Principal Engineering Lead - Strategy & Architecture

Deloitte Canada; Toronto; On-site; CAD 140,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading professional services firm is seeking a Principal Engineering Lead to shape and execute the engineering strategy across its product portfolio. You will partner with teams to ensure systems are scalable and reliable. Responsibilities include defining architectural standards, driving product delivery through strategic initiatives, and mentoring technical staff. The ideal candidate will have a strong cloud systems background and proven engineering excellence. The firm offers a competitive salary range of $140,000 to $260,000.

Benefits

Flexible work arrangements

Mental health support benefits

Development and Innovation Days

Competitive base salary

Qualifications

• Proven experience designing and scaling complex, distributed, cloud-based systems.
• Strong understanding of modern software development practices including CI/CD, microservices, and APIs.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading architecture discussions across teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the company’s technical strategy and long-term architecture roadmap.
• Advocate for engineering best practices and coding standards across teams.
• Provide technical input into product roadmaps and support portfolio teams in resourcing technical roles.

Skills

Cloud-based systems expertise

CI/CD understanding

Microservices architecture

APIs and containerization

Mentorship experience

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

• Job Type: Permanent
• Work Model: Hybrid
• Reference code: 131443
• Primary Location: Toronto, ON
• All Available Locations: Toronto, ON; Burlington, ON; Edmonton, AB; Fredericton, NB; Kitchener, ON; Ottawa, ON; Saskatoon, SK; Vancouver, BC

Our Purpose

At Deloitte, our Purpose is to make an impact that matters. We exist to inspire and help our people, organizations, communities, and countries to thrive by building a better future. Our work underpins a prosperous society where people can find meaning and opportunity. It builds consumer and business confidence, empowers organizations to find imaginative ways of deploying capital, enables fair, trusted, and functioning social and economic institutions, and allows our friends, families, and communities to enjoy the quality of life that comes with a sustainable future. And as the largest 100% Canadian-owned and operated professional services firm in our country, we are proud to work alongside our clients to make a positive impact for all Canadians.

By living our Purpose, we will make an impact that matters.

• Have many careers in one Firm.
• Enjoy flexible, proactive, and practical benefits that foster a culture of well-being and connectedness.
• Learn from deep subject matter experts through mentoring and on the job coaching

What will your typical day look like?

As the Principal Engineering Lead – Strategy & Architecture, you will be the senior technical advisor and partner to the Head of Product & Technology. You’ll play a critical role in shaping and executing our engineering strategy across the product portfolio, ensuring our systems are scalable, reliable, and built with technical excellence.

This role blends architectural depth with strategic influence – you’ll challenge design decisions, define engineering standards, and drive automation and process improvements that enable faster, higher-quality product delivery. You will also mentor engineering leads, participate in Architecture Review Boards (ARBs), and ensure teams are following best practices.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Strategy & Architecture

• Partner with the Head of Product & Technology to define and evolve the company’s technical strategy and long‑term architecture roadmap.
• Evaluate and influence architectural decisions across multiple product teams to ensure consistency, scalability, and security.
• Participate in and facilitate Architecture Review Boards, providing constructive feedback and governance over key design choices.
• Identify and drive initiatives that improve technical health, reduce complexity, and align architecture with business objectives.

Engineering Excellence & Enablement

• Establish, document, and advocate for engineering best practices, coding standards, and architectural patterns across teams.
• Introduce and lead initiatives to improve developer productivity through automation, tooling, and process optimization.
• Assess development workflows and recommend improvements to CI/CD pipelines, testing frameworks, and code quality processes.
• Partner with engineering leads to ensure teams are adhering to modern development practices and delivery standards.

Technical Advisory & Delivery Support

• Provide technical input into product roadmaps, helping assess feasibility, dependencies, and architectural implications.
• Lead the estimation and cost‑to‑build process for new product initiatives; advise on technical resource needs and delivery timelines.
• Support portfolio teams in resourcing technical roles by conducting technical interviews and evaluating candidate fit.
• Collaborate closely with product managers to translate business goals into clear technical direction and constraints.

Mentorship & Cross-Team Leadership

• Coach and mentor engineers and tech leads on architectural thinking, system design, and effective technical decision‑making.
• Act as a bridge between product and engineering — translating technical considerations into business language and vice versa.
• Influence without direct authority, creating alignment across teams on technical direction and standards.
• Build a culture of continuous improvement and shared ownership of engineering excellence.

Why This Role Matters

As our Principal Engineering Lead – Strategy & Architecture, you will be instrumental in ensuring that technology is a true enabler of product success — not a constraint. You’ll set the tone for engineering excellence, help teams make smarter architectural choices, and create the foundation for scalable, sustainable growth.

What You’ll Bring

• A strong balance of strategic vision and hands‑on technical insight.
• The ability to challenge and elevate engineering standards across the organization.
• A collaborative approach that builds trust across product, engineering, and leadership teams.
• A passion for building scalable, maintainable, and elegant systems that drive real business impact.

Enough about us, let’s talk about you

Required

• Proven experience designing and scaling complex, distributed, cloud‑based systems.
• Strong understanding of modern software development practices — CI/CD, microservices, containerization, APIs, testing frameworks, observability.
• Experience mentoring engineers and leading architecture discussions across multiple teams.
• Deep knowledge of one or more major cloud ecosystems (AWS, Azure, GCP) and familiarity with DevOps and automation tooling.

Nice to Have

• 10+ years of professional experience in software engineering, with at least 3–5 years in a senior technical or architectural leadership role.
• Demonstrated success improving engineering processes and driving technical modernization efforts.
• Excellent communicator — able to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

Total Rewards

The salary range for this position is $140,000 - $260,000, and individuals may be eligible to participate in our bonus program. Deloitte is fair and competitive when it comes to the salaries of our people. We regularly benchmark across a variety of positions, industries, sectors, targets, and levels. Our approach is grounded on recognizing people's unique strengths and contributions and rewarding the value that they deliver. Our Total Rewards Package extends well beyond traditional compensation and benefit programs and is designed to recognize employee contributions, encourage personal wellness, and support firm growth. Along with a competitive base salary and variable pay opportunities, we offer a wide array of initiatives that differentiate us as a people‑first organization. On top of our regular paid vacation days, some examples include: $4,000 per year for mental health support benefits, a $1,300 flexible benefit spending account, firm‑wide closures known as "Deloitte Days", dedicated days of for learning (known as Development and Innovation Days), flexible work arrangements and a hybrid work structure.

Diversity & Inclusion

Deloitte encourages applications from all qualified candidates who represent the full diversity of communities across Canada. This includes, but is not limited to, people with disabilities, candidates from Indigenous communities, and candidates from the Black community in support of living our values, creating a culture of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and our commitment to our AccessAbility Action Plan, Reconciliation Action Plan and BlackNorth Initiative.

We encourage you to connect with us at [e-mail] if you require an accommodation for the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials, accessible meeting rooms or other accommodations) or [e-mail] for any questions relating to careers for Indigenous peoples at Deloitte (First Nations, Inuit, Métis).