Director, Software Development (livenation)

Job Description

Job Summary:

DIRECTOR, SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Location: Toronto, Canada

Division: Ticketmaster NA - Technology

Line Manager: VP of Software Engineering

Contract Terms: Permanent, 37.5 hours per week

THE TEAM

Within the B2B world of TM1, the Sales and Orders teams supports box offices in handling sales and managing orders placed across the world.  As our internal tech architecture and product capabilities evolve, we are working towards a goal to unify our Point of Sales product into a single global solution, available to all markets, in addition to providing richer features to our user base.

THE JOB

Ticketmaster is looking for an experienced, motivated, technical Director of Software Development to lead the technical strategy, execution and growth of our engineering function - while also serving as an active engineering manager for one of our core teams.  This hybrid role blends strategic leadership with hands-on team management, ideal for someone who thrives on shaping systems and supporting individuals alike.

As a Director of Software Development, you will be responsible for providing hands-on leadership to the business-critical TM1 Orders team, defining technical vision towards building new features and product and driving strategic architectural discussions and decisions across the tech function relating to your broader area of TM1 Sales and Orders.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING

Strategic Leadership

• Define and execute the long-term engineering vision in alignment with company goals.
• Create, review and assist the team in designing and implementing technical strategy to build out and integrate new products and features, or deprecate outdated tech.
• Champion a culture of technical excellence, operational efficiency, and continuous improvement.

Team Management

• Directly manage and coach a number of engineering pods (~12 perm developers), providing regular feedback, career development guidance, and performance reviews.
• Support sprint planning, project scoping, and day-to-day engineering execution.
• Facilitate a psychologically safe and inclusive environment for team members to thrive.
• Balance individual mentorship and career growth in the context of a strong delivery focus.

Technical and Delivery Leadership

• Stay close to architectural decisions and ensure high standards in code quality, security, and scalability.
• Help resolve blockers and contribute to system design reviews as needed.
• Manage cross-team dependencies and work with tech leads on solutions.
• Validate team level-of-effort estimates and ensure delivery efficiency.

Operational/Engineering Excellence

• Drive initiatives to lower overall operational costs of running the business; coaching the developers to understand the cost of their technical design choices.
• Oversee the design, development and maintenance of scalable engineering infrastructure, ensuring performance, resilience and reliability.
• Establish and promote best practices, standards and documentation to ensure reliability and maintainability of the products, and compliance with the expected data governance, security and compliance requirements.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with product and UX teams to gather and understand requirements, discuss approaches, design solutions based on the requirements and create design documents for implementation - keeping in mind costs, capacity, shelf-life and choosing the right tools and technologies.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW (or TECHNICAL SKILLS)

Proven experience as a Director or Senior Software Development Manager in an evolving product & tech environment, with demonstrable experience in:

• both engineering management and strategic leadership experience, across tech, people and processes
• software engineering for backend technologies (Java, ideally Springboot), databases, and front-end frameworks (ideally React/Java); having previously been hands-on at lead+ level in at least one of these domains.
• balancing technical/architectural debt, system health and product development and experience steering a course to deprecate old systems in conjunction with any product work.
• cloud-based platforms (preferably AWS) and understanding of operational costs.
• understanding of modern observability platform and standards.
• Agile development environments and using tools such as Jira and confluence.
• driving improvements in ways of working for team efficiency to create a high-performing team.
• managing cross-functional teams in a geographically and culturally diverse environment. 

Deep understanding of:

• engineering principles, strong managerial skills and the ability to drive delivery, tech stack modernization and operational excellence.
• Knowledge of software engineering best practices, version control systems (Gitlab), CI/CD pipelines.

YOU (BEHAVIOURAL SKILLS)

• Comfortable switching between strategic leadership and tactical execution.
• Adaptable - anticipate change and helps teams navigate uncertainty or significant challenges with composure, supporting others in maintaining stability and focus.
• Accountable - a reliable self-starter who can be counted on to produce quality work, takes ownership to deliver strong results, with a focus on impact.
• Great communication - able to adapt style, content and tone to audience to influence at all levels of the organisation; able to clearly communicate ideas, work status and advocate for/against a particular approach or design.
• Cross-Collaboration - build and maintain strong, trust-based relationships across teams.
• Prioritization - make informed decisions accounting for urgency and importance, balancing priorities and maintaining focus on key goals and outcomes, even in complex environments.

LIFE AT TICKETMASTER

We are proud to be a part of Live Nation Entertainment, the world’s largest live entertainment company.

Our vision at Ticketmaster is to connect people around the world to the live events they love. As the world’s largest ticket marketplace and the leading global provider of enterprise tools and services for the live entertainment business, we are uniquely positioned to successfully deliver on that vision. 

We do it all with an intense passion for Live and an inspiring and diverse culture driven by accessible leaders, attentive managers, and enthusiastic teams. If you’re passionate about live entertainment like we are, and you want to work at a company dedicated to helping millions of fans experience it, we want to hear from you.

Our work is guided by our values:

Reliability - We understand that fans and clients rely on us to power their live event experiences, and we rely on each other to make it happen.

Teamwork - We believe individual achievement pales in comparison to the level of success that can be achieved by a team

Integrity - We are committed to the highest moral and ethical standards on behalf of the countless partners and stakeholders we represent

Belonging - We are committed to building a culture in which all people can be their authentic selves, have an equal voice and opportunities to thrive

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

We are passionate and committed to our people and go beyond the rhetoric of diversity and inclusion. You will be working in an inclusive environment and be encouraged to bring your whole self to work. We will do all that we can to help you successfully balance your work and homelife. As a growing business we will encourage you to develop your professional and personal aspirations, enjoy new experiences, and learn from the talented people you will be working with. It's talent that matters to us and we encourage applications from people irrespective of their gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability status or caring responsibilities.

Ticketmaster Canada will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in the job application process. If you have difficulty using our online application system and need an accommodation due to a disability, please email accessibilitycanada@ticketmaster.ca. Please note this inbox is limited to accommodation requests. Resumes submitted to this inbox will not be considered.