VP of Software Engineering

About CoLab

At CoLab, we help mechanical engineering teams bring life-changing products to market years sooner.

CoLab is the AI platform for driving stronger engineering decisions. Every design review in CoLab builds a knowledge repository of design feedback, decisions, and lessons learned - which AI agents draw from to flag issues on future designs before they compound. The more your team works in CoLab, the smarter it gets and the faster you arrive at the ideal design. Companies like Ford, Komatsu, and Johnson Controls use CoLab to catch issues earlier, eliminate rework cycles, and bring products to market faster.

Founded in St. John’s, Newfoundland, CoLab has grown quickly from our first customer in 2019 to a rapidly scaling company. We’ve recently been recognized on Deloitte’s Fast 50™ and Fast 500™, and named a Canadian company to watch by The Globe and Mail and Financial Post. 

About the Role

This role is for a high-impact engineering leader who has been in the trenches at fast-scaling startups — someone who has grown from individual contributor to leader and helped scale engineering orgs through multiple phases of growth. Ideally, you've done it more than once.

As VP of Software Engineering, you'll be responsible for building and maintaining a high-performing, scalable engineering organization across Product Development, Ops, and Technical Support. This is a role for someone who’s hands-on enough to spot an issue in a pull request, and strategic enough to influence long-term roadmap, product vision, and cross-functional priorities.

You'll partner closely with the Sr. Director of Product and the SVP of Design to ship great software faster, with fewer surprises. You'll also work directly with customers and support our GTM motion, stepping in when technical insight is needed on strategic deals or customer challenges.

Our Ideal Candidate

• You’ve helped scale at least one startup through a period of fast growth (Series A → C or similar), and ideally done it more than once.
• You’ve grown from IC to leadership, and know what it takes to help others do the same.
• You’re low ego, high respect. People seek out your input not because of your title, but because you are good at what you do, genuinely helpful and motivating to work with.
• You’re a builder at heart — pragmatic, resourceful, and relentlessly focused on outcomes.

What You’ll Do

• Lead Software Engineering within CoLab’s Product Development org
• Guide and grow our teams to improve quality, development speed and confidence
• Partner with Product to drive roadmap planning, resource allocation, and feasibility tradeoffs
• Ensure compliance with key standards (e.g. SOC 2, ISO) through a mature SDLC
• Set and manage operating metrics (e.g. uptime, velocity, quality, cost) that drive business value
• Help scale our team with world-class talent and build functions that support career growth across the team
• Collaborate across departments — from GTM to CS — to support technical enablement and customer success
• Join CoLab’s Senior Leadership Team and help shape company strategy across all areas of the business

What You’ll Bring

• Significant experience as a software developer, including on large-scale SaaS systems
• Experience with modern cloud tech stacks. Ours is: React, Python, GraphQL, Postgres, AWS
• Strong knowledge of AI solutions for software development and experience deploying AI coding solutions at scale
• 5+ years in engineering leadership roles, with experience managing managers
• Proven ability to scale teams and processes during periods of high growth
• Familiarity with building secure, compliant software in a regulated environment
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Experience directly supporting customer conversations and technical sales

Extra Details
Compensation: This is a full-time, permanent position with an attractive compensation package that includes a stock options package.
Benefits: This role offers an extended health and benefits package that includes unlimited paid vacation and RRSP matching.
Remote/Hybrid Work: Our main office location is in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada but this role has the flexibility to work from anywhere within North America.

Equity Note

Frequently cited statistics show that people who identify with historically marginalized groups are likely to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to help us break that statistic and apply even if you don’t meet every single qualification—your potential is what matters most to us.