Lab Leader – Agentic AI

SIA Innovations INC•Montreal, QC

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Lab Leader is responsible for SIA's LAB division and its internal products: Agile+, MIRE, and Common Sense. The mandate is threefold: evolve these tools so they create real value for our teams and clients, guarantee the delivery quality of all LAB development activities, and promote SIA’s LAB services to the marketplace and to IBM. This role is cross-cutting: you are not attached to any specific studio. Your influence extends across all of SIA's studios and delivery teams.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
6 to 10 years of experience in enterprise application development
Hands-on experience in several of the following areas: containers / clusters (Red Hat OpenShift, Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD (Jenkins, Bamboo, UrbanCode, Buddy), monitoring (ELK, Logdna, Prometheus), development (NodeJS, Java, React), databases (CloudantDB, MongoDB, DB2, MySQL)
Experience with product or backlog management (e.g., ClickUp) and Agile methodologies
Full professional bilingualism in French and English, spoken and written
Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical issues for varied audiences
Discipline, organization, and the ability to manage multiple concurrent priorities
Integrity: you say what you mean and do what you say
Leadership by example and technical credibility, not by title
A collaborative mindset and a knack for building relationships across teams
Systems thinking: you understand how technical and organizational components influence one another
Structured problem-solving in the face of ambiguous challenges
An agile learner, able to quickly absorb new tools and contexts

Nice To Haves

Experience with AI or automation projects is an asset

Responsibilities

Define and evolve the product vision for Agile+, Mire, and Common Sense
Identify continuous-improvement opportunities across our development processes and tools
Build and maintain a library of reusable components and best practices for the LAB
Contribute to internal R&D initiatives and SIA's intellectual property
Ensure the quality standards defined for the LAB translate concretely into client deliverables
Translate studio and client needs into clear priorities for the internal products' roadmap
Document and communicate the LAB's quality standards and development processes
Support development teams across all studios without direct hierarchical authority — through coaching and example
Coach and guide the development team through the LAB's and the SDLC's evolution from “doing” to “thinking,” notably through the adoption of agentic AI tools like IBM Bob
Contribute actively to business development: demos, proposals, and RFPs showcasing our internal products, as well as promoting SIA online (social media presence) and in person (networking, events, volunteering)
Help onboard new developers to the LAB's tools and practices
Lead internal “Cool Stuff to Know” sessions on LAB products and best practices
Maintain ongoing awareness of tools, methodologies, and technologies relevant to the LAB
Contribute to solutions that are durable, robust, and well documented
Take full ownership of LAB outcomes, with autonomy over product and quality decisions
Manage the full lifecycle of internal products: prioritization, delivery, adoption, continuous improvement
Support studio teams in achieving their quality goals, without taking over their work