Team Lead, Software Engineering

Toronto, Ontario, Canada$175k–225k

About Clutch

Clutch is Canada's largest online used car retailer, delivering a seamless, hassle-free car-buying experience to drivers everywhere. Customers can browse hundreds of cars from the comfort of their home, get the right one delivered to their door, and enjoy peace of mind with our 10-Day Money-Back Guarantee.

Named one of Canada's Top Growing Companies two years in a row and awarded a spot on LinkedIn's Top Canadian Startups list, we're looking to add curious, hard-working, and driven individuals to our growing team.

Headquartered in Toronto, Clutch was founded in 2017. Clutch is backed by world-class investors including Canaan, BrandProject, Real Ventures, D1 Capital, and Upper90. To learn more, visit clutch.ca

Technology

Full TypeScript stack for front- and back-end, with some legacy JavaScript

Front-end: ReactJS app with functional components and context API

Back-end: ExpressJS with PostgreSQL database and Sequelize ORM

Microservices architecture using Docker, Terraform, AWS ECS, and other AWS services

Interservice communication via RabbitMQ and Apache Kafka

About the role

Clutch is seeking a Team Lead, Software Engineering to lead a team of engineers building and scaling our platform. This is a player-coach role: you'll split your time roughly evenly between hands-on engineering and team leadership, mentoring engineers, owning team delivery, and partnering with product to ship work that moves the business forward. You'll partner closely with other engineering leaders on technical direction and cross-team initiatives while owning the health, growth, and execution of your team.

What you'll do

Lead a team of 3–5 engineers, owning their growth, performance, career development, and day-to-day delivery

Stay hands-on, contributing roughly half your time to code, architecture, and technical design across the stack

Partner with Product, Design, and Data to translate business priorities into a clear roadmap and well-scoped engineering work

Drive execution and delivery for your team, removing blockers, managing trade-offs, and keeping work aligned with business goals

Coach engineers through peer review, pairing, system design discussions, and regular 1:1s, raising the bar on quality across the team

Partner with Staff Engineers and other leads on cross-team architecture, technical standards, and platform direction

Hire, onboard, and retain great engineers as the team grows

What we're looking for

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent experience

7+ years of industry experience building software, with at least 1–2 years leading or managing engineers

Strong proficiency in modern programming languages (TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, etc.) and frontend or backend frameworks (React, Vue, Express, etc.)

Solid experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) and microservices architecture

Strong database skills with PostgreSQL or similar: schema design, query optimization, and performance tuning

Proven track record of shipping complex projects end-to-end and balancing technical debt against new delivery

Experience coaching and growing engineers — running 1:1s, giving feedback, supporting career development, and handling performance conversations

Comfortable operating in Agile environments (Scrum or Kanban) using tools like Jira or GitHub Projects

Strong communication skills and the ability to partner effectively with cross-functional stakeholders

Why you'll love it at Clutch

Autonomy & ownership – create your own path and own your work

Competitive compensation and equity incentives

Generous time off program

Health & dental benefits

Employment Type Existing, Permanent Full-Time, Hybrid

Compensation & Benefits

Salary: $175,000 - $225,000

Equity incentives

Comprehensive healthcare, dental, vision, life insurance, and dependent coverage starting from day 1

Clutch is committed to fostering an inclusive workplace where all individuals have an opportunity to succeed. If you require accommodation at any stage of the interview process, please email talent@clutch.ca