Engineering Lead- Global Payments Engineering

Requisition ID: 265290 

Join a purpose driven winning team, committed to results, in an inclusive and high-performing culture.

Scotiabank continues to be an industry leader for Payments technology and innovation. We have a history of safely leveraging new tools to enable new experiences for our customers, focusing on ensuring we protect their interests and goals. The result of this leads to modernization programs which aim to offer enriched information and transparencies to support the rapidly evolving payments community.

The Role

The Engineering Manager for Scotiabank’s Low Value Payments Technology leads the engineering team responsible for maintaining mission-critical 24/7 payment systems.  Our platforms enable customers across all segments (Retail, Small Business and Commercial) to access a wide array of payment services through API, online and mobile channels.  We’re looking for a driven person that combines strong engineering fundamentals with people leadership, platform thinking, and a passion for building high-performing teams. You will be responsible for owning the technical execution of our payments roadmap and ensuring platform stability, security and reliability.

What You’ll Do:

Program Leadership

• Lead delivery across a large, cross-functional engineering team delivering on our real time payments modernization program
• Work in tandem with the product owner and the engineering team to translate strategic objectives into actionable plans, and ensure alignment across engineering, product, and architecture stakeholders.
• Stakeholder management: Build and maintain strong working relationships with stakeholders across payments and adjacent domains (e.g., fraud, core banking, channels, operations).

Delivery Excellence

• Facilitate program-level planning with architects, senior engineers, and peer leaders to define scope, sequencing, and delivery commitments.
• Identify and manage risks and dependencies, escalating issues early to support timely resolution.
• Communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences, providing clear updates on progress, risk & trade-offs.  Demonstrate a pragmatic and results-driven approach to execution, balancing speed, quality, and risk in a highly regulated environment.

Team Leadership

• Develop high-performing engineering teams, fostering a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and technical excellence.
• Understand and address challenges faced by engineers and business analysts across the delivery lifecycle, enabling teams to perform effectively.
• Coach and mentor engineers and emerging leaders, supporting their growth & reinforcing strong delivery & engineering practices

Technical & Engineering Leadership

• Provide hands-on technical leadership by being actively involved across the development lifecycle – from discovery & requirements gathering to testing, implementation planning & release
• Lead technical discussions, challenge assumptions, ensure solutions are scalable and maintainable
• Partner closely with architecture and senior technical leaders to ensure alignment with broader technology direction.

Organizational Expectations

• Understand how the Bank’s risk appetite and risk culture should be considered in day-to-day activities and decisions.
• Uphold Scotiabank’s Values and Code of Conduct, promoting a culture of integrity and accountability across the team.
• Stay informed and take responsibility for ensuring teams operate in line with risk and compliance expectations.Champions a high performance environment and contributes to an inclusive, collaborative and respectful work environment.

What You'll Bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven (2+ years) experience leading engineering teams delivering complex, large-scale technology programs within an enterprise environment.
• 5+ years working in a software development environment.  Demonstrate strong understanding of the software development lifecycle, including requirements, design, development, testing, and production support.
• Solid technical foundation with the ability to lead engineering discussions, challenge design decisions, and guide teams toward scalable and maintainable solutions
• Broad understanding of modern engineering practices, including APIs, microservices, event-driven architectures, and DevOps/CI-CD principles.
• Ability to quickly learn new technologies and domains, & exercise sound judgment to guide engineering teams towards practical and effective solutions.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to simplify complex concepts and make informed decisions

Preferred/Nice to Have

• Experience working in real-time payments, including RTR or similar instant payment systems.
• Experience in transaction banking or related domains such as payments processing, cash management, or core banking.
• Prior hands-on development experience or technical background in software engineering.
• Demonstrated experience leading or contributing to large-scale, complex technology programs involving multiple teams and stakeholders – bonus if in banking or financial services

Key Competencies

• Technical Judgment: apply engineering fundamentals to guide technical discussions, challenge assumptions, and facilitate sound design decisions.
• Able to motivate people & provide useful feedback to support their growth
• Communicates clearly and concisely, adapting messaging to different audiences and influencing decisions effectively.
• Problem solving & critical thinking; breaks down complex problems and makes informed, pragmatic decisions

Why This Role Is For You

• You want to lead a large-scale modernization program that is transforming how payments are executed in Canada.
• You’re motivated by solving complex, real-world problems in a highly visible and mission-critical environment.
• You bring a strong technical mindset, but prefer to lead, guide, and enable teams rather than focus solely on hands-on development.
• You thrive in environments that require both structure and adaptability, where priorities evolve and thoughtful decision-making is key.
• You value impact, ownership, and continuous growth, and want to play a key role in shaping the future of payments technology.

What's in it for you?

• You’ll join a team focused on building cloud platforms as products, enabling delivery teams across the enterprise rather than acting as a centralized gatekeeper or operating within a narrow delivery focus. This role offers exposure to a wide range of technologies, problem domains, and stakeholders.

• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Allyship - We strive to create an inclusive culture where every employee is empowered to reach their fullest potential, respected for who they are, and are embraced through bias-free practices and inclusive values across Scotiabank. We embrace diversity and provide opportunities for all employee to learn, grow & participate through our various Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that span across diverse gender identities, ethnicity, race, age, ability & veterans.
• Accessibility and Workplace Accommodations - We value the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the Bank and are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone. Scotiabank continues to locate, remove, and prevent barriers so that we can build a diverse and inclusive environment while meeting accessibility requirements.
• Upskilling through online courses, cross-functional development opportunities, and tuition assistance.
• Competitive Rewards program including bonus, flexible vacation, personal, sick days, and benefits will start on day one.
• Community Engagement - no matter where you choose to work from; we offer opportunities for community engagement & belonging with our various programs.

Location(s):  Canada : Ontario : Toronto 

Scotiabank is a leading bank in the Americas. Guided by our purpose: "for every future", we help our customers, their families and their communities achieve success through a broad range of advice, products and services, including personal and commercial banking, wealth management and private banking, corporate and investment banking, and capital markets.  

At Scotiabank, we value the unique skills and experiences each individual brings to the Bank, and are committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and accessible environment for everyone. If you require accommodation (including, but not limited to, an accessible interview site, alternate format documents, ASL Interpreter, or Assistive Technology) during the recruitment and selection process, please let our  Recruitment team know. If you require technical assistance, please click here. Candidates must apply directly online to be considered for this role. We thank all applicants for their interest in a career at Scotiabank; however, only those candidates who are selected for an interview will be contacted.