Lead Full Stack Software Engineer

Manulife • Waterloo, ON

13d • CA$113,260 - CA$210,340 • Hybrid

About The Position

Join our Canadian Retirement Technology team as a Lead Full Stack Software Engineer and play a key role in designing, delivering, and evolving digital capabilities that improve the experience of our customers and business partners. You will provide technical leadership across the software development lifecycle, partnering with product owners, architects, and engineering teams to build secure, scalable, and high-performing applications. You'll influence engineering practices, drive architectural decisions, and help foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• 2+ years of experience in a technical leadership, lead developer, or mentorship capacity.
• Strong hands-on experience with Java (Spring Boot) and React.
• Proven experience developing and operating cloud-native applications on Microsoft Azure.
• Strong understanding of microservices architecture, RESTful APIs, and distributed systems.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, DevOps practices, and infrastructure-as-code solutions.
• Expertise working with relational databases such as SQL Server and PostgreSQL.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and modern container-based deployment strategies.
• Strong understanding of software design principles, application security, and performance optimization.
• Demonstrated success mentoring engineers and fostering technical excellence.
• Experience leading architecture discussions and evaluating technical trade-offs.
• Ability to establish and maintain high standards for code quality, testing, documentation, and operational excellence.
• Strong Agile delivery experience, including sprint planning, estimation, and retrospectives.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience coordinating across multiple teams and managing cross-functional dependencies.

Nice To Haves

• Pragmatic and outcome-focused, with a balanced approach to technology adoption.
• Passionate about continuous improvement, learning, and innovation.
• Committed to quality-first engineering practices, including TDD and automation.
• Values collaboration, transparency, accountability, and customer-centric thinking.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and delivery of full-stack applications using Java (Spring Boot) and React.
• Architect and build scalable cloud-native solutions on Microsoft Azure, leveraging services such as AKS, App Service, Azure SQL, and Service Bus.
• Guide engineering teams through architecture reviews, technical decision-making, and implementation best practices.
• Mentor and coach developers through code reviews, pair programming, and ongoing technical leadership.
• Promote software quality through automated testing, observability, and modern engineering practices.
• Partner closely with business and technology stakeholders to translate requirements into innovative technology solutions.
• Drive DevOps adoption, CI/CD automation, and infrastructure-as-code practices.
• Support production systems, troubleshoot complex issues, and lead efforts to improve reliability and performance.
• Balance delivery priorities with long-term architectural health and technical debt management.
• Contribute to hiring and talent development efforts to build a high-performing engineering organization.

Benefits

• health, dental, mental health, vision, short- and long-term disability, life and AD&D insurance coverage, adoption/surrogacy and wellness benefits, and employee/family assistance plans.
• various retirement savings plans (including pension and a global share ownership plan with employer matching contributions) and financial education and counseling resources.
• generous paid time off program in Canada includes holidays, vacation, personal, and sick days, and we offer the full range of statutory leaves of absence.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed