Head of Product and Engineering

Location: Toronto (Hybrid)
Posted: March 3, 2025

 

About Us: 

Vayle is a fast-growing technology company that has quickly become the leading Freedom of Information (FOI) platform for local government in Ontario. We are expanding into new markets across Canada and the United States, with a bold vision to empower public sector organizations in managing complex information access and privacy compliance needs. With new privacy legislation emerging across many jurisdictions, the demand for innovative compliance solutions is rapidly increasing. Vayle is positioned to capitalize on these changes, offering cutting-edge tools that redefine FOI and privacy compliance within a single platform.

As we continue to broaden our product suite, including our upcoming Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) module, we are looking for an experienced technology leader to drive this growth. This is a unique opportunity to work directly with the Founder, a seasoned entrepreneur who previously sold his company to a global information services firm and led global technology businesses for multinational organizations.

Role Description:

We are seeking a dynamic Head of Product & Engineering to drive the strategic direction of our product and technology roadmap. This role requires a highly versatile individual with a strong product and technical background in C#, .NET, SQL, and Azure who can interpret customer needs, provide innovative solutions, and lead engineering efforts to scale our SaaS platform.

The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in software architecture, cloud infrastructure, and secure development practices and experience managing engineering teams in a fast-paced environment. You will be responsible for leading and mentoring the development team, defining the technology strategy, and ensuring compliance with privacy and information access regulations.

Additionally, you will be actively involved in customer engagements, professional services projects, and technical support tasks to ensure the delivery of scalable, secure, and high-performing solutions. A key component of this role is leveraging AI-assisted development to enhance engineering productivity and efficiency.

We are a small, agile team, and we need someone with a technical co-founder mindset—someone who takes ownership, thrives in an evolving environment, and is excited to drive innovation. The ideal candidates has held a similar role in a small, fast growing technology company.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Product & Technology Strategy

    • Define and execute the technology and product roadmap, ensuring alignment with business goals.
    • Identify emerging technologies and AI-assisted development tools to accelerate innovation and optimize engineering workflows.
    • Ensure compliance with privacy laws and information access regulations.

    Engineering Leadership & Oversight

    • Lead and mentor a small, high-impact engineering team, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous learning.
    • Provide technical oversight, ensuring software architecture, infrastructure, and system scalability meet industry standards.
    • Guide best practices in secure coding, cloud architecture, and DevOps.
    • Conduct code reviews, architectural assessments, and security audits to ensure quality.
    • Help troubleshoot and unblock the development team when needed, but not as a primary developer.

    Customer Engagement & Professional Services

    • Act as a technical liaison in customer meetings, understanding business requirements and translating them into technical solutions.
    • Lead professional services projects, developing custom integrations and specialized solutions.
    • Provide high-level technical support and guidance, ensuring customer satisfaction.

    AI-Driven Innovation & Process Optimization

    • Leverage AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor) to improve development efficiency.
    • Automate repetitive tasks, debugging, documentation, and test case generation.
    • Explore AI-driven privacy features to be included in Vayle’s platform.

Technical Expertise:

  • 7+ years of experience in software development, with at least 2 years in a technical leadership role.
  • 5+ years of experience in a technical product leadership role.
  • Strong expertise in C# and .NET (Framework and Core).
  • Strong MS SQL Server skills, including database design and optimization.
  • Experience designing and building RESTful APIs.
  • Proficiency with Azure cloud services, including infrastructure, deployment, and security.
  • Proficiency with Git version control and Azure DevOps CI/CD.
  • Knowledge of secure coding practices and cloud security principles.
  • Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, etc.).

Leadership & Product Management:

  • Experience leading small, agile development teams.
  • Strong ability to interpret customer needs and translate them into product features.
  • Comfortable working across engineering, sales, UX, and customer support.
  • Excellent communication, mentoring, and decision-making skills.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience in privacy compliance software or working with government/public sector clients.
  • Background as a technical leader in a small and radily growing technology firm.
  • Familiarity with FOI, privacy, and security regulations.
  • Prior startup experience or experience in a high-growth SaaS environment.

Background Checks:

  • Must be willing to undergo a police background check.

Compensation:

  • We offer a competitive salary, bonus plan and stock option plan.
  • To apply for this position, please email your resume to [email protected]

Location:

  • Our office is conveniently located at Yonge and Davisville, adjacent to the TTC subway station.

To apply for this position, please apply via the recruiting platform displaying this posting or email your resume to [email protected].