Director, Software Development

Join us to build a more rewarding financial future for all Canadians

At Neo, we're on a mission to build a more rewarding financial future for all Canadians. Life at a rapidly expanding tech startup isn't for everyone. It's complex, fast-paced, high-pressure, but also incredibly fulfilling. Since its founding in 2019, Neo has gained incredible traction and is one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in Canada.

• 1 Fastest Growing Company in Canada for 2024 by Globe & Mail
  
• Deloitte's Fast 50 in Canada Winner for 2023 and 2024
• LinkedIn's Top Startup in Canada for 2022 and 2023
• Top-ranked mobile apps and credit cards
• Team of 700+ people
• 1M+ customers
• 10K+ retail partners

High Performance at Neo

We recruit, hire, and build our company culture around these attributes:

Teamwork: We trust, respect, encourage, and show up for each other — through good times and hard. We're on this mission not just for ourselves, but also for the people we work with — and ultimately, for our customers.

Ownership: We all have a stake in Neo's success — so we go out of our way to do what needs to get done. We hold ourselves accountable to deliver on our commitments — to our customers, to our partners, and to our team. When we fall short, we find a way to do better in the future.

Professional Integrity: We're asking millions of Canadians to trust us with their hard-earned money — so we hold ourselves (and each other) to the highest standards of integrity.

The Role

Neo Financial is looking for a full-time Director, Software Development, Lending to join our team in Calgary. This is a rare opportunity to build products used by millions of Canadians, to get in the door at Canada's fastest growing company and to lead development of one of the most sophisticated fintech platforms on earth

A successful Director at Neo is a charismatic, motivating, outgoing leader with expertise in management and in building software. We're looking for someone proactive yet pragmatic, who takes initiative, manages multiple priorities, and is the benchmark for effective execution at Neo.

As the Director overseeing Lending technology you would be responsible for technology teams and projects across our Credit Card or Mortgage products alongside future lending products and shared lending services such as Collections or Adjudication.

As a Director of Software Development, you will take ownership over one or more entire product areas, and have oversight over multiple engineering teams and ongoing projects. You will make your impact in these areas:

Strategic Impact

• Focus on the execution of our business and engineering-wide strategy and goals. A successful director will turn a strategic goal into a realistic plan for their own team(s).
• Be a "change manager"; provide clear plans to teams and managers in order to safely step through changes to our org design, our processes, tools, or to improve any area.
• Control where teams spend time; hold development teams accountable for using time on the right thing. Ensure that time being spent balances company goals and engineering needs.
• Rather than focusing on just going faster, find ways to motivate the team, brainstorm for input, and then deliver bigger and better results within time we have.
• Proactively bring credible improvement initiatives forward to the VP and CTO: new technologies, industry trends, opportunities to improve processes or culture.

Software Delivery

• Be accountable and involved in timely, quality software delivery: from planning and estimation to testing and releasing. Make sure we're clearly setting and hitting milestones and deadlines.
• Manage team capacity against delivery goals. Ensure the right levels of staffing and succession planning; execute weekly on recruiting, interviewing, and hiring tactics.
• Be responsible for the resilient operation of software including gathering metrics, alerting, bug count, uptime and security, but also effective on-call or incident response.
• Ensure we make the best technology and process decisions. Hold teams to best-practices and standards while involving experts and encouraging proposals to improve.
• Create transparency; maintain clear executive summaries for all stakeholders and representing all projects and your team status with documentation and data.

Coaching, Teamwork, Performance

• Utilize both management and technical skills, be ready to provide hands-on mentorship and career coaching with both managers and senior engineers.
• Set and raise the bar for performance, communicate what you expect from managers and ICs. Execute continuously on performance management to make us better
• Ensure that developers work collaboratively - within teams and across teams. Provide the framework and daily participation necessary to enable smooth and constant collaboration.
• Operate within our values, culture, policy, and strategies. Contextualize decisions and policies (e.g. from our People or Compliance teams) for teams to ensure we're meeting obligations.

So What Are We Looking For?

• At least 5 years of leadership experience on software development teams.
• At least 3 years leadership experience while managing through team leads or managers on software development teams.
• Prior hands-on experience in a top technical role - such as Senior Software Developer.
• Experience as a leader running (not just building) production software systems.
• Background with highly regulated or complex industries (finance, health, etc) is a plus.
• Appetite to lead from the front, and excitement to participate physically in-person.
• Ambition to do big things, be the best, and tackle the hardest challenges.
• Located in (or willing to quickly relocate to) Calgary AB.

Working at Neo:

The people who thrive at Neo are resourceful, growth-oriented, and driven to win. We hold ourselves to high standards because we're on a mission that matters: to build a more rewarding financial future for all Canadians. As individuals and as a team, we constantly challenge ourselves and each other to do our best work for our customers. Our commitment to customer success drives everything we do, from building intuitive products to providing exceptional support at every step of their journey. If this resonates with you, keep reading.

We trust, respect, and support each other. This means honest conversations, constructive input, and continuous support. You'll be surrounded by people who push you to be your best. We primarily collaborate in person across our Calgary, Winnipeg, and Toronto offices. As we evolve rapidly, we're looking for change-makers who thrive on challenge—people who would rather blaze a trail through uncertainty than follow a well-paved path.

All team members have a stake in Neo's success and earn meaningful equity through stock options. This ownership mindset is at the heart of everything we do — when Neo grows, we all grow. If you've heard that Neo employees work hard, it's true. We hold ourselves accountable for delivering on our commitments to our customers, partners, and each other. Working at Neo means taking ownership of your work and driving results, knowing that your contributions directly impact the company's success.

Apply with us:

We believe in equal opportunity and are committed to creating an inclusive climate where everyone can thrive. Customers trust us with their finances, so successful candidates for this position will be required to undergo a security screening, including a criminal records check and a credit check.

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