Technical Manager II
Location: Ottawa, ON | Hybrid
Department: R&D Infrastructure
Reports To: Sean O'Hagan, [Director of Engineering]
Type: Permanent | Full-Time
About Solink
At Solink, our mission is to safeguard what matters most. We provide businesses with the tools to know sooner and act faster by transforming video security into real-time operational insights.
Our cloud-based platform integrates seamlessly with your existing cameras and systems, turning them into intelligent sensors that detect and interpret key moments. This empowers teams to make data-driven decisions, enhance security, and improve operational efficiency.
Trusted by over 30,000 locations across 32+ countries - including brands like McDonald’s and JYSK - Solink delivers clarity when it counts. Our solutions help businesses reduce shrink, optimize performance, and respond proactively to potential threats.
We're growing rapidly, earning industry recognition, and scaling with purpose. We’ve been recognized by Deloitte’s Fast 50™ and Fast 500™, Business Intelligence Group, and as one of Ottawa’s Best Places to Work. And we’re just getting started!
The Role
We're looking for an Engineering Manager to lead the technical teams within our Device Management group. This team is responsible for building performant, scalable, and user-friendly solutions at the heart of Solink's platform. This team owns the edge platform software and cloud systems that interact with hundreds of thousands of IoT devices in the field, spanning APIs built in Rust, interfaces built in React, and cloud-native infrastructure that scales globally.
This is a leadership role for someone who can balance hands-on technical direction with people management and people leader development. You'll set technical strategy, translate business requirements into actionable plans, and build a high-performing team while partnering with the Product Management team and the Architecture team to guide major decisions, unblock your engineers, and hold a high technical bar. You'll partner closely with Product, Design, and other Engineering teams to ship features and scale them across a rapidly growing customer base. Hiring is a major focus for this role given our rate of growth and is a key responsibility.
What You’ll Do
Technical Leadership & Strategy
- Lead the technical strategy and execution for the Device Management team, spanning IoT device platform, configuration, monitoring, and deployment tools.
- Guide the design, delivery, and quality of embedded components and cloud services using Rust, TypeScript, and Node.js in a k8s/serverless AWS/GCP environment (Lambda, DynamoDB, SQS, Kinesis).
- Translate business requirements into technical strategies, planning, sizing, and estimating solutions in partnership with product and cross-functional R&D teams.
- Drive planning, design sessions, and code reviews, and hold the team to strong engineering practices around system architecture, clean code, observability, and performance optimization.
- Support monitoring, alerting, and production troubleshooting to ensure system reliability, and operation.
- Use agile methodologies (Jira, Kanban) to drive projects from concept to production, balancing research, production support, long term improvements, and feature development.
Cross-Team & Process Ownership
- Lead your team in designing workflows that connect cleanly across teams, tools, and operating layers, reducing fragmentation with cross-functional partners.
- Coach your team to design solutions that prevent recurring issues rather than just fixing them after the fact and requiring manual intervention.
- Actively contribute to cross-functional system improvements across the department.
- Partner on cross-functional projects, own parts of or entire initiatives, and provide clear, timely updates on key milestones.
AI-Enabled Ways of Working
- Develop repeatable AI-native workflows and support their adoption within your team and with cross-functional partners, including the impact of these levers in performance feedback and assessment.
- Evaluate which AI tools are appropriate for different use cases and understand their limitations.
- Continuously integrate AI into shared processes where it improves outcomes and reduces friction.
- Mentor peers on effective and responsible use of AI in day-to-day engineering work.
Ownership & Accountability
- Own outcomes across your team and any cross-functional initiatives you're part of.
- Address failures transparently, and guide your team to focus on system-level improvement rather than blame.
- Improve standards and mechanisms across the team to reduce recurring issues.
- Realign your team quickly and reliably when priorities shift.
People Leadership
- Create an environment where everyone on the team can perform at their best and the whole team performs at their mutual best together.
- Identify talent gaps and proactively hire or develop to ensure all team members are strong and that we raise the overall performance of the team over time.
- Proactively address performance issues, ensuring feedback is documented, understood, and applied consistently.
- Develop leaders on your team and create clear growth paths for all team members.
- Mentor developers, and coach other managers or leads to become mentors.
- Advocate for your team's needs with senior leadership, and balance team priorities against department objectives.
What You Bring
Must-Have:
- 3+ years in a technical management role, with a genuine passion for mentoring and developing teams.
- 5+ years of full-stack development experience, with deep technical knowledge in embedded and scaled product environments.
- Strong proficiency across the stack, ideally including React, TypeScript, and Rust or C, with a solid understanding of API design, system performance, and scalability.
- Familiarity with serverless cloud infrastructure and Infrastructure as Code tools such as CDK, Terraform, or Serverless.
- Strong systems thinker with experience designing distributed, resilient, high-performance services.
- Skilled in agile project execution (Jira, Kanban), with the ability to plan, size, and estimate work in partnership with product and R&D.
- A strategic and analytical thinker — organized, process-driven, and comfortable using experimentation to drive continuous improvement.
- A strong communicator who actively listens, collaborates, and fosters open discussion to reach the best technical and business outcomes quickly.
- An empathetic, inclusive leader who values team input, encourages innovation, and drives collaborative decision-making.
Nice-to-Have:
- Experience with IoT device communication and device management.
- Experience with database design and optimization, not just implementation.
- Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, production monitoring tools, and observability practices.
- Background in DevSecOps, cloud cost optimization, or infrastructure performance tuning.
- Experience with Snowflake, Elasticsearch, or other cloud-native data platforms.
- Exposure to event-driven architectures (e.g., Kinesis, Kafka) and real-time data processing.
- Contributions to open-source projects or publications.
- Prior experience in fast-growing, dynamic environments.
Security Requirements
- Candidates must undergo a criminal records check upon hire.
- Candidates will be required to attend at least one (1) in-person interview at the Ottawa office.
- Must be a Canadian citizen (dual citizens included) or eligible to work in Canada.
- Must be willing to comply with Solink's security policies and standards.
- Mandatory onboarding in Ottawa during the first week of employment.
- Periodic in-person visits required (quarterly basis).
Our Values
We do things the Solink way:
- Act with URGENCY – Our customers move fast, so we do too.
- Deliver with QUALITY – We sweat the details and hold a high bar.
- Win with TEAM – No egos. Just outcomes, built together.
- Lead with TRUST – We earn it through clarity, consistency, and care.
These aren’t just words—they shape how we hire, lead, and grow.
Why Solink?
We’re not just building tech - we’re building a place where great people do great work.
- Clarity and trust: Where the role allows, we support flexibility in how and where work gets done - and we’re upfront about what’s required.
- Meaningful equity: Every full-time, permanent employee has a stake in our growth.
- Comprehensive benefits: Fully paid health & dental (no waiting period) + $500 health spending account.
- Wellness support: Monthly reimbursement for fitness, wellness, or mental health programs.
- Growth through merit: Advancement is based on contribution, initiative, and the ability to raise the bar - together.
- Candid culture: Clear expectations, honest feedback, and no politics.
- Social connection: From So-learns to Solink-o and So-lunches, we stay connected in ways that actually feel fun.
What to Expect from the Hiring Process
We respect your time and value transparency. Here’s a general idea of what to expect:
- Intro call with our Talent Team
- Interview with the Hiring Manager
- Team Cross Functional Interview
- Final CTO Interview
- Reference Checks
- Offer & onboarding 🎉
Please note: this is subject to change at any point in the recruitment process based on the needs of the business.
How to Apply
Submit your resume and a short cover letter via our [Careers Page]. Let us know what excites you about this role, and how you’d help move Solink forward.
NOTICE: Solink uses artificial intelligence (AI) to screen, assess, and/or select candidates for this position.
Solink is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. If you require accommodation during the selection process, please let us know.
