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About the Company

Client is a computer vision, deep learning software engineering company based in Montreal, a renowned hub for AI.

This profitable startup has a number of Fortune 100 customers and partner and is currently in the process of establishing itself as the number one Visual AI and machine learning runtime engine in the entertainment, robotics, sports and health & Safety industry.  This company has great roots, establishing itself in TandemLaunch, an AI focused incubator that has created over 25 ventures, collectively raised over $150M in capital and valued at over $500M.

Scope of Position:

As the VP R&D the candidate will play an integral part in the leadership team as you guide and mentor the brilliant minds of the R&D team.  You will lead the team implementing new technologies, outlining development goals and using stakeholder feedback to build of class Visual AI technology engine and tool set.  You will be challenged to keep a customer focused outlook as the company continues to partner with some of the largest players in the entertainment, sports and analytics, health and safety, and robotics.

The R&D team will be on the forefront of AI, computer vision and machine learning.  The client’s runtime engine is designed to extract human motion and activities from standard video.  It analyses regular 2D RGB video and returns 3D motion data in real time.  The client’s solution processes multiple 2D cameras feeds and recognizes human motion and behaviour enabling developers to create applications in a wide range of industries, such as entertainment, sports and analytics, health and safety, and robotics.

The ideal candidate will take on the leadership role while transitioning an extremely talented team from an early stage company environment to a scaling one.  This person will have a strong technical background, willing to lead by example and coach a growing and dynamic team through the various phases of the company’s scale up journey.  The candidate will have an appreciation for an early stage environment and will creatively work around constraints and unforeseen challenges.

Competencies

Developing and Coaching Others

Accurately assesses strengths and development needs of employees; Challenges others to improve their abilities and actively supports their development; Continually provides timely and constructive feedback, coaching and challenging learning opportunities; Adjusts coaching style based on each employee’s ability and motivation level.

Results Orientation

Focuses strongly on achieving agreed upon outcomes and ensures that key objectives are met; Has a reputation for execution and delivery; Conveys a sense of urgency and drives issues to closure; Aims to improve upon past performance; Establishes ambitious personal targets and strives to achieve/exceed them.

Strategic Approach

Develops a strategic plan to realize the vision; Revises strategy in light of changing circumstances; Takes a long-term view of organizational success; Works to clarify long term organizational goals; Able to stand back from immediate problems in order to focus on more far reaching ideas.

Innovation

Generates new ideas; Challenges existing assumptions; Goes beyond the status quo; Recognizes the need for new or modified approaches; Brings various perspectives and approaches together, combining them in a creative fashion to implement effective improvements.

Responsibilities

The successful candidate will bring a demonstrated ability to: 

• Lead a diverse team of software developers and research scientists in the field of AI, Machine Learning and Computer Vision.
• Hire, coach and mentor a growing technical team that is world-class.
• Interface and collaborate with all business functions, from the Product Owner to Sales and other support functions to ensure that the feature set requirements are in line with market expectations and are designed to enhance the customer experience.
• Will prioritize and manage all software development efforts to ensure they are aligned with business objectives, and work with peers, mainly VP Products and VP Production, to develop and maintain a product requirements/feature backlog.
• Define and implement a design methodology and process that emphasizes best practices in delivering cutting edge software.
• Responsible for driving continuous improvement within the science and the software development teams to consistently improve quality, cycle and deployment time.
• Also, assist with client presentations, demonstrations, and technical meetings.
• Monitor new emerging technologies, execute the technology roadmap based on market demand/constraints.
• Develop the science and software development teams to ensure the required skills, training, and staffing levels are available, coordinating with the business to ensure the team is suited to the expected workload
• Conduct performance reviews of all team members.
• Promote a strong, driven and dependable team environment through strong leadership and the effective use of hiring, mentoring, coaching, performance management and skills development.
• Responsible for meeting overall schedule and budget committed to in the development plan.

Preferred Experience and Education

The following indicates specific industry, academic and functional experience/qualifications that are important to the successful achievement of the identified responsibilities and performance deliverables.

• Must have a University Degree in Ph. D. or Masters in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering at a minimum.
• 10 plus years of experience in a leadership role as head of a Software Development team.
• Extensive knowledge and enthusiasm for AI and machine vision software solutions.
• Demonstrated experience in building and delivering high-quality software platforms.
• Must be able to demonstrate senior level experience in the architecture, development, release cycle and delivering software products to the enterprise market.
• Proven success implementing software development methodologies, while establishing and maintaining pragmatic engineering best practices (e.g. code reviews, testing, continuous delivery).
• Understanding of budgets and business planning.
• Have experience working in a startup environment as an early contributor is highly desirable.
• Ability to work, mentor and coach a diverse team in order to achieve optimal performance of the collective group, as well as, helping shape their career paths.
• Has worked in and understands dynamic startup environment.

Remuneration and Benefits

Competitive salary, stock options and comprehensive benefits package that includes medical/dental insurance plan, 50% of a gym membership paid and group RRSP.  Four weeks’ vacation as well as an additional week at Christmas – New Years.