Senior Director, Engineering - Innovation Tribe Fitch Ratings is seeking a visionary Senior Director of Engineering to lead our Innovation Tribe in Toronto - a bold, strategic investment in defining the future of AI-powered financial intelligence.

As Senior

Director, you will have executive ownership of three pioneering engineering teams: the Innovation Tiger Team - building agentic systems and intelligent full-stack platforms from the ground up - and two newly formed AI-focused engineering teams driving the next frontier of machine learning and intelligent automation at Fitch. Together, these teams represent our most ambitious and consequential bet on the future of financial intelligence. You'll operate at the intersection of technology strategy and organizational leadership - translating bold vision into real systems, building and inspiring world-class engineering talent across software engineering and machine learning disciplines, and forging the cross-functional partnerships that turn ambitious ideas into production capabilities used by analysts and clients across global markets.

We welcome leaders from both software engineering and machine learning engineering backgrounds. What unites the right candidates isn't a single technical path - it's the ability to lead deeply technical, multidisciplinary teams at the frontier of what's possible, and the vision to know where the frontier is heading. Lead the Innovation Tribe with vision and accountability Own the strategic direction, execution, and culture of three high-performing engineering teams spanning full-stack software engineers and machine learning engineers.

Set the technical vision for AI-driven platforms, agentic systems, and intelligent automation. Build, develop, and inspire exceptional people Lead, mentor, and empower three team leads and their engineers across diverse technical disciplines. Foster a culture of bold experimentation, engineering excellence, psychological safety, and continuous learning.

Attract and retain the kind of talent that defines what's possible - whether their background is in distributed systems, ML infrastructure, model development, or intelligent platform engineering.

Shape

Fitch's AI technical future Define the architectural direction for generative AI, LLMs, RAG architectures, agentic workflows, intelligent automation, and ML systems in production. Drive greenfield innovation at scale Oversee the design and delivery of net-new systems built without the constraints of legacy architecture. Champion the freedom to experiment, fail fast, and push boundaries - while ensuring what ships is reliable, scalable, and production-grade.

Define and champion the future of software and ML delivery Move beyond conventional delivery frameworks to embrace AI-augmented development lifecycles - where AI tooling accelerates every stage from design and code generation to testing, deployment, and model monitoring.

Establish how your teams use AI to build AI: leveraging AI-DLC principles, intelligent CI/CD, automated evaluation frameworks, and LLM-assisted development to compress delivery cycles and raise the ceiling on engineering quality.



Set the standard for what contemporary, AI-native engineering delivery looks like at Fitch. Influence at the highest levels of the organization Act as a strategic partner to senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.

Represent the Innovation Tribe across the organization. Build credibility and trust through results, vision, and the ability to make complex technical and ML concepts legible and exciting to diverse audiences - from fellow engineers to executive sponsors.

Champion

Toronto as Fitch's AI Innovation Hub Play an active role in building Fitch's Toronto engineering presence into a globally recognized center of excellence for AI-driven innovation. Engage with Toronto's broader technology and AI/ML community and help attract world-class talent - from software engineers to ML researchers - to the mission. 18+ years of hands‑on experience in software engineering or machine learning engineering, with substantial time in senior technical leadership roles overseeing multiple teams and disciplines ~ Proven multi-team leadership — demonstrated experience leading team leaders and managing engineers across diverse technical disciplines, including both software engineering and ML/AI engineering backgrounds; Deep technical credibility — strong architectural command of modern software systems, cloud‑native platforms, and/or AI/ML infrastructure at scale; comfort making bold architectural and modeling decisions without the luxury of established playbooks ~ People leadership and talent development — demonstrated ability to attract, grow, and retain exceptional engineers and engineering leaders; Executive stakeholder management and communication — ability to partner with product, business, and senior leadership; translate technical and ML vision for non‑technical audiences; and build organizational trust through consistent, high‑quality delivery ~ Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field — or equivalent demonstrated expertise through professional experience and impact Deep AI/ML system expertise — hands‑on experience with generative AI, LLMs, RAG architectures, agentic systems, prompt engineering, ML model development and evaluation, MLOps, feature platforms, or inference infrastructure at scale Full‑stack engineering leadership — experience leading teams building Java/Springboot and React applications, or equivalent modern enterprise‑grade technology stacks AI‑native delivery leadership — direct experience implementing AI‑augmented development lifecycles, AI‑assisted code generation and review tooling, automated model evaluation pipelines,



or intelligent CI/CD practices that materially accelerate team output and quality Cloud‑native and MLOps mastery — deep familiarity with Docker, Kubernetes/EKS, AWS/Azure, microservices architecture, model serving infrastructure, and sophisticated deployment pipelines for both software and ML systems Innovation or startup leadership experience — history of leading 0-to-1 initiatives, scaling greenfield products or ML platforms, or building innovation‑focused organizations within larger enterprises Technical thought leadership — contributing to open source, speaking at industry conferences, publishing research or engineering content, or establishing technical and ML direction that influences well beyond your immediate team Financial services domain knowledge — understanding of analytical workflows, credit ratings processes, regulatory environments, or how technology and ML enable better financial decision‑making Toronto tech and AI community connection — active participation in Toronto's AI/ML or software engineering communities, or strong interest in being a visible leader in Toronto's growing technology ecosystem Executive visibility and strategic influence — direct access to senior leadership with the platform to shape Fitch's AI strategy at the organizational level and leave a lasting legacy in how financial services leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning Ground‑floor leadership with organizational backing — join early enough to define how the Innovation Tribe operates, scales, and what success looks like - backed by leadership commitment, meaningful budget, and the runway that most innovators can only dream about Build the future without legacy constraints - lead teams creating net‑new agentic systems, ML platforms, and intelligent pipelines that will define how financial analysis is done globally, with the freedom to experiment, take calculated risks, and push what's technically possible Toronto as Fitch's AI innovation hub - be a founding leader in our strategic investment in Toronto as a center of excellence for AI‑driven innovation, in one of North America's most dynamic and fastest‑growing technology and ML ecosystems training and conference budgets; Career acceleration at scale - high visibility to the most senior leaders at Fitch, a clear path to principal and executive roles, and the opportunity to establish yourself as a defining voice in AI‑driven financial technology where diversity of thought, background, and technical approach is genuinely valued Our global network of colleagues comes together to accomplish things greater than they ever could alone. We are building incredible things at Fitch and we invite you to join us on our journey.

For more information please visit our websites: | | Should you, or your immediate family, have any holdings that may conflict with your work responsibilities, you may be asked to divest yourself of them before beginning work. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status, and other statuses protected by law.

📌 Senior Director, Engineering - Innovation Tribe (Toronto)
🏢 Fitch Ratings
📍 Toronto