Vice President, Engineering

First National Financial; Toronto; On-site; CAD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Comprehensive benefits program

Extensive training programs

Modern office environment

Social events throughout the year

Job summary

First National Financial is seeking a Vice President of Engineering to lead an integrated engineering organization responsible for standards, delivery, quality, and modernization of applications, platforms, and systems used in underwriting, servicing, funding and client experiences.

The VP will shape roadmaps, capacity plans, and measurable technology outcomes, partnering with CPTO and executive teams to drive modernization and AI-enabled delivery while ensuring security and maintainability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS, engineering, technology or related field.
• 10+ years of progressive engineering experience.
• Senior leadership in a complex engineering environment overseeing delivery, standards, and software quality.
• Experience leading development, platforms, QA, release management, DevSecOps, and support teams.
• Strong SDLC, CI/CD, cloud-enabled delivery, observability and release practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead a multi-disciplinary engineering organization including managers, tech leads, QA, DevSecOps, and architecture teams.
• Set and improve engineering standards and SDLC practices across the delivery model.
• Establish and manage engineering performance measures for predictability and quality.
• Translate business priorities into sequenced engineering roadmaps and plans.
• Drive modernization of priority applications and components for agility and cost efficiency.

Skills

Engineering leadership

People leadership

Strategic planning

Risk management

SDLC

CI/CD

Cloud delivery

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

CI/CD tools

DevSecOps

Solution architecture

Job description

We are hiring a VP, Engineering!

Reporting To: CPTO

Full-Time/Part- Time: Full-time

Posting Date: September 9, 2026

Closing Date: September 30, 2026

Hours of Work: 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Grade: 30.4

Office Location: Toronto, ON

What we offer: Highly competitive compensation package which includes, base salary, bonus, benefits, and career advancement opportunities!

Eligibility for benefits is dependent on the terms of employment

The Opportunity

The Vice President, Engineering reports to the Chief Product and Technology Officer and is accountable for the application engineering organization, including engineering standards, technical delivery, software quality, release readiness, application reliability, supportability, and modernization.

This role leads the teams and practices to design, build, test, release, support, and modernize applications, platforms, and systems that enable underwriting, servicing, funding and internal and external experiences (broker, customer, and partner).

The VP, Engineering leads an integrated Engineering organization that includes the product aligned delivery capabilities required to translate business priorities into clear roadmaps, sequenced execution plans, and measurable technology outcomes.

How you will contribute

• Lead and develop a multi-disciplinaryengineering organization, including engineering managers, technical leads, application engineering teams, QA,DevSecOps, release management, solution architecture, and application support.
• Set and improve engineering standards and SDLC practicesby embeddingQA, test automation,DevSecOps, solution architecture, release readiness, change management, observability, and operational support into anend-to-end delivery model.
• Establish and manage engineering performance measuresacross predictability, productivity, software quality, release health, application reliability, supportability, and technical debt reduction.
• Lead the product aligned delivery planning needed totranslatesbusiness prioritiesandproduct roadmapsinto sequenced engineering plans with clear tradeoffs, dependencies, risks, capacity assumptions, and release readiness expectations.
• Leadplanning, sequencing, capacity tradeoffs,anddeliverycommitmentsacross engineering, product delivery, and business analysis teams, ensuring modernization, automation, AIenabled delivery,prioritize investments basedon businessvalue, risk reduction, supportability, and measurable impact.
• Ensure architectureand technical designsare scalable, secure, maintainable, testable, observable, supportable, and alignedto enterprisestandards.
• Lead modernizationof priority applications and components where modernization improves business agility, risk posture, scalability, cost efficiency, security, reliability, or long-term supportability.
• Reduce technical debt and improve maintainability, integration, and operational readiness by using AIassistedengineering, automation, reusable components, cloud services, modern architecture patterns, and off-the-shelf libraries whereappropriate.
• Own application-level supportability, defect resolution, production readiness, andresponse to issues withEnterprise IT and Infrastructure on environments, cloud platforms, monitoring, deployment automation, infrastructure operations, system health, and platform reliability.
• Partner with Technology Governance, Risk and Performanceto advanceSDLC standards, change management, incident management, controls, risk, and delivery reporting.
• Build ahighperformanceengineering culture with moderncapabilities,learning agility, technical discipline, strong ownership of outcomes, and accountability for measurableOutcomes.
• Operate as a member of the CPTO leadership team,helping Engineering, product delivery, Enterprise IT and Infrastructure, and Technology Governance, Risk and Performance work as an integrated team.

The experience you need

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering,technologyor a related discipline
• 10 + years of progressive engineering experiencerequired
• Senior engineering leadership experience in a complex environment,withaccountability for engineering teams, managers, technical standards, delivery execution, and software quality.
• Experience leading applicationdevelopment, platforms, QA, release management,DevSecOps, solution architecture, and support teams.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering practices, SDLC, CI/CD, test automation, cloud-enabled delivery, observability, operational readiness, and securedeliverypractices.
• Proven ability tolead integrated engineering and product delivery teamsbalancing business priorities, technical constraints, delivery capacity, risk, modernization needs, quality, reliability, and measurableoutcomes.
• Practical experience modernizing legacy applications and technology componentswith minimaldisruption or cost.
• Experience using or scaling AIenabledengineering, developer productivity tools, automation, and reusable engineering patternswhile ensuringsecurity, privacy, risk, and code review controls.
• Strong technical judgment across application architecture, integration, data flows, reliability, security, maintainability, observability, and supportability.
• Ability to partner effectively with Infrastructure, Security, Risk, Finance, business stakeholders, andexternal partners.
• Strongpeopleleadership capability, including building engineering talent, coaching managers, improving team performance, managing capacity, strengthening succession, and raising technical standards.
• Experience in financial services, mortgage lending, lending operations, servicing, broker channels, third-party partnerships, or regulated technology environments ispreferred.

Relationships

• External Customers Engages vendors, platform providers, and implementation partners to support solution delivery and technical quality.
• Internal Customers Partners with senior leaders, business stakeholders, product delivery teams, and technology teams to deliver modern, secure, and scalable technology solutions

Working Environment and Physical Demands Analysis

• Office environment
• Periods of high volume with tight timelines
• Long periods of stationary position/sitting
• Prolonged periods of repetitive movement (i.e. using a keyboard and mouse)
• Long periods of time in viewing a computer screen
• Multi-tasking may include speaking to customers on a telephone call while looking up information on a computer program.

Why join First National?

• Competitive Compensation
• Comprehensive benefits program (i.e., Health Spending Account, Maternity and Parental Leave Top Up)
• Extensive training programs to set our employees up for success
• Modern office environment conducive to collaboration
• Supportive teamwork culture
• Opportunities to give back to the communities and work through events focused on a variety of charities
• Ongoing social events throughout the year

The team you’ll join

Founded in 1988, First National is one of Canada’s largest non-bank lenders. We provide residential mortgages exclusively through the mortgage broker channel and we are Canada’s largest commercial mortgage lender.

First National has been consistently recognized as a great place to work and we are proud that our employee engagement feedback is higher than our industry partners.

Artificial Intelligence is not used in our recruitment or hiring process for this role. #FNLOON

First National is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is committed to diversity and inclusion regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender identity, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation and any other category protected by law.

First National supports requests for accommodation from applicants with disabilities; please contact Human Resources at [e-mail] should you need an accommodation at any point in the recruitment process.