Director, Engineering and Innovation

RBC•Toronto, ON

4d•Onsite

About The Position

This is a strategic technology investment position accountable for building enterprise-wide platforms and capabilities that don't yet exist, de-risking emerging technologies (quantum, quantum-hybrid solutions, GenAI, ML platforms) and making them production-ready before product teams need them. It operates as RBC's internal innovation catalyst—bridging the gap between startup agility and enterprise scale, and creating reusable assets that accelerate delivery across all lines of business, multiplying engineering productivity bank-wide. Success in this role is measured by time-to-market acceleration across the enterprise, platform adoption rates, cost avoidance through reusable capabilities, and speed of innovation-to-production. RBC is making a deliberate investment in innovation infrastructure—the foundational capabilities that allow the bank to experiment faster, scale smarter, and compete with digital-native fintechs. The Director of Engineering, Innovation leads RBC's enterprise Innovation Engineering function within Technology and Operations. This role requires startup thinking at enterprise scale—the ability to move fast, experiment, fail forward, and pivot, while ensuring everything you build meets the bank's rigorous standards for security, compliance, and resilience.

Requirements

Startup or 0-to-1 Product Experience: You've built something new from the ground up—ideally in a startup, scale-up, or high-growth environment where you wore multiple hats, moved fast, and shipped products customers loved. You understand what it takes to go from idea to production quickly while managing uncertainty.
Enterprise-Scale Production Engineering: You've taken innovations from PoC to production at scale in complex, regulated, or high-stakes environments (financial services, healthcare, critical infrastructure). You know how to balance speed with high availability, performance, security, observability, and compliance.
Deep Technical Fluency: Cloud platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP), Kubernetes, microservices, APIs, MCPs, event streaming; Data & AI platforms: ML Ops, feature stores, model governance, LLM/GenAI deployment and guardrails; Modern SDLC: CI/CD, GitOps, SRE, platform engineering, developer experience tooling
An interest in new technologies and the initiative to try new frameworks out for yourself e.g., early quantum software, or building MCP tooling
Strategic & Financial Acumen: You think like a Chief Technology Strategist—balancing experimentation with risk, cost, and value. You can build roadmaps, prioritize a portfolio of bets, and articulate ROI to executives.
Cross-Functional Leadership: You’ve led across silos—partnering with product, architecture, security, risk, data science, and business stakeholders. You’re equally comfortable presenting to a CTO and pair-programming with an engineer.
People Leadership: 7+ years of progressive leadership in software/platform engineering with 5+ years managing senior engineers and architects. You've built teams from scratch, attracted top talent, and developed future leaders.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent.

Nice To Haves

Graduate degree in a related field (Computer Science, Engineering, Business)
Financial services experience in large-scale, global organizations; familiarity with regulatory frameworks (OSFI, model risk, SOX, privacy laws)
Startup ecosystem exposure: worked at or with startups, VCs, accelerators; understand how to evaluate early-stage tech and de-risk partnerships
Open-source contributions, patents, or publications—evidence of thought leadership and technical depth
Design Thinking / human-centered design expertise; product management exposure
Track record of platform adoption: you've built tools or platforms that were voluntarily adopted by hundreds of engineers

Responsibilities

Define and execute the enterprise Innovation Engineering strategy and multi-year roadmap, converting business opportunities into scalable platforms, services, and capabilities
Stand up net-new, reusable capabilities (e.g., quantum-hybrid solution frameworks, GenAI guardrails, developer experience tooling, experimentation sandboxes, MCP/event-streaming platforms) that accelerate delivery for product teams bank-wide
Establish the discovery-to-delivery pipeline with clear stage gates: ideation → proof of concept → pilot → production rollout → adoption & scaling; define success metrics and benefit realization frameworks
Partner with all Lines of Business, Enterprise Architecture, Global Security, Risk, AI Group, and Digital channels to surface demand, prioritize innovation investments, and ensure alignment to target-state architecture
Act as RBC's innovation broker—translating emerging tech trends (GenAI, distributed ledger technology, open banking, quantum) into concrete opportunities and socializing new capabilities across the bank to drive adoption
Evaluate cutting-edge technologies from startups, vendors, and academic institutions; assess technical feasibility, security implications, and build-vs-buy trade-offs
Stay ahead of the curve—attend conferences, engage with open-source communities, and identify emerging trends early
Embed engineering excellence into every innovation: SDLC compliance, architecture patterns, privacy-by-design, responsible AI, and security-first development
Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, model risk frameworks, and information security controls; manage audits, remediation, and control attestation
Build, coach, and inspire a high-performing, diverse team of senior engineers and architects who think like founders but operate at enterprise scale
Attract top talent from startups, scale-ups, and leading tech companies—people who have built 0-to-1 products and want to apply that mindset in a bank
Foster a culture of experimentation, learning, and intelligent failure—where teams ship fast, measure, iterate, and aren't afraid to kill ideas that don't work
Establish OKRs and KPIs specific to innovation: time-to-first-value, platform adoption/reuse rates, experimentation velocity, cost efficiency, reliability, and downstream productivity gains
Report progress to senior leadership with a portfolio governance lens—tracking investments, ROI, and strategic alignment
Oversee budgets and program execution to deliver outcomes on time, on scope, and on budget

Benefits

bonuses
flexible benefits
competitive compensation
commissions
stock where applicable
Leaders who support your development through coaching and managing opportunities
Ability to make a difference and lasting impact
Work in a dynamic, collaborative, progressive, and high-performing team
A world-class training program in financial services
Opportunities to do challenging work.