Back End Engineering Manager

illumin • Toronto • 1m ago

Who we are

At illumin, we are transforming the advertising landscape. Our platform offers an integrated space for journey planning, execution, and reporting. It empowers marketers to connect with their audiences in powerful ways through real-time data and easy-to-use visual tools. By seamlessly combining media planning and buying in an intuitive interface, marketers can take complete control of their campaigns, meeting customers wherever they are in the buying journey and maximizing the impact of their ad spend through personalized insights for smarter decision-making.

We are at a pivotal moment, evolving into a product-led company with a team of over 100 skilled professionals and new leadership guiding our path forward. By harnessing the power of data, advancing our AI capabilities, and deeply investing in our people, we are preparing for a future that will redefine what’s possible in journey advertising.

Our work is guided by two beliefs: that the ability to execute is paramount to success and that we are only as good as our people. As we grow and transform, we are looking for team members (illumineers) who share our bias for speed, delivery over perfection, and an entrepreneurial mindset. Joining us now is a chance to be part of our transformation.

Who we need

Reporting to the Vice President of Engineering, we are looking for a Back End Engineering Manager to take ownership of our Backend and Platform technical landscape and manage a team of 10 Engineers. You will focus on line management, optimizing our engineering practices, and collaborating closely with the Product and Architecture teams. As our Back End Engineering Manager, you will collaborate closely with our talented engineers to foster their growth and development while driving innovation and ensuring our platforms remain reliable, efficient, and secure.

This is a hybrid opportunity, working Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays on-site in our downtown Toronto office. Our headquarters are located within minutes of St. Andrew and Union subway stations.

What's in it for you

Impact. You are driven by the challenge of engineering at scale. Our platform handles billions of daily ad requests, processing high-speed transactions across multiple global markets. As a key leader in our engineering team, your leadership will directly impact our team’s performance and our platform infrastructure’s resilience, scalability, and security, ensuring advertisers and publishers get the best possible outcomes. As part of a small engineering team within a publicly traded, product-led company, you will be pivotal in shaping a product revolutionizing the industry.

Technical exposure. Our platform facilitates real-time bidding, user data exchange, and seamless integrations across a complex AdTech ecosystem. You will assign and oversee work on low-latency optimizations, high-throughput distributed systems, and solutions that push the limits of computing, data processing, and performance. This is an opportunity to apply and expand your expertise in cutting-edge technologies.

Professional Development. You are driven to grow—your skills, influence, and career. We continuously push boundaries to improve and reach our full potential individually and as a company. We are deeply committed to building the strengths of our team. As we meet the growing demands of AdTech, your responsibilities, learning opportunities, and scope for ownership will rapidly expand.

How you will make an impact:

Lead and mentor a team of engineers, fostering growth and technical excellence. You will provide side-by-side technical guidance and contribute to architectural decisions as needed. You will lead by example, mentoring junior team members on best practices, problem-solving, and resilient development. You will take ownership of growing and developing the team, including hiring, performance management, and career pathing. You will nurture a positive environment that promotes knowledge sharing, professional development, and cross-functional collaboration.
Drive design, development, and optimization. You will ensure the high availability, performance, and security of scalable platforms. You will implement best practices for scalability, system monitoring, fault tolerance, and compliance with industry regulations. You will work closely with cross-functional teams, including Product Management, Data Engineering, and DevOps, to align technical roadmaps with business objectives and customer needs.
Refine engineering best practices and architecture. You will drive continuous improvements in system design, development methodologies, and performance optimizations. You will contribute to architectural decisions, guide troubleshooting efforts, and ensure the adoption of modern design patterns. You will draw on your experience and insights to optimize the efficacy of Agile delivery practices. You will continuously refine development workflows, engineering best practices, coding standards, and system architecture.
Advise and lead technical decisions. You will guide decisions impacting the back-end architecture at illumin. Collaborating with stakeholders and engineers, you will identify and address technical challenges, ensuring your contributions drive meaningful impact on the platform’s user interface and performance.

What you bring:

The leadership skills. You have a track record of building high-performing teams, fostering collaboration, and coaching engineers to reach their full potential. You can easily translate large challenges into smaller, actionable tasks, assign tasks, and support their delivery. You are willing to dive in to figure out the best approaches quickly. You can plan, coordinate, and influence the work of a collaborative Agile team, ensuring delivery under tight deadlines. You can offer guidance and advice based on broad and deep knowledge of various techniques, tools, and methodologies. You support and encourage ongoing professional skills development and career pathing of your team.
The interpersonal skills. You take a collaborative approach and can lead by example. You can translate complex technical details to a non-technical audience. You can build trusting relationships and influence productivity across teams in person and remotely. You are comfortable with ambiguity and quick to adapt when priorities shift. You appreciate diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives, prioritizing an equal and inclusive environment.
The growth mindset. You are naturally curious and driven by continuous improvement. You eagerly seek opportunities to learn from both peers and personal experience. You acknowledge your mistakes and can adapt to setbacks. You are resourceful and can use new knowledge to solve problems. Staying up to date with the latest tools and best practices is second nature to you, and you are excited about sharing that knowledge with your team.
The technical expertise. You have progressive experience in software engineering, delivering high-performance backend platform solutions and leading the work of an engineering team. You have expertise in Java and MySQL in production environments. You have an in-depth understanding of design principles and distributed systems. You have experience designing and maintaining platforms that handle high-throughput workloads efficiently. You are well-versed in building and maintaining low-latency, event-driven, and resilient architectures. You have proven ability to drive Agile development practices and Scrum or Kanban iterative development.
The industry experience. You have worked in AdTech, MarTech, or other high-performance, data-intensive industries. You are familiar with real-time bidding (RTB), programmatic advertising, or large-scale data processing. You have the business acumen and technical insights to align engineering efforts with organizational priorities effectively.

What else should you know about us?

We are undergoing a transformative shift. We are embracing change and the opportunities that come with it, empowering every illumineer to innovate, experiment, and bring forward new ideas. Whether accessing new technology, restructuring workflows, or expanding your team, you will have full support if you can make the business case.

We are a broad and diverse team, but we all share a passion for success, a drive to do more, and a love of creating connections. We hire for talent and commitment and provide the guidelines and guidance to elevate skills, knowledge, and abilities across all areas. This is a place where proven methods meet bold ideas, offering opportunities to grow personally and professionally.

To support a healthy work-life balance, we offer a flexible work environment, a meal credit for your in-office days, and a free massage with an RMT in-house every eight weeks. That is in addition to our comprehensive benefits, which include life, AD&D, long-term disability insurance, and coverage for prescriptions, dental, vision, mental health, and professional health services. You will also have access to a workplace advisor, the Vitality Wellness app, and a $300 annual healthcare spending account.

Apply now

If you want to seize the opportunity to impact a company and influence an industry, and you have 70% of what we are looking for, apply now. We can't promise an interview, but we will consider your whole application.

What you can expect from our interview process:

A virtual interview with a Senior Talent Advisor to discuss your experience and interest in the role. The conversation will be recorded using BrightHire, an AI-powered video interview tool. More details will be shared when you are invited to interview.
An in-person interview with the VP of Engineering. It will be an opportunity to ask further questions about the role, team, technology, and development roadmap.
An in-person interview with key members of the leadership team to share your insights in scaling solutions and learn more about our clients and the trajectory of the organization.

illumin is firmly committed to diversity within its community and welcomes applications from racialized persons/persons of colour, Indigenous People of North America and the world, persons with disabilities, 2SLGBTQIA+ persons, and those who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas.

We are committed to providing equitable opportunities in employment and to providing a workplace which is free from discrimination and harassment. We are equally committed to providing an inclusive and accessible workplace. If you require accommodations at any stage of the interview process, please email us at hr@illumin.com [hr@illumin.com] .