Vice President, Engineering

Liferaft is looking for a highly skilled and visionary VP of Engineering to lead and shape the future of our product and technology stack. This role will be hybrid in Halifax, NS, or fully remote within Canada, with occasional travel to Halifax, NS. If you have a passion for scaling engineering teams, driving innovation, and delivering world-class software solutions, this is your opportunity to make a tangible difference in global security.

Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO), you will set the strategic direction for our engineering organization, spanning data engineering, data integrity, and UI design. You will partner closely with product and engineering leaders to ensure our SaaS platform continues to deliver impactful threat intelligence capabilities to clients around the globe.

Based out of Nova Scotia, Canada, LifeRaft was incorporated in 2014 with a clear objective to advance corporate security. We pride ourselves on our innovative spirit and determination to help solve new challenges developed by the complexities of open source data. Our SaaS-based threat intelligence platform is designed to identify, track, and validate risks and threats from open source channels (surface, deep web, and dark web) related to executive safety, fraud prevention, and asset & infrastructure protection.

You will play a critical role in driving the evolution of and building on the already sophisticated open source threat intelligence platform we have. You will partner closely with the CTO and core product engineering teams to build, scope, and build upon the ways our customers identify and respond to threats. You’ll be able to influence both how we evolve and how we get there.  Additionally, you’ll be responsible for the continued development and leadership of an amazing team of engineers.

What you do as the VP, Engineering at Liferaft

Set Vision & Strategy

• Collaborate with the CTO and executive leadership to establish the overarching technical vision, engineering processes, and best practices.
• Identify, manage, and reduce technical debt while setting clear objectives for the platform’s future state.

Lead & Mentor

• Build, inspire, and manage a high-performing team of software engineers, ensuring robust professional development and mentorship.
• Champion a collaborative, innovative, and growth-oriented culture within the engineering organization.

Oversee Architecture & Implementation

• Direct the design and development of scalable and secure backend architectures, ensuring robust data pipelines and infrastructure to support our threat intelligence platform.
• Guide the evolution of our React UI framework, delivering an exceptional and consistent user experience for clients.

Drive Data Integrity & Engineering Excellence

• Define and execute strategies for data ingestion, processing, and storage to ensure accuracy, scalability, and reliability.
• Collaborate with data stewards, product managers, and stakeholders to guarantee the integrity and relevancy of threat detection data.

UI Design Leadership

• Oversee UI/UX practices to maintain a cohesive design system across the platform, optimizing usability and customer delight.
• Continuously refine front-end architecture in alignment with modern technologies and frameworks.

Manage Cloud & On-Prem Infrastructure

• Ensure high availability, scalability, and performance of our SaaS offering using leading cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Develop robust disaster recovery and backup strategies in tandem with the DevOps and IT teams.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with data science, analytics, and business intelligence teams to empower data-driven decision-making and innovation.
• Work closely with IT, security, and compliance teams to ensure robust data privacy, security standards, and regulatory compliance.

Vendor & Stakeholder Management

• Evaluate and manage relationships with third-party vendors and service providers.
• Provide regular reports on system performance and key metrics to executive stakeholders.

Champion Continuous Improvement

• Implement processes that drive ongoing optimization of engineering workflows and platform capabilities.
• Stay current with industry trends, technologies, and best practices to maintain a leading-edge solution in the security space.

What You Need to Get the Job Done

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field. Advanced degrees (Master’s or Ph.D.) preferred.
• 15+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, with a focus on managing and leading teams.
• Proven experience in a leadership role within a data engineering or related function (Director level or above).
• Experience with PHP (or Python or Ruby) as well as Javascript and React. 
• In-depth knowledge of software architecture and system scalability.
• Demonstrated success in building and leading high-performance software engineering teams.
• Strong people management and mentorship skills.
• Experience in developing and executing strategic plans for data engineering initiatives.
• Proven ability to align data engineering strategies with overall business objectives.
• Experience in developing and implementing long-term roadmaps for product growth and evolution.
• Track record of successfully managing complex software engineering projects from conception to completion.
• Experience ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations and industry standards.
• Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and infrastructure management.
• Knowledge of best practices for scalable and resilient software architecture in cloud environments.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to effectively communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams, including data science, analytics, and business units.
• Demonstrated commitment to staying current with industry trends and advancements in data engineering.

Why Liferaft?

We pride ourselves on our innovative spirit and determination to help solve new challenges developed by the complexities of open source data. LifeRaft provides a threat intelligence and investigations platform, Navigator, to corporate security teams around the world, including some of the biggest brands you've probably referenced today! Navigator is designed to identify, track, and validate issues from open source channels (surface, deep web, and darknet) related to executive safety, fraud prevention, and asset & infrastructure protection. Our technology is helping keep these companies, their people, and their operations safe – making a real impact in the world we all live in.

The diversity of our team is integral to our success. We are a team of passionate and supportive individuals and pride ourselves in fostering a collaborative, innovative, and fun culture. 

We offer our team:

• Competitive compensation plan & benefits
• Investment in personal and professional growth
• Remote work/office space with flexible hours
• Flexible time off – Take a minimum of 15 days/year with no cap beyond!
• $750 Yearly Lifestyle Subsidy
• Diversity & Inclusion Committee
• Authentic, engaged team, who value work life balance

We’re building a company future generations can be proud of. Diversity at Liferaft  means fostering a workplace in which individual differences are recognized, appreciated, respected and responded to in ways that fully develop and utilize each person's talents and strengths. We welcome all qualified applicants regardless of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family status, genetic characteristics, disability, or any other protected characteristic.