Software Engineer II - Toronto

About InstaLILY

InstaLILY is an AI products and infrastructure company that puts execution at the frontier of enterprise AI. That work begins with Lily™, the world's first AI Forward Deployed Engineer, which learns how a business works, builds the software it needs, and goes live in days. It does not leave when the work ships; it stays and keeps the software working as the business changes. Lily runs wherever the work happens, in the cloud, on-premise, or at the edge, through InstaLILY's Small Data Center, built with NVIDIA technology. Founded in 2023 by Amit Shah and Sumantro Das, InstaLILY has raised nearly $100 million from Energize Capital, Insight Partners, and Home Depot Ventures. Headquartered in New York, with offices in San Francisco, London, and Toronto, InstaLILY serves leading companies across construction, industrial distribution, logistics, healthcare, and other operationally intensive industries. Learn more at https://instalily.ai/.

The Traction

Revenue grew 5x over the past year, and Lily has driven over $200M in new annual sales for a single customer. We serve some of the largest operators in our industries, including SRS Distribution (part of The Home Depot family), United Rentals, and Henry Schein, and we work closely with the Google DeepMind and NVIDIA ecosystems.

How We Work

We work in small teams with real ownership: clear problems, direct access to the customers whose work you're changing, and room to ship. Your code runs in live production systems inside billion-dollar operations, so you see your impact directly. People who do well here want that proximity to the work. We're growing fast, and the people who join now shape what this company becomes. Everything runs on three principles: Customers, Culture, and Code.

Responsibilities

• Develop InstaLILY's AI platform and drive technical excellence throughout the organization
• Work closely with cross-functional teams (product, UI/UX, business development, growth) and key business stakeholders to design and implement new features and capabilities
• Lead technical discovery with enterprise customers and partner with the Growth team; translate complex real-world workflows into a shipped product
• Raise quality and reliability through comprehensive testing and CI/CD practices
• Build a rapport with the Lead Software Engineer and Head of Product while fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement
• Collaborate with the product and design teams to deliver high-quality products that meet customer needs
• Stay up-to-date with the latest AI and software engineering trends and technologies
• Mentor junior engineers: pair on hard problems, review code thoughtfully, and help them level up

Requirements

• Bachelor's in CS, engineering, math, physics, or related: demonstrated ability matters more than credential
• 1–3 years as a software engineer (strong candidates have shipped something with real users)
• Strong fluency in at least one backend language (Python, TypeScript, or similar) and a modern web stack
• Solid grasp of system design fundamentals (e.g., API design, data modeling, async patterns, caching, and queues)
• Entrepreneurial ownership: you've started or built something on your own initiative — a project, a product, a team — and can walk us through it
• Strong communication: you can explain what you built and why you built it that way to non-technical audiences
• Strong problem-solving and analytical thinking
• In-office availability: 5 days/week in our Toronto office

Please note that as part of our interview process, we typically expect candidates to travel to our New York City headquarters for the onsite interview. Please let us know if you require any accommodation or have any concerns.

Nice to Have

• Production experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and CI/CD pipelines
• AI-serious: you've built something with LLMs (a RAG system, an agent, a fine-tuned model, a real integration)

What You'll Get

• Proven product: Customers are live; this isn't a bet on an unproven thesis
• AI-native: In how we build, how we work, and what we sell
• Stage: Early enough to shape how the company scales
• Global: Based in New York with offices in SF, London, and Toronto
• Culture: Sharp, low-ego team that keeps raising the bar
• Growth: The learning curve is steep

Compensation and Benefits

• Salary Range: $90,000 - $110,000 CAD per year, commensurate with experience
• Equity: Generous stock options awards, and refreshers for top performers
• Benefits: Supplemental benefits, pension contribution, in-office lunch reimbursement, Wellbeing Stipend, Generous Parental leave, PTO and Ontario National Holidays, and more!

Quality Over Quantity

To ensure a focused, high-quality hiring experience, we kindly ask candidates to limit their applications to 3 open requisitions at any given time. Applying strategically to roles that best align with your skills and career goals gives you the highest chance of standing out. Have you interviewed with us in the past 12 months? We encourage you to reach out directly to your previous interviewer rather than submitting a new application.

InstaLILY is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. If you require an accommodation, please let us know, and we will work with you to meet your needs.

We use AI to assist with parts of our application review process. If you’d like to opt out, please contact our recruiting team ([email protected]).