive in identifying and addressing performance issues constructively.
• You’re proactive in identifying and growing future leaders in the organization.

Culture Champion

• You model resilience, transparency, and accountability in a startup environment.
• You cultivate curiosity and a growth mindset by encouraging experimentation and learning from failures.
• You promote ownership and empower your team to deeply engage in solving problems, not just executing tasks.

Cross-Functional Partner

• You collaborate closely with Product, Design, and DevOps.
• You ensure engineers understand the “why” behind their work and feel connected to the customer impact.
• You represent your team effectively to leadership and contribute to broader engineering initiatives.

We know that candidates have different experiences that may make them a great fit for this position and for Helcim. We believe that diversity and having an inclusive culture is not only the right thing, but key to our long-term success. Diversity brings more experience, view-points, knowledge and insight about our future. We also want to provide an accessible interview process, so if there’s any accommodations that would make your experience more comfortable, please let us know.

Technical Leadership & Execution

• Drive technical direction and decision-making with support from senior engineers.
• Oversee design reviews, implementation plans, and ensure technical alignment across projects and other engineering teams.
• Champion best practices in CI/CD, observability, automated testing, and system architecture.
• Ensure that all code is robust, testable, and scalable.
• Manage the operational health of your systems, including SLAs, incident response, and on-call improvements

Roadmap Ownership

• Translate business and product goals into clear technical plans and execution milestones.
• Balance feature delivery with platform investments and technical debt management.
• Collaborate with Product, Design, DevOps, and security teams to drive alignment and ensure delivery success.

Quality, Performance & Security

• Promote a culture of engineering excellence and secure development.
• Continuously improve system performance and address technical vulnerabilities proactively.