Director of Engineering

About Schema App

Schema App is a fast-growing, profitable SaaS company headquartered in Guelph, Ontario, with a team across Canada. We’re a smart, collaborative group driven by a shared mission: to become a global leader in enterprise marketing technology and help organizations future-proof for the age of AI.

We work with some of the world’s most recognized enterprises, including SAP, Wells Fargo, and Henry Ford Health, to give them control over how their brand is understood and represented by AI across search and digital experiences.

At our core, we believe that in the age of AI, a brand is only as strong as the data behind it and the connections within it. As search evolves into AI-driven and agent-led experiences, that foundation becomes critical. That’s why we’re building the infrastructure enterprises need to control how they show up in AI today and compete in the agentic web tomorrow: driving growth, protecting their brand, and leading in the next generation of digital experiences.

Visit Schema App at www.schemaapp.com or on LinkedIn.

About the Role

Schema App is looking for a Director of Engineering to partner with our CTO in leading our engineering organization. You'll set the engineering strategy and operating model, lead our team leads, and ensure predictable delivery of our product and platform roadmap.

You'll translate company priorities into a clear engineering plan, raise the bar on talent and technical excellence, and lead our transition to an AI-driven software development lifecycle (SDLC), where agents help draft, build, and verify work while people remain accountable for intent, judgment, and quality.

You've done this before. You've successfully led multiple engineering teams through team leads or managers, bring energy and urgency to your work, and maintain high standards while helping people grow.

You'll work closely with Product, Customer Success, and executive leadership to ensure engineering is a trusted strategic partner in driving revenue, retention, and business outcomes.

Functional Accountabilities

Engineering Strategy & Operating Model

• Translate company and CTO objectives into an actionable engineering strategy, including capacity planning, sequencing, dependencies, and trade-offs.

• Establish and continuously improve engineering operating practices, including planning cadence, escalation paths, definition of done, release management, and incident response.

• Adapt engineering plans as business priorities evolve, ensuring alignment between engineering capacity and organizational objectives.

Engineering Delivery & Performance

• Own engineering delivery outcomes across multiple teams, ensuring predictable execution against commitments.

• Drive improvements in shipping velocity while maintaining software quality and reliability.

• Establish clear delivery metrics, proactively identify risks and bottlenecks, and drive measurable improvements in engineering performance.

• Ensure delivery risks, dependencies, and trade-offs are identified early, communicated clearly, and addressed proactively.

People Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead, coach, and develop engineering team leads, strengthening their leadership capabilities, decision-making, and accountability.

• Build a high-performing engineering organization through effective hiring, coaching, performance management, and talent development.

• Establish clear expectations, maintain high performance standards, and make timely, fair talent decisions.

• Empower team leads to take ownership of their teams and outcomes, building a strong leadership bench across engineering.

AI-Driven Software Development

• Lead the implementation of an AI-driven software development lifecycle across engineering.

• Integrate living specifications, agent-assisted development, and independent quality verification into engineering workflows.

• Establish quality gates that improve delivery efficiency without compromising reliability.

• Drive continuous improvement in AI-assisted engineering practices, measuring their impact on productivity and software quality.

Technical Excellence & Security

• Provide technical oversight to maintain strong architecture, reliability, observability, and production practices.

• Partner with senior engineers to evaluate technical decisions, address technical debt, and resolve complex challenges.

• Maintain engineering practices aligned with SOC 2 requirements and enterprise security expectations.

• Incorporate security and quality considerations into the development of AI-enabled products and technologies.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Partner with Product leadership on roadmap sequencing, prioritization, capacity, and release planning.

• Collaborate with Customer Success and Delivery on technical escalations, ensuring clear ownership and effective resolution.

• Communicate engineering progress, risks, and trade-offs clearly to executive leadership.

• Ensure engineering execution supports product adoption, customer outcomes, and broader business objectives.

Key Competencies

Strategic Engineering Leadership

Proven ability to set engineering direction, translate business objectives into actionable plans, and build effective operating models. Thinks strategically across teams, capacity, and organizational priorities.

Drive, Ownership & Accountability

Brings energy, urgency, and a strong sense of ownership. Proactively identifies challenges, makes informed decisions, and drives results without requiring constant direction. Maintains high standards and holds others accountable.

Technical Expertise & Judgment

Strong technical foundation with the ability to challenge architectural decisions, guide senior technical leaders, and quickly understand new technologies and domains without needing to be the primary implementer.

Proven Leadership at Scale

Demonstrated experience leading multiple engineering teams through managers or team leads in a SaaS environment of comparable or greater complexity. Proven ability to develop leaders, strengthen team performance, and make effective talent decisions.

Operational Excellence & Execution

Track record of building or improving engineering delivery systems that increase speed, predictability, and quality. Uses meaningful metrics, clear accountability, and continuous improvement to drive measurable results.

AI-Driven Engineering Leadership

Practical experience implementing AI-assisted software development practices, with an understanding of how to improve productivity while maintaining software quality, independent verification, and human accountability.

Cross-Functional & Executive Partnership

Communicates clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders, navigates competing priorities, and builds trusted relationships across Product, Customer Success, and executive leadership.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with knowledge graphs, structured data, semantic technologies, or AI-powered applications.

• Familiarity with enterprise SaaS security and compliance requirements, including SOC 2.

• Experience with AWS, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, and DevOps practices.

• Familiarity with identity and endpoint management.

Metrics

Success in this role will be measured through:

• Shipping Velocity: Increase meaningful customer-facing product releases while maintaining quality.

• Engineering Efficiency: Improve development cycle times and delivery predictability.

• Software Quality: Improve change failure rates and reduce escaped defects through effective quality gates and verification.

• AI-Driven Development: Successfully implement and scale AI-assisted development practices across engineering teams.

• Leadership Development: Build and maintain a high-performing engineering organization with measurable growth in team lead capabilities.

• Security & Compliance: Maintain strong SOC 2 control coverage and engineering security practices.

• Product Adoption: Support Product in achieving customer-feature adoption objectives through reliable engineering delivery.

Our Values

At Schema App, our values guide how we work and make decisions.

• Growth Mindset: We continuously learn, improve, and challenge ourselves to grow.

• Resourceful: We find creative solutions, take initiative, and make the most of our resources.

• One Team: We collaborate, support one another, and work toward shared goals.

• Humble: We stay curious, welcome feedback, and recognize that great ideas can come from anywhere.

AI-based tools may be used to support screening; all resumes are reviewed by a member of our team.

Life @ Schema App

• Culture focused on your growth: Weekly 1:1 with conversations around Professional Development

• Great benefits for health & wellness, and your coverage starts as soon as you do

• RRSP matching!

• Flex days to re-energize on top of vacation days and you don’t work on your birthday

• The Culture Club keeps our virtual team connected through fun and innovative events

• Diverse smart team! The more inclusive we are, the better our work will be

• Schema App’s purpose is to build meaningful connections, with each other, our customers, and the data so that we are all understood. We are a team of smart people helping each other solve hard problems.

If you require accommodation during the application process, please let us know. We are committed to an inclusive work environment and welcome applicants of all backgrounds and perspectives.