Engineering Team Lead

At Semperis, our mission is to be a Force for Good. Starting with being a great place to work. We believe that when people feel valued, supported, and empowered, they do their best work. That’s why we focus on creating an employee experience rooted in purpose, growth, and balance. Semperis has been recognized as one of America’s Fastest-Growing Cybersecurity Companies by the Inc. 5000, a DUNS 100 Top Startup to Work For, and a multi-year Inc. Best Workplace awardee.

Be part of our hybrid team in the Toronto region—work on-site in Toronto, ON two days per week.

About Ready1
Ready1 is Semperis' enterprise crisis management platform designed to bring order to chaos during cyber crises. We unify preparedness, incident response, and recovery in a single, secure SaaS solution that functions even when primary infrastructure is down. Ready1 bridges IT, business, and compliance - providing real-time coordination across security, legal, operations, and leadership during the moments that matter most.

Our technology stack: .NET, Azure, Kubernetes, Microservices, Vue.js, CosmosDB, Postgres Service Bus, Event Grid, SignalR

The Opportunity
We're building a brand new engineering team for Ready1, and we need a hands-on technical leader to build it from the ground up. This isn't a traditional management role - you'll be writing code, establishing architectural patterns, and setting technical standards while simultaneously recruiting and developing your team.

Role Evolution
This role will evolve as your team grows:

Months 1-6: Approximately 50% hands-on development - writing foundational code, establishing architectural patterns, building initial codebases for new features, and setting quality benchmarks
Months 6+: Transition to 10-20% coding as you hire and onboard team members - focusing on critical technical decisions, code reviews, architectural guidance, and team leadership
We're looking for a technical leader who thrives in this builder-to-leader transition and is excited about shaping both a product and a team.

What You'll Be Doing:
Technical Leadership (Hands-On)

• Write production-quality code for new Ready1 features and microservices, especially during team formation

• Establish architectural patterns and technical standards for the Ready1 platform

• Design and build initial codebases for new services to set quality and performance benchmarks

• Conduct in-depth code reviews with technical insight, mentorship, and constructive feedback

• Solve complex technical challenges hands-on alongside your team

• Drive technical excellence through best practices, design patterns, and engineering standards

• Collaborate with existing Ready1 teams to ensure consistency, integration, and knowledge sharing

• Lead technical design sessions and architecture discussions with Product Management, UX/UI, and Backend Engineering teams

Team Building & Leadership

• Recruit, hire, and onboard talented software engineers to build your team from scratch

• Build a strong team culture focused on accountability, ownership, continuous learning, and collaboration

• Coach and develop team members through mentorship, pair programming, and career growth conversations

• Foster an environment where engineers are empowered to make decisions and take ownership

• Remove obstacles and resolve conflicts to keep your team productive and focused

• Delivery & Operations

• Lead Agile/Scrum development following SDLC best practices with full transparency and traceability

• Plan and execute product releases for your team's features and services

• Track progress against schedules and budgets, communicating status and taking corrective action proactively

• Define and monitor KPIs for development velocity, quality, and team health

• Collaborate cross-functionally with Product Management, UX/UI, other engineering teams, and stakeholders

• Participate in on-call rotation to support Ready1 production operations

• Contribute to process evolution and drive continuous improvement across engineering practices

What You'll Bring

• 2+ years of direct management of software development teams

• 5+ years of hands-on software development experience with recent, active coding

• Strong proficiency in .NET/C# with demonstrated ability to write production-quality code

• Deep experience with Azure cloud services: AKS (Kubernetes), CosmosDB, Service Bus, Event Grid, SignalR, or similar Azure

• PaaS services

• Microservices architecture expertise: designing, building, deploying, and operating distributed systems

• Modern DevOps practices: CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code, containerization, automated testing

• Agile/Scrum methodology experience in fast-paced product development environments

• Proven track record of delivering enterprise SaaS products on time with high quality

• Strong leadership and communication skills: ability to inspire, motivate, and provide clear technical direction

• Collaboration and conflict resolution abilities across technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field (or equivalent experience)

Bonus Points

• Experience building engineering teams from scratch in high-growth or startup environments

• Knowledge of enterprise identity, security, or crisis management domains

• Understanding of security best practices for enterprise software and compliance requirements (SEC, DORA, CIRCIA)

• Experience with data-driven decision making and engineering metrics

• Open-source contributions or active participation in technical communities

• Track record of successfully transitioning from IC to leadership roles while maintaining technical depth

• Experience with event-driven architectures and real-time communication systems

• Frontend development experience with modern JavaScript frameworks (Vue.js, React, or Angular)

What We Offer

• Hybrid work model: 2 days per week on-site in Toronto, flexibility for the rest

• Opportunity to build: Shape a team and product from the ground up

• Technical growth: Stay hands-on while developing leadership skills

• Impactful work: Build technology that helps organizations respond to and recover from cyber crises

• Collaborative culture: Work with talented engineers across multiple Ready1 teams

• Enablement and empowerment: We believe in giving teams the resources, accountability, and autonomy to succeed

Why Join Semperis?
You’ll be part of a global team on the front lines of cybersecurity innovation. At Semperis, we celebrate curiosity, integrity, and people who take initiative. If you’re someone who sees the glass as half full, embraces challenges as growth opportunities, and values a healthy balance between work and life—we’d love to meet you.

**Semperis maintains office locations in several cities across the globe. Candidates who reside within 45 miles of one of our offices—or where the job description specifies a required location—will follow our hybrid work model. This includes working onsite some days per week and remotely the remaining days.

Semperis is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee based on race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, sex (including gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), age, physical or mental disability, veteran or military status, genetic information, citizenship, marital status, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state, or local law. The information collected by the Semperis application is solely to determine suitability for employment, verify identity, and maintain employment statistics. 

Applicants with disabilities may be entitled to reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act and/or other applicable state or local laws. A reasonable accommodation is a change in the way things are normally done which will ensure an equal employment opportunity without imposing undue hardship on Semperis. Please inform Semperis representative Anna Taylor, Director of Global Recruiting, if you need assistance completing this application or to otherwise participate in the application process.