Senior Director of Engineering

HaknaSoft; Toronto; On-site; CAD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

HaknaSoft, a Canadian technology consulting firm, seeks a Senior Director of Engineering to build and lead the engineering organization supporting our turnkey delivery business. You will report to the CEO and shape the team, processes, and technology strategy.

The role emphasizes hiring, mentoring, and scaling engineering leaders across client engagements, with a focus on ownership, technical excellence, and delivering high-quality software.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience leading software engineering organizations.
• Proven ability to build an engineering organization from the ground up.
• Track record of scaling teams and delivering consulting projects.
• Strong technical credibility in architecture and cloud-native systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow HaknaSoft’s engineering teams.
• Define engineering standards, practices, and governance.
• Improve quality, efficiency, and delivery predictability.
• Partner with executives on strategic technology direction.
• Help shape new client engagements and pre-sales.
• Identify opportunities to leverage AI in development.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Hiring and mentoring

Software architecture

Cloud-native

Stakeholder management

Job description

Employment:

Permanent, full-time - base salary + performance-based bonus

About HaknaSoft

HaknaSoft is a growing Canadian technology consulting firm helping organizations deliver complex digital transformation, cloud, data and software engineering initiatives.

We have grown to approximately 50 technology professionals and have built our reputation through strong technical expertise, high ownership, close client collaboration and consistent delivery quality.

We are now entering our next stage of growth. As we expand across clients and engagements, we want to evolve from an organization whose success relies heavily on exceptional individuals into a scalable engineering organization with strong leadership, repeatable practices and a culture that continues to attract exceptional engineers.

We are looking for a Senior Director, Engineering to help us build that next chapter.

Reporting & Scope

HaknaSoft operates through both staff augmentation and turnkey project delivery. This role will initially focus on building and leading the engineering organization supporting our turnkey delivery business.

Reporting directly to the CEO, you will lead an engineering organization of approximately 20 people, with meaningful authority over team structure, hiring, performance management and engineering investment within an agreed budget. You will be accountable for engineering quality, effectiveness and execution across our project-based engagements.

In the early stages, you will be directly involved with clients, supporting delivery, technical pre-sales and escalations alongside the CEO and other HaknaSoft leaders. As you build engineering leadership within the organization, the goal is to develop leaders who can own individual client engagements, allowing you to progressively shift your focus toward organizational leadership, technical strategy, talent development and scaling the engineering organization.

As HaknaSoft grows, there is significant opportunity for the scope and responsibilities of this role to evolve with the company.

This is a permanent, full-time position with base salary and performance-based bonus. Compensation is competitive with senior engineering leadership roles in the Canadian market and will be discussed early in our process.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a builder.

Someone who has led engineering organizations, but who is still close enough to technology to understand the challenges engineers face.

Someone comfortable entering an environment where many things are working extremely well, while recognizing that not everything has been formalized yet.

Someone who can bring structure without bringing bureaucracy.

Working closely with HaknaSoft’s founder and CEO, you will take ownership of our engineering organization and help build the operating model required to support our continued growth.

What You’ll Own

You will be responsible for engineering leadership across HaknaSoft’s project-based client engagements and will progressively shape how our engineering organization operates.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Lead, mentor and grow HaknaSoft’s engineering teams.
• Define and evolve engineering standards, practices and technical governance.
• Improve engineering quality, efficiency and delivery predictability.
• Build repeatable engineering practices that can be applied across multiple client engagements.
• Establish scalable approaches to hiring, onboarding, mentoring, performance management and career development.
• Develop engineering leaders and reduce dependency on individual contributors or individual heroics.
• Partner closely with Delivery, Product, Architecture and Data leadership.
• Support the technical direction of client engagements while empowering teams to make strong engineering decisions.
• Help shape and launch new client engagements, including technical discovery, solution design, estimation and technical pre-sales.
• Partner with the CEO and other HaknaSoft leaders to identify, shape and win new technology engagements, and ensure the engineering organization can successfully deliver them.
• Identify opportunities to improve engineering productivity through automation and AI-assisted software development.
• Help evolve the organizational structure as HaknaSoft continues to grow.
• Preserve and strengthen a culture of ownership, accountability, technical excellence and client trust.

What We’re Looking For

We are less interested in a specific number of years of experience than in what you have built.

You may be a Director of Engineering, Senior Director, Head of Engineering or VP Engineering today.

The right person will likely have:

• Significant experience leading software engineering organizations.
• Experience building an engineering organization, not only operating within an already mature one.
• Experience scaling engineering teams through meaningful growth.
• A track record of hiring, developing and mentoring strong engineers and engineering leaders.
• Strong technical credibility and the ability to engage meaningfully in architecture and engineering discussions.
• Experience creating engineering processes and standards without slowing teams down.
• Experience improving software quality and delivery predictability.
• Strong understanding of modern cloud-native software engineering.
• Experience working across multiple teams, products or client engagements.
• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• Experience collaborating directly with senior executives, clients and business leaders.
• Understanding of consulting economics, including capacity planning, utilization, project margins and the trade-offs between delivery quality and commercial commitments.
• The confidence to challenge decisions constructively and the judgment to know when to do so.
• Comfort operating in environments where not every process has already been defined.

Experience in consulting, financial services, cloud platforms, data engineering or AI is valuable but not mandatory.

AI & The Future of Engineering

We believe AI has materially changed how software is designed, developed, tested and delivered.

We are already investing in AI-assisted engineering capabilities and want this leader to help us determine where AI can genuinely improve productivity and quality and where human engineering judgment remains essential.

We aren’t looking for someone who simply talks about AI.

We’re looking for someone who can help us operationalize it.

The Person We’re Looking For

Beyond experience, we care deeply about mindset.

You should enjoy:

• Building in environments that are still evolving.
• Turning successful practices into repeatable systems.
• Developing people and future leaders.
• Solving organizational problems, not just technical ones.
• Working closely with clients and understanding their business.
• Making decisions with incomplete information.Challenging assumptions constructively.
• Taking ownership beyond your formal job description.

You should be equally comfortable discussing organizational design with the CEO, architecture with senior engineers, delivery challenges with clients, and career development with an engineer.

Why Join HaknaSoft?

You’ll be joining at an unusual point in the company’s journey.

We’re large enough to have meaningful teams, complex engagements and established clients, but still small enough that one exceptional engineering leader can fundamentally shape how the company operates for years to come.

You’ll have the opportunity to help define:

• how we organize engineering;
• how we hire and develop engineers;
• how we deliver;
• how we use AI;
• how we scale across clients;
• and ultimately, what kind of engineering company HaknaSoft becomes.

This is an opportunity for someone who doesn’t simply want to inherit an organization.

It’s for someone who wants to build one.