---
title: 'AI Solutions Engineer (Senior / Principal) at RAVL'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/ai-solutions-engineer-senior-principal-ravl-toronto-cbdndn4541wx'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# AI Solutions Engineer (Senior / Principal) at RAVL

- **Company:** RAVL
- **Location:** Toronto, Canada
- **Employment:** contract
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-07-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/ravl_io/3ffb87bd-c214-4555-8b76-28df5a2214de

## Job description

RAVL helps technologists accelerate their careers. At RAVL, we connect strategy with execution, care deeply about the people we work with, and measure success by the lasting impact we leave behind. Our purpose is to build a team that puts real, sustainable business outcomes at the core of everything we do. We're here to leave our clients better than we found them—and to create a place where our people are proud to Build. Better.

## About the Role

We're looking for a Senior / Principal AI SDLC Engineer to help our financial services clients modernize how software is built, secured, and delivered in an AI-enabled world. This is a DevSecOps and developer platform engineering role focused on enabling both engineers and AI coding agents to deliver software safely within highly regulated enterprise environments. You'll build the secure delivery foundations that allow teams to create, review, test, approve, deploy, and operate software with confidence while meeting governance, security, and audit requirements. Rather than building customer-facing AI applications, you'll design and evolve the engineering platform that makes enterprise AI development scalable, secure, and repeatable. As a Senior or Principal engineer, you'll influence platform architecture, partner closely with engineering, security, and risk stakeholders, and help shape next-generation software delivery practices for some of Canada's leading financial institutions.

What does success look like in this role?

- Build and ship agents and AI apps on Vertex AI (Agent Builder, Gemini, Vector Search, Model Garden), served on GKE or Cloud Run.
- Integrate with GCP enterprise services: IAM and Workload Identity, Secret Manager, Pub/Sub, and Cloud Logging and Monitoring.
- Design and build self-service developer platforms that enable secure, policy-driven software delivery across enterprise environments.
- Develop automated delivery pipelines that integrate version control, CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, identity, secrets management, artifact repositories, and observability.
- Design secure operating models for AI coding agents, including controlled access to repositories, tools, execution environments, permissions, context, approvals, and audit trails.
- Strengthen the software supply chain through automated security practices including SAST, SCA, secrets detection, SBOM generation, artifact signing, provenance, dependency governance, and controlled promotion.
- Automate governance requirements such as separation of duties, approvals, traceability, retention, evidence collection, and compliance reporting without slowing delivery.
- Build risk-based deployment strategies including progressive delivery, release approvals, rollback capabilities, and automated release evidence for both deterministic and AI-assisted development workflows.
- Create reusable platform templates, paved roads, documentation, and engineering standards that make secure software delivery the easiest path for development teams.
- Lead architecture discussions, mentor engineers, and contribute reusable platform capabilities that strengthen both client delivery and RAVL's engineering practice.
- Collaborate with engineering, security, risk, audit, and operations teams to balance delivery velocity with enterprise governance requirements.

Sounds great, do my skills fit? We're looking for engineers who combine deep platform engineering expertise with modern DevSecOps practices and a passion for improving the software development lifecycle.

Required

- Hands-on Vertex AI for agent and LLM work (Gemini, Agent Builder, Vector Search), plus GKE or Cloud Run serving.
- Working GCP proficiency alongside Azure, not Azure or AWS only.
- Strong experience building and operating modern DevSecOps platforms including CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code, identity and access management, secrets management, secure execution environments, and observability platforms.
- Practical experience implementing software supply chain security, including SAST, SCA, secrets scanning, SBOM generation, artifact signing, provenance, dependency governance, and secure artifact promotion.
- Experience implementing policy-as-code and designing secure authorization models for automated development workflows and AI-assisted engineering tools.
- Strong understanding of enterprise change management, release management, auditability, and traceability across the full software delivery lifecycle.
- Experience building reliable engineering platforms that emphasize automation, developer experience, operational resilience, and governance.
- Strong understanding of cloud-native architecture, container platforms, and modern infrastructure automation.
- Experience collaborating with engineering, security, compliance, and risk stakeholders to implement practical governance in regulated environments.
- For Senior and Principal candidates, demonstrated experience leading platform architecture, mentoring engineers, influencing engineering strategy, and driving adoption across multiple delivery teams.

## Nice to Have

- Experience working within banking, insurance, wealth management, or other highly regulated industries.
- Experience with GitHub Enterprise, GitLab, Azure DevOps, Backstage, Harness, Argo CD, Tekton, or similar enterprise developer platforms.
- Experience with HashiCorp Vault, Open Policy Agent (OPA), Conftest, SonarQube, Snyk, Checkmarx, Veracode, JFrog Artifactory, or equivalent security tooling.
- Experience implementing SBOM generation, Sigstore/cosign signing, OpenTelemetry, or enterprise observability platforms.
- Experience supporting AI-assisted software development or enterprise coding agent platforms.
- Cloud, security, or DevSecOps certifications.

Mindset Traits

- You enjoy solving complex platform and governance challenges through thoughtful automation.
- You balance engineering velocity with operational discipline and regulatory requirements.
- You communicate effectively across engineering, security, operations, and executive stakeholders.
- You think in systems and build solutions that scale beyond a single project.
- You enjoy mentoring others and creating reusable capabilities that elevate entire engineering organizations.
- You're curious about the future of AI-enabled software development and excited to shape how modern engineering teams work.

Why join RAVL?

- Work alongside experienced consultants solving meaningful, enterprise-scale challenges.
- Help define how AI transforms software engineering and platform delivery within highly regulated industries.
- Flexible, client-aligned hybrid work model—autonomy with accountability, adapting to client delivery needs.
- Variable bonus & RRSP contributions tied to performance and delivery impact.
- 4 weeks paid time off (plus public holidays).
- Paid professional development days and continuous learning opportunities.
- Comprehensive health & dental coverage, including mental health support.
- Commitment to lifelong learning through mentorship, certifications, and continuous improvement.

## Compensation & Hiring Process

This is a current permanent opportunity. The salary range for this role is $120,000–$170,000 CAD, reflecting expected base pay. Total compensation may also include additional pay such as bonuses or incentives, depending on the position, and final offers are based on experience, skills, and qualifications. As part of our hiring process, we may use technology, including AI-based tools, to help summarize and assess applications. These tools assist our team and do not replace human review or decision-making.

## Equal Opportunity & Accessibility

RAVL is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and accessible workplace. We welcome applications from all qualified individuals and provide accommodations throughout the hiring process upon request.

## About RAVL

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: RAVL is a boutique advisory and engineering firm that helps North American financial services institutions build better technology through full-stack product development, AI modernization, cloud platform engineering, and DevSecOps.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Partnership; venture-backed with a 2025 round led by MML Capital Partners)
- **Headquarters**: Toronto, Ontario, Canada (East York; 6 Annesley Avenue, M4G 2T6), with a presence in the United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Founded by four partners; leadership includes Rick Davidson (Chief Executive Officer), Dominic Wallace (Chief Technology Officer), Sean Quinn (Chairman), and Ryan Kehl (Partner)

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: IT Services and IT Consulting; specialized in Financial Services technology (FSI)
- **Target customers**: Enterprise financial services institutions in North America (banks, insurers, capital markets firms), plus organizations undertaking legacy modernization, cloud transformation, and AI adoption
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "To be a true partner to our clients by building better technology that drives meaningful, long-lasting business outcomes." (Byline: "RAVL Builds. Better.")

## Products & Services
RAVL operates across three core delivery models plus an AI-focused methodology:

- **Advise (Strategize & Solution)**: Architecture design, business/technology capability mapping, business casing, cost optimization, customer journey mapping, governance, operating models, process improvement, technical assessments/root-cause analysis, technology selection, and technology strategy & roadmaps.
- **Build (Engineer & Deliver)**: Solutions architecture, cloud engineering, DevSecOps, platform engineering, Site Reliability Engineering, application development, AI & Machine Learning, and Infrastructure as Code.
- **BuildX (Sustain. Upskill. Empower.)**: Outcome-based delivery where clients can hire a subset of the RAVL team to extend the engagement. Combines cloud/platform engineering, software engineering, mentorship, and hands-on learning journeys.
- **AI / Leap Left (AI-first SDLC)**: RAVL's approach to AI-first software development lifecycle — aligning people, workflows, governance, and engineering systems to accelerate delivery while managing everything surrounding code creation.

Technical specialties include: full-stack digital product development, AI systems modernization (legacy-to-modern platform transformation), microservices & APIs, DevSecOps & developer experience, cloud platforms & tooling, and site reliability engineering.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding — venture round announced 2025-01-24, with 1 investor, led by MML Capital Partners; specific amount not publicly disclosed
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: MML Capital Partners (lead investor)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Headcount grew ~45.9% YoY (+34 employees, from ~54 to 88)
  - Monthly headcount growth at time of data: +3.8%
  - LinkedIn followers grew +32.9% yearly, to ~4,140
  - 22 active job postings (quarterly job posting trend: +57.1%)
  - Acquired New Helio, expanding capabilities
  - Workforce distributed across Canada (86) and the United States (2), with deep hiring from top consultancies and financial institutions (CGI, Capco, TD, Scotiabank, McKinsey & Company, Slalom)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Deep FSI domain fluency**: Decades of combined experience from North America's leading financial services institutions and top global consulting/engineering firms (McKinsey, Capco, TD, Scotiabank, etc.)
- **"Build. Better." execution bias**: Strategy work that is designed for real-world execution rather than slide-deck deliverables
- **End-to-end ownership**: Covers everything from advisory/strategy through build, cloud/platform engineering, DevSecOps, SRE, and AI modernization — not just code delivery
- **BuildX talent model**: A differentiated engagement model where clients can hire the team, enabling continuity and knowledge transfer rather than the traditional consultancy "hand-off"
- **Leap Left AI-first SDLC methodology**: A proprietary approach to AI-first software delivery that addresses the non-coding constraints (people, workflows, governance) around modern engineering
- **High employee satisfaction**: 4.8/5.0 employer rating (15 reviews) with culture rated 4.9 and career development rated 4.8 — a differentiator when attracting technologists

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling its AI-powered modernization and Leap Left methodology across financial services clients
- Continuing to build national (Canadian) and US presence through strategic hiring — particularly in technical roles (50 of ~88 employees are technical) and senior consulting talent
- Growing through selective acquisitions (e.g., New Helio) to expand advisory/engineering capacity
- Strengthening the BuildX model to deepen long-term client partnerships and talent development
- Building a "Talent Pool" pipeline for future hires, indicating proactive workforce planning around continued growth

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Rated 4.8/5.0 overall on employer review platforms — with Culture at 4.9, Career Development at 4.8, Work-Life Balance at 4.6, and Compensation at 4.6
- **Work model**: Hybrid workspace (combination of remote and on-site work) at the Toronto HQ
- **Growth environment**: 45.9% YoY headcount growth, 22 open positions, and heavy investment in mentorship and hands-on learning journeys (BuildX)
- **Engineering-led**: Technical staff make up ~46% of the workforce — engineers are core to the business, not an adjunct
- **Compensation benchmarks** (publicly listed salaries): Associate Engineer ~CAD 54,691/year; Consultant ~CAD 120,749/year; Principal Consultant ~CAD 223,802/year
- **Notable perk**: AI tools are used to support parts of the hiring process (resume review, response analysis), yet final decisions are human-driven — reflecting their AI-first but human-judgment approach
- **Impact**: Opportunity to work on mission-critical modernization and AI transformation projects for North America's leading financial institutions

## Sources
1. [ravl.io](https://www.ravl.io/)
2. [jobs.lever.co](https://jobs.lever.co/ravl_io)
3. [ca.linkedin.com](https://ca.linkedin.com/company/ravl-io)
4. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/ravl)
5. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/ravl)

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