Technical Lead, Portfolio Management

Purpose Unlimited; Canada; Hybrid; CAD 150,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity program

Flexible hybrid work model

Health & dental benefits

RRSP matching

Training opportunities

Job summary

Purpose Unlimited in Canada is seeking a senior quantitative engineer to design and implement high-scale portfolio management and trading systems. You will translate investment problems into robust software, from modeling to production deployment.

The role demands strong mathematical rigor, mentoring of engineers and data scientists, and a disciplined approach to testing, observability, and change management. A flexible hybrid work model and equity are offered.

Qualifications

• Deeply quantitative and comfortable with mathematics, data science and investment systems.
• Strong technical taste and commitment to building accurate, robust, extensible systems.
• Able to move from trading/portfolio problems to model, system design and production implementation.
• Excited by AI and advanced modeling but apply it with discipline and only where it adds value.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and implementation of systems for portfolio management and trading, including portfolio construction, rebalancing, order generation, execution support, post-trade analysis, and monitoring.
• Collaborate with portfolio managers and traders to identify bottlenecks and design faster, more accurate, and scalable tools.
• Translate investment problems into concrete technical solutions: optimization pipelines, portfolio analytics, risk tooling, and decision-support platforms.
• Define the technical direction across modeling, data architecture, research infrastructure, and production systems.
• Mentor engineers and data scientists, upholding high standards for mathematical rigor, quality, and reliability.
• Ensure production-grade systems with strong testing, observability, auditability, and controlled change management.

Skills

Quantitative

Job description

Vacancy Status: This is for a current opening.

Responsibilities: What you will do

• Lead the design and implementation of systems for portfolio management and trading, including portfolio construction, rebalancing, order generation, execution support, post-trade analysis, and monitoring.
• Work closely with portfolio managers and traders to understand where current tools, data, and workflows break down, and design better systems that improve speed, accuracy, control, and scale.
• Translate investment and trading problems into concrete technical systems: optimization pipelines, portfolio analytics, risk tooling, execution logic, forecasting, and decision-support platforms.
• Define the technical direction for the team across modeling, data architecture, research infrastructure, and production systems.
• Help build and guide models and algorithms for portfolio construction, exposure management, liquidity-aware trading, anomaly detection, scenario analysis, and workflow automation.
• Supervise and mentor engineers and data scientists, with a high bar for mathematical rigor, technical quality, and production reliability.
• Ensure systems are production-grade, with strong standards for testing, observability, auditability, and controlled change management.
• Define and operationalize figures of merit tied to investment and trading outcomes, such as portfolio drift, execution quality, rebalancing timeliness, operational error rates, and workflow cycle time.

You could be an especially great fit if

• You are deeply quantitative and enjoy working at the intersection of mathematics, data science, and real-world investment systems.
• You have strong technical taste and care about building systems that are accurate, robust, and extensible.
• You think from first principles and can move cleanly from trading or portfolio problem to model, system design, and production implementation.
• You are excited by AI and advanced modeling, but you apply them with discipline and only where they create real leverage.
• You are comfortable bringing structure to ambiguous problems involving markets, constraints, noisy data, and operational complexity.
• How should we design a rebalancing engine that balances target exposures, taxes, transaction costs, liquidity constraints, and implementation simplicity?
• How do we build reliable systems to monitor exposures, drift, risk, and execution quality in near real time?
• Which parts of the trading workflow should be formalized into algorithms, decision-support tooling, or automated controls?
• How do we create a clean path from research models to production trading and portfolio systems?
• How do we measure whether a change to portfolio construction or execution logic improved outcomes?

Our five values:

Innovation – You bring new ideas, challenge the status quo, and find better ways of building. You don’t wait for permission to experiment.

Courage – You speak up when something isn’t working, take difficult stands on technical quality, and act with conviction even when it’s uncomfortable.

Owner’s Mindset – You take full accountability for your squad’s outcomes. You treat the platform, the team, and the business as your own.

Client Focus – You place client outcomes at the center of every architectural and delivery decision.

Winning Through Individual and Collective Growth – You invest in your own development and actively contribute to the growth of every engineer around you.

• We believe in innovation and a vibrant culture - work for an innovative, people-first, financial services firm that values entrepreneurialism.
• We believe in a flexible work structure – A flexible hybrid work model that empowers you to do your best work whether at home or the office.
• We care about your rewards - Competitive compensation including equity program.
• We care about your health – comprehensive group health and dental benefits and life insurance at little to no cost to you. We also offer a Lifestyle Spending Account for all your wellness needs.
• We care about your quality of life - flexible paid time-off policy with unlimited vacation days, and flexible sick and mental health days.
• We care about your family - Paid parental leave for eligible employees with a top-up.
• We care about your future – Generous Group RRSP matching and an optional TFSA program.
• We care about your development – We offer training opportunities and tuition support year-round.

Purpose Unlimited is an equal employer and we are dedicated to fostering an inclusive and barrier-free work environment for all employees and candidates. We encourage all qualified candidates to apply and if accommodation is required during any stage of the recruitment process, please contact any member of the People & Culture team at [e-mail]. We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those selected for interviews will be contacted.

Our work philosophy is a hybrid model allowing for flexibility and collaboration.

Applicants must be legally entitled to work in Canada. Immigration sponsorship is not offered for this role.

We may use artificial intelligence technology to assist in screening, assessing, or selecting applicants for this position. Final hiring decisions are made by qualified human reviewers.