Director of Engineering - AI

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. 

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.

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.

• 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

• 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)

• 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.