About CoLab

At CoLab, we help mechanical engineering teams bring life-changing products to market years sooner.

CoLab is the AI platform for driving stronger engineering decisions. Every design review in CoLab builds a knowledge repository of design feedback, decisions, and lessons learned - which AI agents draw from to flag issues on future designs before they compound. The more your team works in CoLab, the smarter it gets and the faster you arrive at the ideal design. Companies like Ford, Komatsu, and Johnson Controls use CoLab to catch issues earlier, eliminate rework cycles, and bring products to market faster.

Founded in St. John’s, Newfoundland, CoLab has grown quickly from our first customer in 2019 to a rapidly scaling company. We’ve recently been recognized on Deloitte’s Fast 50™ and Fast 500™, and named a Canadian company to watch by The Globe and Mail and Financial Post. 

About the Role

This role involves building and scaling one of the most strategically important product development areas in CoLab: our AI/ML teams.

You’ll lead three teams: Applied ML, AutoReview, and Operator - bringing them into a cohesive, high-performing product area. This group is operating with startup-level speed and ambiguity - in this role you will be responsible for keeping the pace while adding clarity, structure, and consistent execution. Success here looks like consistently shipping meaningful, reliable AI capabilities, that are high quality and performant, and solve real customer problems.

You’ll work closely with our CTO, Architecture team, and other Engineering leaders to shape our strategic roadmap and execute on our highest priority projects. This will be a complex role, balancing research-heavy ML work with product delivery expectations. If that sounds energizing, you’ll likely thrive.

Our Ideal Candidate

You are a technical leader capable of operating effectively at both a strategic and granular level. You possess the ability to engage in architectural debates while simultaneously coaching an Engineering Manager on team dynamics.

You have a track record of successfully guiding teams through periods of ambiguity, resulting in measurable improvements. You prioritize achieving desired product outcomes over the pursuit of mere technical elegance.

Candidates typically succeed in this role if they:

• Advocate for high standards without introducing unwarranted friction
• Maintain a high level of competency in both technical and product discussions
• Implement structure where necessary, while avoiding constraints that impede progress

This role may not be suitable for individuals who require fully defined problems or prefer narrowly scoped ownership.

Job Responsibilities

• Own outcomes across multiple AI/ML product teams: execution, quality, reliability, and customer impact
• Help shape technical direction for AI/ML systems, including architecture and tooling decisions
• Improve how teams operate via effective planning, delivery, and use of AI tools in development
• Drive alignment across Product, Architecture, Cloud, and Security teams
• Lead and develop Engineering Managers and senior ICs
• Design team structure, hiring plans, and onboarding as the org scales
• Manage performance with clarity: goals, feedback, and growth

Qualifications

• Experience leading multiple engineering teams in a B2B SaaS environment, ideally at the Director or VP level
• Strong background in AI/ML-driven products or platforms, that leverage LLMs, VLMs, and or agent-based systems
• Exposure to infrastructure for ML systems (evaluation, observability, data pipelines)
• Track record of delivering complex, ambiguous product initiatives
• Experience working closely with product leadership to shape roadmaps
• Ability to scale teams and develop managers
• Bonus: experience in mechanical engineering domain (e.g. Manufacturing, CAD, Simulations, etc)

Extra Details

• Full-time, permanent role with competitive compensation and stock options
• Extended health benefits, unlimited vacation, 401K/RRSP matching
• Remote-friendly across North America

Equity Note

Frequently cited statistics show that people who identify with historically marginalized groups are likely to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to help us break that statistic and apply even if you don’t meet every single qualification—your potential is what matters most to us.

About CoLab

At CoLab, we help mechanical engineering teams bring life-changing products to market years sooner.

CoLab is the AI platform for driving stronger engineering decisions. Every design review in CoLab builds a knowledge repository of design feedback, decisions, and lessons learned - which AI agents draw from to flag issues on future designs before they compound. The more your team works in CoLab, the smarter it gets and the faster you arrive at the ideal design. Companies like Ford, Komatsu, and Johnson Controls use CoLab to catch issues earlier, eliminate rework cycles, and bring products to market faster.

Founded in St. John’s, Newfoundland, CoLab has grown quickly from our first customer in 2019 to a rapidly scaling company. We’ve recently been recognized on Deloitte’s Fast 50™ and Fast 500™, and named a Canadian company to watch by The Globe and Mail and Financial Post.

About the Role

CoLab is seeking a Principal Developer to join our growing team. 

In this high-impact, hybrid role, you will work closely with our leadership team as a senior Individual Contributor (IC) and product thinker. Your primary focus will be on supporting strategic initiatives from a technical perspective.

You will help define our product roadmap by building working prototypes, pressure-testing initial assumptions, proposing potential approaches, and transforming technical unknowns into clear, actionable product direction.

Our Ideal Candidate

Our ideal candidate has previous experience working on browser-based 3D/2D graphics engines, and or Computer Aided Design (CAD) softwares, and a strong track record of applied R&D in a SaaS context.

You’re comfortable working without a clear path, and enjoy engaging with a broad set of stakeholders (product, design, leadership and customers) to clarify outcomes and validate potential solutions. You are high agency, and find ambiguous, open-ended challenges exciting.

If you’re looking for clear requirements and defined scopes that you can simply execute on, this likely won’t be the right fit.

Job Responsibilities

• Architect and prototype systems for ingesting and visualizing a variety of different engineering data
• Explore and de-risk strategic projects through rapid experimentation
• Translate deep domain knowledge into product direction and technical architecture
• Work directly with design, product leadership, and customers to validate concepts
• Identify constraints and opportunities in handling various design data

Qualifications

• Proven track record as a staff or principal-level developer in a SaaS environment
• Experience building or shaping new products or product areas, not just implementing features
• Strong ability to operate in ambiguity and define problems ahead of solving them

Extra Details

• Full-time, permanent role with competitive compensation and stock options
• Remote-first across North America
• Extended health benefits, unlimited vacation, and RRSP/ 401K matching

Equity Note

Frequently cited statistics show that people who identify with historically marginalized groups are likely to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to help us break that statistic and apply even if you don’t meet every single qualification—your potential is what matters most to us.

About CoLab

At CoLab, we help mechanical engineering teams bring life-changing products to market years sooner.

CoLab is the AI platform for driving stronger engineering decisions. Every design review in CoLab builds a knowledge repository of design feedback, decisions, and lessons learned - which AI agents draw from to flag issues on future designs before they compound. The more your team works in CoLab, the smarter it gets and the faster you arrive at the ideal design. Companies like Ford, Komatsu, and Johnson Controls use CoLab to catch issues earlier, eliminate rework cycles, and bring products to market faster.

Founded in St. John’s, Newfoundland, CoLab has grown quickly from our first customer in 2019 to a rapidly scaling company. We’ve recently been recognized on Deloitte’s Fast 50™ and Fast 500™, and named a Canadian company to watch by The Globe and Mail and Financial Post. 

About the Role

This role is for a high-impact engineering leader who has been in the trenches at fast-scaling startups — someone who has grown from individual contributor to leader and helped scale engineering orgs through multiple phases of growth. Ideally, you've done it more than once.

As VP of Software Engineering, you'll be responsible for building and maintaining a high-performing, scalable engineering organization across Product Development, Ops, and Technical Support. This is a role for someone who’s hands-on enough to spot an issue in a pull request, and strategic enough to influence long-term roadmap, product vision, and cross-functional priorities.

You'll partner closely with Product and Design to ship great software faster, with fewer surprises. You'll also work directly with customers and support our GTM motion, stepping in when technical insight is needed on strategic deals or customer challenges.

Our Ideal Candidate

• You’ve helped scale at least one startup through a period of fast growth (Series A → C or similar), and ideally done it more than once.
• You’ve grown from IC to leadership, and know what it takes to help others do the same.
• You’re low ego, high respect. People seek out your input not because of your title, but because you are good at what you do, genuinely helpful and motivating to work with.
• You’re a builder at heart — pragmatic, resourceful, and relentlessly focused on outcomes.

What You’ll Do

• Lead Software Engineering within CoLab’s Product Development org
• Guide and grow our teams to improve quality, development speed and confidence
• Partner with Product to drive roadmap planning, resource allocation, and feasibility tradeoffs
• Ensure compliance with key standards (e.g. SOC 2, ISO) through a mature SDLC
• Set and manage operating metrics (e.g. uptime, velocity, quality, cost) that drive business value
• Help scale our team with world-class talent and build functions that support career growth across the team
• Collaborate across departments — from GTM to CS — to support technical enablement and customer success
• Join CoLab’s Senior Leadership Team and help shape company strategy across all areas of the business

What You’ll Bring

• Significant experience as a software developer, including on large-scale SaaS systems
• Experience with modern cloud tech stacks. Ours is: React, Python, GraphQL, Postgres, AWS
• Strong knowledge of AI solutions for software development and experience deploying AI coding solutions at scale
• 5+ years in engineering leadership roles, with experience managing managers
• Proven ability to scale teams and processes during periods of high growth
• Familiarity with building secure, compliant software in a regulated environment
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Experience directly supporting customer conversations and technical sales

Extra Details
Compensation: This is a full-time, permanent position with an attractive compensation package that includes a stock options package.
Benefits: This role offers an extended health and benefits package that includes unlimited paid vacation and RRSP matching.
Remote/Hybrid Work: Our main office location is in St. John’s, NL where we offer hybrid and remote opportunities. This role has the flexibility to work from anywhere within Canada. 

Equity Note

Frequently cited statistics show that people who identify with historically marginalized groups are likely to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to help us break that statistic and apply even if you don’t meet every single qualification—your potential is what matters most to us.