VP, Engineering

Role: VP, Engineering (Product Platform) Company: iTmethods, https://www.itmethods.comLocation: GTA (hybrid - approx. 1 day per week)Reports to: CEOType: Full-time / PermanentTravel: Up to 20%About ITmethodsiTmethods is a profitable, founder-led company, helping large enterprises run DevOps toolchains and AI workspaces securely in their own clouds. Our iTmethodsONE platform standardizes tools on AWS/Azure with a focus on security, compliance, and AI-native delivery. We partner with leading ISVs and hyperscalers to accelerate productivity and value realization.iTmethods enables enterprises to excel in their digital transformation journeys through expert professional services and cutting-edge managed platforms. Our offerings include strategic consultation, expert implementation, toolchain integration, and extensive ongoing support options. Our solutions address key challenges in DevOps and AI/ML deployments and ongoing operations, security, and compliance, ensuring maximum return on technology investments.OpportunityJoin us to shape the future of AI-native enterprise platforms. iTmethods' enterprise platform currently serves 50+ regulated enterprises in multiple industries including Financial Services, Healthcare/Life Sciences, and Semiconductor/Software. The current platform runs in production for most of our large customers today. We're now executing the vision for the next version of our platform - an AI-native, single-tenant evolution that brings governed agent automation, model gateways, evaluation/safety pipelines, and vertical solutions into the same proven operating model.We're hiring a hands-on Engineering Leader to bridge the vision to reality. The goal is to keep the current product version rock-solid, phase the new AI platform into production without disruption, and make the platform faster, safer, cheaper, and customer-loved. You will lead the entire SDLC, lead the engineering function, own the engineering roadmap, scale a high-impact team, mentor developers and champion best practices in software quality and scalability.The position will lead:Product Engineering for iTmethodsONE: Platform/IDP, Developer Experience (CDE/golden paths), QA/Release, SRE/Reliability and OperationsBuild & Run the feedback loop: Collapse design intent, delivery, reliability, security, and unit economics into one execution systemTeam & organization structure: Lead, manage, and hire individual contributors and align player-coaches; install single-threaded ownership; remove bloatCustomer outcomes: Sovereign/air-gapped deployments with audit trails, zero-egress controls, and a per-tenant kill-switch; time-to-value, SLO adherence, and cost disciplineResponsibilitiesOperate and evolve the platform: Keep the current platform dependable for enterprise customers while creating improvements (AI-native capabilities, agentic workflows, Model Gateway, Evaluation/Safety) safely and predictablyStandardize developer experience: Stand up CDEs and paved roads (Backstage/IDP) with policy-as-code and "build once, promote" pipelines; enforce SBOM/SLSA/SCA/DAST by defaultShip on a cadence: Establish release trains and program increments; manage scope/date/quality trade-offs; maintain 90%+ on-time delivery with executive visibilityEngineer for reliability: Define tenant-level SLOs, wire observability (Prometheus/Grafana/Datadog), and drive MTTR down via runbooks, previews, and progressive deliveryMake AI pragmatic: Integrate AI-assisted developer workflows and agentic automations where they create measurable leverage; measure outcomes vs. hype. Own cost behavior: Embed FinOps (GPU/AI quotas, cost per env/pipeline) and deliver unit-cost reduction without trading off reliabilityCollaborate: Shape epics and value metrics with Product, Security, Operations, Support and Customer Success teams. Our ValuesCustomer-obsessed: start with the customer workload, not internal convenienceIntensely curious: ask why until the physics of the system are clearBias for action: short cycles, small batches, working software over slidewareConstant learning: harvest wins into the platform; deprecate what doesn't workOwnership: own the loop - quality, reliability, cost, and customer outcomesRequirementsA minimum of 10+ years of experience leading product/platform engineering teams for enterprise software (B2B); you've shipped and run mission-critical systems at scaleDepth of knowledge, background and experience in SRE/SLOs, CI/CD, secure SDLC/DevSecOps, and distributed teamsYou have experience leading engineering and development teams. You are a player-coach. You have experience setting standards, reviewing designs/PRs, and rolling up your sleeves to unblockYou are a hands-on leader who has experience working in a fast paced start-up or scale up environmentExperience scaling from zero-to-one and one-to-many products/platforms - developing a platform and industrializing itFamiliarity with regulated enterprise environmentsProficient in cloud-first environments, serverless, microservices, containers (Docker) and modern development toolchains (Git, GitLab, GitHub, Jenkins, JFrog, SonarQube)Experience with Python and React is a strong assetStrong record of designing, building and integrating REST APIsSkilled in leading end-to-end SDLC, including sprint/release planningDemonstrated architecture/design leadership and operational troubleshooting in production environmentsPassion for technical leadership, mentoring, and leveraging AI-assisted developmentYou have strong communication skillsBachelor's in Computer Science/Engineering, or equivalent experience Nice to Have (Our Technology Environment)Infrastructure: AWS/Azure, Kubernetes (EKS/AKS), Terraform, GitOps, CI/CD (GitHub/GitLab/Jenkins)Developer Tools: Backstage/IDP, policy-as-code; Coder for CDEsSecurity: Supply-chain security (SBOM/SLSA); ISVs include SonarQube, GitLab, AtlassianObservability: Prometheus/Grafana/Datadog; incident & release practicesAI/ML: AI-assisted dev tools; model gateways; agentic workflow frameworksDeployments: Regulated industries; single-tenant / air-gapped / zero-egressBenefitsThe company offers team members extensive benefits, including the following:Competitive annual base salary plus an annual performance bonusExtended health/dental benefits planLearning budget for professional development Flexible/Hybrid work model