Founding Engineer / Senior Software Developer — CTO Track

Metro Vancouver, BC | Hybrid | Full-Time

Engineering Software • Cloud • AI • Industrial Automation

$90,000–$115,000 CAD + Meaningful Equity

Help us build software that changes how engineering work gets done.

We are a Vancouver-area engineering software company building cloud and desktop tools that automate labour-intensive electrical engineering and industrial automation work.

We are past the idea stage. We have working commercial software, paying customers, proprietary engineering technology and IP, and products entering the market.

Now we need another serious builder.

We’re looking for an intermediate/senior developer who wants more than a normal development job—someone who wants to shape architecture, influence products, use AI aggressively to accelerate development, help build the development team, and potentially grow into the CTO role.

For the right person, this can become a significant leadership and ownership opportunity.

WHAT WE’RE BUILDING

Our software sits at an unusual intersection:

Software + AI + Electrical Engineering + Industrial Automation + CAD

We’re building products that help engineers accomplish in minutes or hours what can traditionally take days.

Our technology includes

- Automated electrical drawing generation
- CAD and engineering document automation
- Industrial control panel design
- PLC programming, modernization and legacy migration
- PLC I/O and wiring schematics
- Engineering project and workflow management
- Equipment/component databases
- Bills of materials and proposal generation
- Cloud-based engineering productivity tools
- AI-assisted engineering workflows

Our principle is simple: AI should accelerate good engineering—not replace sound architecture or deterministic engineering logic.

Where AI is the right tool, we use it. Where rules, algorithms or conventional software are more reliable, we use those instead.

THE OPPORTUNITY

Initially, you’ll work directly with the founders and take meaningful ownership of our software platforms.

You’ll help decide

- What to build
- How to build it
- Which technologies to use
- Where AI creates real leverage
- Where complexity should be removed
- How applications should be deployed and scaled
- How the future development team should operate

This is not a role where you simply receive a stack of Jira tickets.

We want someone who can understand the problem, challenge assumptions, propose a practical solution, and help ship it.

As the company grows, we expect this person to take increasing responsibility for software architecture, cloud infrastructure, engineering standards, AI development workflows, security, deployment, technical hiring, team leadership, and technical product strategy.

For the right person, the long-term path is:

Founding Engineer → Technical Lead → Head of Development → CTO

That path will be earned through contribution, judgement, leadership, and mutual trust.

AI-NATIVE DEVELOPMENT IS CORE TO THIS ROLE

We don’t consider AI a side tool. It is becoming a fundamental part of modern software development.

You should be comfortable with some combination of:

- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Codex
- Cursor
- GitHub Copilot
- AI coding agents
- MCP servers
- Skills
- Agentic development workflows
- AI-assisted testing, debugging, research and code review





We don’t care which tools you prefer. We care whether you know how to use them productively and intelligently.

If AI can safely complete six hours of repetitive work in thirty minutes, we want you to use it.

Your value here is not measured by lines of code, team size, complexity introduced, or billable hours.

Your value is measured by problems solved, products shipped, and customers helped.

Our philosophy

Build the simplest reliable solution that solves the customer’s problem. Then ship it.

WHAT YOU’LL WORK WITH

Cloud & Web

- React
- TypeScript / JavaScript
- Node.js
- PostgreSQL
- REST APIs
- Authentication/authorization
- Background jobs and queues
- Git / GitHub

Microsoft

- C#
- ASP.NET
- .NET
- VB.NET / .NET Framework
- Entity Framework
- SQL Server

Cloud & Infrastructure
- Azure
- AWS
- Railway
- Docker
- Managed databases
- CI/CD
- Monitoring and logging
- Secrets management
- Cloud storage

We have valuable existing engineering technology in the Microsoft ecosystem. We are not interested in rewriting working software simply because something newer exists.

We want someone capable of deciding when to keep it, improve it, wrap it, migrate it, or replace it.

You do not need to be a dedicated DevOps engineer, but you should be comfortable owning:

Code → Test → Deploy → Monitor → Improve

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

Ideally, you have:

- 3–5+ years of skilled software development experience
- Experience building real software used by customers
- Strong cloud/web development skills
- Modern JavaScript/TypeScript experience
- C#/.NET experience
- Relational database experience
- Production deployment experience
- Strong Git/GitHub practices
- Experience integrating APIs and external services
- Practical software architecture judgement
- Hands-on use of modern AI development tools

More important than checking every box is being someone who can figure things out.

ENGINEERING / AUTOMATION EXPERIENCE IS A MAJOR BONUS

If any of these mean something to you, we definitely want to hear from you:

PLC, Ladder Logic, ControlLogix, Rockwell Automation, industrial automation, AutoCAD, AutoCAD Electrical, electrical schematics, control panels, instrumentation, motor control, I/O systems, SCADA.

Experience in electrical engineering, industrial automation, manufacturing, CAD, robotics, controls, or engineering software would be a major advantage—but it is not required.

We’d rather hire a great developer who is curious enough to learn engineering than an average developer who happens to know what a PLC is.

WHO WILL THRIVE HERE

We’re looking for someone who:

- Takes ownership
- Likes building products
- Is comfortable making decisions
- Can work independently
- Communicates clearly
- Learns unfamiliar technologies quickly
- Enjoys difficult technical problems
- Challenges unnecessary complexity
- Can distinguish good AI-generated code from bad AI-generated code
- Thinks about the customer, not just the code
- Wants responsibility





You should be comfortable saying:

“We don’t need to build that.”

or:

“There’s a much simpler way to solve this.”

We value pragmatic builders over architecture astronauts.

WHY JOIN US?

A large technology company may offer a larger immediate salary, a narrower role, more layers of management, and a small piece of a very large system.

We’re offering something different.

You can help determine what the company builds, how the technology works, how AI is used, what the architecture becomes, who joins the future development team, and how the engineering organization operates.

You’ll work directly with the founders, see customers use what you build, and join early enough that meaningful ownership is still possible.

COMPENSATION & EQUITY

We want to be transparent.

We are an early commercial-stage engineering software company with working products and paying customers.

Our expected initial compensation is:

$90,000–$115,000 CAD + meaningful equity depending on experience, capability and the final role.

We cannot currently compete dollar-for-dollar with the largest technology companies. Instead, we are prepared to structure real equity participation for the right person—not simply a token option grant.

As revenue and funding grow, we expect compensation to grow as well.

LOCATION

This is a hybrid position in Metro Vancouver, British Columbia.

Candidates must

- Currently live in Metro Vancouver or within reasonable commuting distance
- Be legally entitled to work in Canada
- Be able to work with us in person periodically

Work from home is part of the role, but this is not a fully remote position outside the Vancouver area.

OUR INTERVIEW PROCESS

We do not believe a great developer should be judged primarily by obscure whiteboard algorithms.

Our process is straightforward

- Founder conversation

We’ll talk about what you’ve built, what you want to do next, and what we’re building.
- AI-assisted technical session

We’ll give you a realistic software/product problem. Use whatever AI tools you normally use.

We want to see how you actually develop software in 2026—how you break down problems, use AI, verify generated work, make architecture decisions, avoid unnecessary complexity, and communicate tradeoffs.

- Product & engineering session

We’ll show you the actual products and engineering problems we’re solving.
- Final conversation

If we’re both excited, we’ll discuss role, compensation, equity, expectations, and the longer-term opportunity.

INTERESTED?

Send us your resume, LinkedIn profile, GitHub profile—or something you’ve built.

We’d also like you to answer three questions:

- Tell us about something useful you built where you personally made important technical decisions.
- How are you currently using AI to make yourself a more productive software developer?
- You inherit a 40,000-line system and determine it could realistically be replaced with a reliable 5,000-line solution. What do you do?

We’re not looking for polished corporate answers. We want to understand how you think.

If you want to build interesting technology, work on unusual engineering problems, use AI aggressively, have real influence over the product, own part of what you’re helping build, and potentially become the person who leads the technology company, we should probably talk.

📌 Founding Engineer / Senior Software Developer — CTO Track (Port Coquitlam)
🏢 Collective Technologies
📍 Port Coquitlam