Lead Software Engineer

The Lead Software Engineer will be responsible for the design, development (new and upgrades), and support of a range of applications at Ontario Health. They are considered a Lead within a specific business area of expertise or technical area of expertise where other developers on the team will reach out to for technical leadership, direction and mentoring. The Lead Software Engineer reviews and provides feedback on requirements, plays an active role in designing and selecting appropriate solutions and develops high quality code in collaboration with other software developers on the team. The Lead Software Engineer will technically lead the design and development of a project.

The Lead Software Engineer works within a cross-functional environment including team members such as Product Managers, Business Analysts, Quality Assurance Analysts, DevOps Engineers, and other Developers to help organize, prioritize, and execute various development activities, identify dependencies and risks and contribute to both long-term project and product development as well as shorter-term maintenance and support needs. They also maintain and foster excellent working relationships with leaders across Ontario Health.

Here is what you will be doing:

• Architect, design, code, test, build, maintain and support Enterprise Automated Testing Frameworks and other productivity enhancing tools and their hardware/infrastructure, that are used by many teams and helps improve their productivity.
• Fully responsible for the end to end product/automation tools delivery from concept to delivery and support in production.
• Lead small teams of developers whenever required as well as be the only developer.
• Guides and provides subject matter expertise to junior technical team members within the product delivery team and identifies and encourage areas for growth and improvement within the team.
• Participates in developing project scope, work breakdown structures, task sequence and priorities, and identifying required skill sets and resources .
• Acts as a technical mentor and advisor, leads, and guides the team through the system development life cycle, such as gathering and reviewing requirements, playing an active role and takes the lead in designing and selecting appropriate solutions, writing and implementing system specifications, identifying any risks and issues, and evaluating impact and supporting the testing, productization, and release processes.
• Delivers the best user experiences possible and is accountable for the quality of the products and services delivered to their customers. Engages clients, both internal and external, to gain a deeper understanding of their product domain and to assist them in the identification of the root cause of issues. Support the clients/end-users in their activities and resolve their issues.
• Acts as lead resource on project teams responsible for most aspects of the system development life cycle deliverables, including client interaction, technical design, and development, testing etc.
• Performs size, break down, and estimate development activities, in user points or hours.
• Tracks development tasks in the application lifecycle management tool (Azure DevOps) and provide relevant reporting when needed.
• Performs code reviews and walkthroughs of system design and developed code.
• Provides input to the product roadmaps by developing an in-depth understanding of the immediate and future client business needs and identifies opportunities for improvement of business and development processes, related architectural and solution frameworks, and the overall direction of services.
• Develops technical solutions that meet client business requirements, this could include new or changed workflows, web services, web applications, etc.
• Consults with business units and projects in identifying, documenting, and evaluating options for the delivery of solutions to client business requirements.
• Researches and evaluates the feasibility of proposed solution architecture and technologies related to a business change and ensure consistency and integration with existing and planned architectures as well as business strategies.
• Applies a risk-based approach to design and development, communicating to team, considering options for their mitigation within the constraints of the timeline.
• Ensures application performance metrics are well-defined and delivered.
• Develops and delivers presentations to clients, steering committees etc. on proposed approaches to addressing client and deliverable and to facilitate understanding of technical solutions by business audiences using non-technical terms and link proposed solutions to overall business vision.
• Provides input to the product roadmaps by developing an in-depth understanding of the immediate and future client business needs.
• Identifies opportunities for improvement of business and development processes, related architectural and software frameworks, and the overall direction of services.
• Champions change across the team's engineering practices as well as external team practices to improve the team's cycle time as well as lead time for the team's product backlog.
• Leads the changes in the adoption of new engineering practices across the team as well as other engineering teams.
• Anticipates architectural inefficiencies and technological blockers in short term and long-term product roadmaps. Works with multiple departments to overcome these challenges.
• Independently engages and actively participates in team discussions with product management teams to recommend product features and changes to product features to improve the user experience, operation and maintainability of the product.
• Collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to ensure effectiveness of solutions.
• Leads internal peer collaboration to ensure alignment of practices, patterns, and solutions.
• Supports development of software engineering roadmaps and long-term strategies aligned to direction from Product Management.
• Stays abreast of evolving technologies and makes recommendations on emerging directions for peer education.
• Makes decisions where results have a critical impact across the organization requiring sophistical solutions and long-term correction.

Here is what you will need to be successful:

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering or related field or equivalent experience, is required.
• 7 - 10 years of extensive solution development experience including architecting, technical design, development, application analysis, work breakdown and estimation, complex dependency management.
• Extensive experience in OO Analysis, Design, Programming in JAVA and Relational DB(Oracle,SQL Server) and Mongo DB.
• Extensive experience in developing Enterprise level Test Automation Frameworks.
• Strong experience in Gauge, Selenium, Maven, Tomcat, Spring, Spring Boot, Git/Gitlab, Gitlab pipelines, CI/CD, DevOps.
• Strong experience in Web technologies Web Services, Web Apps, HTML/ CSS/JavaScript, XML/JSON
• Strong experience with Java/.NET platforms, Kafka, MQ, Windows, Linux, Unix, Redis, Windows/Linux Shell scripting
• Strong experience with containers/Cloud technology (Docker or Podman, Kubernetes, Openshift, AWS/Azure)
• Prior experience in a leadership role (i.e., technical, or direct reports) is an asset.
• Advanced knowledge and experience with distributed system solution development and Agile development methodologies.
• Extensive experience supporting critical business applications and end-users in a production environment.
• Strong experience in working with legacy codes where little documentation is available.
• Experience in continuous integration and continuous deployment or DevOps is an asset.
• Extensive experience in secure software development and all aspects of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
• Subject matter expert of relevant software development tools and frameworks.
• Knowledge of privacy legislation, regulations (specifically the Protection of Personal Health Information Act, Ontario 2004) and Ontario Health policies, procedures, guidelines, and communication material relevant to the protection of confidential information
• Knowledge of relational database development techniques.
• Knowledge in system administration and networking (i.e., Windows Server, Linux, IP, firewall)

Knowledge and Skills

• Ability to work independently as a 1 man team doing both development role and operations support role is key to this position.
• Ability to work with legacy codes/systems where there is little documentation available.
• A very strong technical background and an expert level development background are needed to be successful.
• Ability to make decisions where results have a critical impact across the organization.
• Strong written and oral communication skills to develop and deliver presentations to clients and steering committees, lead and guide the team through the system development life cycle, influence and/or negotiate with stakeholders with conflicting goals and priorities, discuss and incorporate stakeholder's feedback, and clearly communicate issues found and solutions.
• Excellent debugging, problem-solving, and analytical skills to evaluate the feasibility of proposed solution architecture and technologies, identify/anticipate architectural inefficiencies and technological blockers, identify opportunities for improvement of business and development processes.
• Ability to translate software requirements into programming code through to usable application.
• Ability to develop technical solutions that meet client business requirements, this could include new or changed workflows, web services, web applications, etc.
• Ability to identify, document and evaluate options for the delivery of solutions to client business requirements. Researches and evaluates the feasibility of proposed solution architecture and technologies related to a business change and ensures consistency and integration with existing and planned architectures as well as business strategies.
• Ability to apply a risk-based approach to design and development, communicating to team, considering options for their mitigation within the constraints of the timeline.
• A team player with a deep commitment to contributing to team success.
• Ability to work well with end users from different disciplines with varying degrees of business experience.
• Ability to work with a high level of autonomy in collaboration with Architecture and Product Management teams.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with multiple priorities while maintaining high attention to detail and accuracy.
• Ability to perform different types of Industry standard application testing.
• Ability to act as a subject matter expert and technical mentor and advisor, and lead and guide the team through the system development life cycle.,
• Capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically within and across portfolios, with some external stakeholders, technical partners, and customers.

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Location: Ontario (currently hybrid; subject to change)

All applicants must be a resident of Ontario to be considered for roles at Ontario Health.

Ontario Health encourages applications from candidates who are First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and urban Indigenous; Francophone; members of Black and racialized groups; 2SLGBTQIA+ communities; trans and nonbinary individuals; and people living with disabilities.

Ontario Health is an accessible employer, and we offer accommodation in all aspects of employment, including the recruitment process. If you require a disability related accommodation in order to participate in the recruitment process, please email careers@ontariohealth.ca and a member of the team will connect with you within 48 hours.