Senior Director, Engineering - Innovation Tribe

Senior Director, Engineering – Innovation TribeLocation: Toronto Fitch RatingsThe OpportunityFitch 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. This is not a role for someone looking to maintain the status quo. This is a mandate to lead transformative change at one of the most consequential inflection points in Fitch's history.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.This is a rare opportunity: early enough that your influence shapes everything, with the organizational backing, budget, and talent runway that most innovators only dream of having.We'll Count on You ToLead 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. Drive alignment between your teams and the broader Ratings technology organization — ensuring what gets built creates real, measurable impact.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. Evaluate what's transformative versus what's hype. Turn proof-of-concepts into production capabilities that fundamentally change how analysts work and how Fitch delivers insights to global markets.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 modern, 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.What You Need to Have18+ years of hands-on experience in software engineering or machine learning engineering, with substantial time in senior technical leadership roles overseeing multiple teams and disciplinesProven multi-team leadership — demonstrated experience leading team leaders and managing engineers across diverse technical disciplines, including both software engineering and ML/AI engineering backgrounds; comfort navigating the intersection of the twoDeep technical credibility — strong architectural command of modern software systems, cloud-native platforms, and/or AI/ML infrastructure at scale; you engage deeply when it matters, and your teams and peers will know itGreenfield and ambiguous environment experience — proven track record of designing and delivering large-scale systems or ML platforms from scratch; comfort making bold architectural and modeling decisions without the luxury of established playbooksPeople leadership and talent development — demonstrated ability to attract, grow, and retain exceptional engineers and engineering leaders; a builder of teams as much as systemsExecutive 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 deliveryGenuine AI curiosity or expertise — real excitement about AI's transformative potential; the judgment to separate signal from noise in a fast-moving space; and the ability to cultivate a team culture that does the sameEducation: 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 impactWhat Would Make You Stand OutDeep 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 scaleFull-stack engineering leadership — experience leading teams building Java/Springboot and React applications, or equivalent modern enterprise-grade technology stacksAI-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 qualityCloud-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 systemsInnovation or startup leadership experience — history of leading 0-to-1 initiatives, scaling greenfield products or ML platforms, or building innovation-focused organizations within larger enterprisesTechnical 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 teamFinancial services domain knowledge — understanding of analytical workflows, credit ratings processes, regulatory environments, or how technology and ML enable better financial decision-makingToronto 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 ecosystemWhat We OfferExecutive 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 learningGround-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 aboutBuild 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 possibleToronto 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 ecosystemsCutting-edge technology and continuous learning — access to the latest AI tools, frameworks, and platforms; training and conference budgets; and the expectation that you'll stay at the bleeding edge and bring those insights back to your teamsCareer 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 technologyCollaborative, open culture — an environment where your voice is heard and your work has impact regardless of seniority; where diversity of thought, background, and technical approach is genuinely valuedWhy Fitch?At Fitch Group, the combined power of our global perspectives is what differentiates us. Our global network of colleagues comes together to accomplish things greater than they ever could alone.Every team member is essential to our business, and each perspective is critical to our success. We embrace a diverse culture that encourages a free exchange of ideas, guaranteeing your voice will be heard and your work will have an impact, regardless of seniority.We are building incredible things at Fitch and we invite you to join us on our journey.About Fitch GroupFitch Group is a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries. Wholly owned by the Hearst Corporation, we are comprised of three main businesses: Fitch Ratings | Fitch Solutions | Fitch Learning.For more information please visit our websites: | | Fitch is committed to providing global securities markets with objective, timely, independent and forward-looking credit opinions. To protect Fitch's credibility and reputation, our employees must take every precaution to avoid conflicts of interests or any appearance of a conflict of interest. Should you be successful in the recruitment process at Fitch Ratings you will be asked to declare any securities holdings and other potential conflicts prior to commencing employment. If 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.Fitch Group is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. 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.FOR TORONTO ROLES ONLY:Expected base pay rates for the role will be between 250,000 CAD and 325,000 CAD. Actual salaries will be determined on an individualized basis and may vary based on factors including but not limited to education, training, experience, past performance, and other job-related factors. Base pay is one part of Fitch’s total compensation package, which, depending on the position, may also include commission earnings, discretionary bonuses, long-term incentives, and other benefits sponsored by Fitch.