Engineering Manager - Canada

About Ashby and the Role

Ashby, a rapidly growing software company, is expanding its Engineering team in Toronto, Canada, and is seeking an experienced Engineering Manager. This leader will be a former engineer who has successfully built products and now focuses on developing and leading high-performing engineering teams. Ashby's innovative product, Ashby All-in-One, serves notable clients such as Notion, Linear, Shopify, and Snowflake, with impressive growth exceeding 100% year-over-year and strong customer retention.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of 3 to 5 engineers, hiring an equal number to scale the department across various specialties including product engineering, site reliability, and design engineering.
• Provide constructive feedback on product and technical specifications to help engineers optimize scope and quality without making final decisions, focusing on coaching and influencing individual contributors.
• Mentor engineers to confidently tackle large, loosely defined projects with minimal guidance.
• Maintain hands-on engineering skills by debugging issues, shipping minor bug fixes, and enhancing developer experience while avoiding critical path disruptions.
• Propose and lead company-wide initiatives such as improving pull request review processes, refining interview practices to be more candidate- and team-friendly, and enhancing demo account data generation and simulation.

What Ashby Builds

Ashby is dedicated to revolutionizing Talent Acquisition (TA) software by providing intelligent, powerful tools that streamline recruiting efforts—automating scheduling, managing interviewers' availability, and integrating data insights to improve hiring efficiency. The platform has evolved to also support HR functions like onboarding and performance management.

Candidate Profile

• Must have a passion for software engineering and continuous skill development as a foundation for leadership.
• Ambitious and proactive, keen to challenge norms and drive change beyond standard processes and structures.
• Preferably someone who pursued management from a strong technical background and could have been a Principal engineer.
• Committed to fostering a team culture of ownership and autonomy, especially among early- to mid-career engineers.
• Believes in engineering leadership through example and impact rather than project management or solely architectural oversight.
• Optimistic about building a large, high-functioning engineering team that avoids heavy process in favor of individual and team autonomy.

Engineering Culture

• Minimal processes with a high degree of individual ownership over product and technical decisions.
• Collaborative team environment with deliberate, thoughtful communication and very low meeting overhead (under 2 hours weekly).
• Emphasis on building high-quality, scalable software supported by developer tooling, reusable components, and AI-powered automation to improve engineer productivity.
• Commitment to diversity, with 25% of engineers and 50% of engineering leaders from underrepresented groups, supported by inclusive practices such as generous family leave and thoughtful interview design.

Work-Life Balance and Benefits

• A culture that encourages working at a sustainable pace, not overwork, with flexibility in scheduling and the ability to set your own hours.
• Unlimited paid time off with actual usage encouraged; some team members take about 30 vacation days annually.
• Supportive environment for working parents, accommodating family needs and flexible work hours.

Interview Process

• Multiple live interviews totaling approximately 5 hours 15 minutes, including code pairing, leadership experience discussions, and meetings with senior engineering leaders.
• A possible initial screening call with a recruiter.
• Reference checks near the final stage.
• Opportunities for informal chats prior to application to ensure mutual fit.