POSITION OVERVIEWBDC Mission AI helps small and medium-sized businesses identify their needs, matches them with Canadian AI solutions, and tests these tools in real-world business settings. To do this, we're building a self-sufficient and agile AI platform, moving at a startup's pace.
As Director of Technology, you are a builder who codes. You design and operate the Mission AI platform, lead a small team that delivers quickly, and contribute your AI expertise to technology and investment decisions. You make technical decisions within the authorized framework, in collaboration with business leaders-who define requirements and value criteria-and with the validation and investment teams.
CHALLENGES TO BE MET1.
AI Architecture and Platform- Define the architecture and technology roadmap for the AI platform, including decisions on whether to build, buy, or partner.
- Deliver platform milestones, from the diagnostic MVP to its phased rollout to Canadian SMEs.
- Establish AI system evaluation, human oversight, and tracking of operating costs.
2.
Development and Team Leadership- Recruit, lead, and develop the AI development team; establish best practices for delivery, quality, and AI-assisted development.
3.
Internal and External Technology- Develop the team's internal tools: radar, pilot tracking, and metrics dashboards.
- Provide the team with AI agents and automations that increase their autonomy and productivity; make Mission AI a model for AI-driven work.
- Manage technology vendors and platform operations: availability, access, security, and disaster recovery.
- Integrate BDC systems only when necessary, using lightweight connections.
- Obtain BDC's security and data protection approvals without slowing down delivery.
- Conduct technical due diligence on investments: architecture, code quality, AI defensibility, data, security, intellectual property, costs, and scalability.
- Evaluate the security and integrability of solutions with the relevant teams prior to approval.
4.
Metrics and Data- Measure usage and productivity gains at 3, 6, and 12 months.
- Conduct assessments and create a dynamic map of SMB needs.
Priorities for the First 90 Days• Define the architecture, data model, security requirements, and delivery plan.
• Deliver the diagnostic MVP and test it with pilot SMEs.
• Hire the first AI developers and establish development and evaluation practices.
What Success Looks Like (12-18 months)• Platform milestones achieved, from the MVP to nationwide rollout.
• Quality of AI recommendations and responses, reliability, cost per diagnosis.
• Technical deliverables completed on schedule; team autonomy.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR- 10 or more years in software development
- At least 7 years in technical leadership as well
- Someone who still codes on a daily basis
- Active developer: proficiency in a modern programming language and the ability to deploy to production independently.
- Advanced AI expertise: products in production based on large language models (agents, RAG, evaluations, costs, and performance).
- Knowledge of the model ecosystem (commercial, open-source, and Canadian) and the ability to select the right model for the use case.
- Proficiency in cloud architecture, APIs, data pipelines, and application security.
- Ability to explain a technical risk to a business stakeholder and to critically evaluate a startup or vendor.
Assets- Experience as a CTO or founding engineer at a startup or scale-up: strongly preferred.
- Technical due diligence for investments (funds, venture studios, acquisitions).
- Visible contributions: open-source projects, technical publications, launched AI products.
- Knowledge of security requirements in regulated environments (financial institutions or government).
What Will Make the Difference- Pragmatic builder: prototypes in days, deploys to production in weeks.
- Stays at the cutting edge of AI and applies it practically, without chasing every trend.
- Keeps the user in focus: an SME owner with no IT staff or spare time.
- Builds a platform where AI is the driving force, not an add-on, and empowers the entire team to work differently.
Why join BDC?Combine the scale and mission of a national development bank with the autonomy of a startup. You'll contribute to one of BDC's most ambitious initiatives and shape the adoption of AI by Canadian SMEs.
