Lead Software Engineer (JAVA, API)

Sun Life • Toronto, ON

2d • CA$90,000 - CA$140,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Our teams are dedicated to supporting, enhancing, and discovering new ways to help our clients achieve lifetime financial security, live healthier lives, and connect with us. Through innovation and collaboration, we're striving to deliver best-in-class technology solutions for our digital clients. We are currently seeking a Squad Tech Lead to provide technical design, development, support, and analysis for large-scale applications and systems in a new agile team within the Canadian IT Platforms and Engineering team. This permanent role combines hands-on technical work with leadership responsibilities. The successful candidate is a team player with excellent technical and problem-solving skills, is aware of industry trends, questions the status quo, and can identify and propose alternatives. Come join us as we continue to intensify the focus on our digital journey, building APIs and improving our client experience.

Requirements

• Minimum 8 to 10 years of progressive information technology experience with full application development life cycle and systems integration experience.
• Demonstrated experience leading and mentoring teams of developers.
• Proven experience with AI-assisted development tools, particularly GitHub Copilot, and ability to train teams on effective AI pair programming techniques.
• Hands-on experience designing, developing, and deploying AI agents using agent orchestration platforms.
• Working knowledge of Large Language Models (LLMs), prompt engineering, and integrating AI APIs.
• Experience building conversational interfaces, chatbots, or intelligent automation solutions that enhance user experiences.
• Good application security knowledge with demonstrated experience identifying and remediating security vulnerabilities (OWASP Top 10, SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, authentication/authorization flaws).
• Hands-on experience with security scanning tools (e.g., SonarQube, Checkmarx, Snyk, Veracode) and implementing security fixes.
• Understanding of secure SDLC practices, threat modeling, and security testing methodologies.
• Expert-level knowledge of Java and Spring Boot.
• Strong experience with Microservices and API Development.
• Advanced understanding and hands-on experience with front-end development, particularly React and Web Accessibility.
• Containerization experience with Docker and Kubernetes.
• Advanced overall understanding of Web applications and server technologies.
• Working experience with middleware technologies, web and web hosting technologies.
• Experience with Kafka.
• Proficiency with SOAP/XML, REST/JSON.
• Experience with Unit testing tools (e.g., JUnit, Mockito, RESTAssured).
• Hands-on experience using DevOps tools (BitBucket, CDD, Jenkins).
• Understanding of JavaScript and JQuery.
• Ability and desire to lead with excellent communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with skilled Agile team members to understand user needs and design, develop, and deliver high-quality web applications that meet those needs.
• Configure and design applications and workflows, using outside-the-box thinking, to create innovative ways to advance our client-first strategy.
• Lead AI-assisted development practices, leveraging GitHub Copilot and other AI coding tools to accelerate development velocity and improve code quality.
• Design, develop, and integrate AI agents and conversational interfaces to enhance application capabilities and deliver intelligent automation solutions.
• Champion secure coding practices and lead efforts to identify, prioritize, and remediate application security vulnerabilities using SAST/DAST tools.
• Conduct security code reviews and ensure compliance with security standards and best practices throughout the development lifecycle.
• Coach, mentor, and collaborate with members of the design and development team.
• Provide technical direction and guidance to projects, ensuring risks are mitigated and projects are implemented successfully.
• Establish coding standards and technical best practices across the squad.
• Conduct code reviews and mentor team members on technical excellence.
• Support developers in removing technical blockers and guide technical implementation of user stories and features.
• Communicate technical risks, dependencies, and constraints to stakeholders.
• Participate in planning and refinement sessions with a technical perspective and collaborate with Product Owner on technical feasibility and estimates.
• Drive quality standards and testing practices; identify technical debt and propose solutions.
• Monitor system performance and reliability and champion continuous improvement initiatives.
• Contribute to defining timelines and plans; analyze and estimate feasibility, cost, time, and scope.
• Ensure coding, testing, debugging, and implementation activities are completed as required.
• Participate in agile ceremonies and support on-call and incident response when needed.
• Represent the squad's technical interests in cross-squad discussions and collaborate with other Tech Leads across squads for consistency.

Benefits

• Wellness programs that support the three pillars of your health – mental, physical, and financial.
• The opportunity to move along a variety of career paths with amazing networking potential.
• As a hybrid organization, you and your leader use business and Client needs to choose where you work, at home or in the office.

What This Job Offers

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