Principal Engineer

September 5, 2025

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Job Description

Description

Hybrid Role – Toronto, Canada

We are Koru.

Koru is a first of its kind venture studio funded by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. We partner with OTPP portfolio companies to build and invest in businesses with a clear right to win.

Founded in 2019, our mission is to drive value creation aimed at growing the overall value of OTPP’s portfolio companies by partnering with them to identify, validate, build and oversee new disruptive businesses. We go from 0-1, building ventures that address customer frictions head-on — and we leverage our corporate partnerships to gain unfair advantages in the market.

We offer a unique balance of risk and reward where startup talent can build with the backing of a $250B pension plan and the ability to impact portfolio companies all around the world, explore disruptive new opportunities and share in the upside of every business we put into the market. We promote a truly entrepreneurial mindset and a culture of spirited reinvention.

You will have a unique opportunity to be exposed to a wide array of industries, and be a vital voice when it comes to your particular domain, but also various areas of the businesses you’ll launch. Since 2019, we’ve launched 10 ventures across a broad array of industries and problem spaces. Take a look at our portfolio of ventures to see for yourself.

Do you get excited by architecting, testing, and prototyping? Do you love building innovative capabilities that allow new entrants to disrupt existing industries? Are you collaborative, have an entrepreneurial spirit, navigate ambiguity confidently, and thrive in a dynamic startup environment? Then this could be the opportunity for you!

About the Director of Technology role:

This role requires someone who takes ownership, can work independently, and is hands-on with their full stack development skills to execute effectively with minimal supervision.

Their main responsibilities include:

Collaborating across disciplines : Partner closely with engineering leadership, product, design, business, and growth teams to align on building the right solutions at the right time, prioritizing impact and efficiency in a fast-paced, iterative environment.

Prototyping and validating : Lead the creation of technical proofs-of-concept (POCs) to test and validate new ideas quickly, ensuring feasibility and alignment with business priorities.

Owning technical execution : Partner with engineering leadership and provide support for technical due diligence, vendor selection, and technical architecture, including build/buy/partner evaluations, to ensure alignment with business goals.

Hands-on early-stage development : Take full ownership of building and delivering core features and functionality solo in the earliest stages.

Driving agile excellence : Implement and advocate for agile practices that enable iterative product development informed by customer validation and feedback loops across cross-functional teams.

Driving cross-venture learning : Proactively stay up to date with the latest advancements in technology. Share best practices, lessons learned, and innovative approaches across ventures to continuously elevate engineering processes and outcomes

You should have:

  • A minimum of 7 years of experience in technology development
  • Experience working across platforms & technologies, such as web and mobile apps, SaaS, big data and/or AI and ML powered platforms.
  • Strong communication skills that contribute to an open and collaborative environment.
  • Experience working with agile, lean and continuous delivery approaches.
  • An ability to embrace and reduce uncertainty through continual validated learning
  • Real passion for solving customer frictions through simple and effective software

It would be nice if you have:

  • Experience in building completely new products from 0-1, and bringing them to market
  • Experience as a Founding Engineer or very early hire in a startup

What happens next?

Once we review your application, if we’d like to move you forward in the process, here’s what you can expect:

Step 1: Functional 1 – Interview with the Hiring Lead (Virtual, 30-45 minutes)

Step 2: Functional 2 – Interview with a Team Member (Virtual, 30-45 minutes)

Step 3: Practical Challenge

  • Presentation prep on your own time
  • Presentation Delivery: 60 minutes total (Virtual or In-Person, 30 minutes presentation & 30 minutes Q&A).
  • Team Interview: 3:1 interview with panel participants (Virtual or In-Person, 45 minutes).

Step 4: Candidate Debrief

Step 5: 1:1 Partner Interview (Virtual or In-Person, 30 minutes)

Step 6: Offer

Total Rewards at Koru.

Our total rewards package is balanced, flexible, inclusive, and fair which makes it a key part of our employer value proposition. We regularly review and update our total rewards, taking into

Company

Fig

Location

Toronto

Country

Canada

Salary

125.000

URL

https://en-ca.whatjobs.com/coopob__cpl___291_2627592__3337?utm_source=3337&utm_medium=feed&keyword=Principal-Engineer&location=Toronto&geoID=6225