Sago Mini is an award-winning company devoted to play. With three subscription services and over 10 million monthly active users, Sago Mini creates apps that seed imagination, grow wonder, and bring thoughtful design to life for preschoolers and parents worldwide. Proudly Canadian, Sago Mini is a subsidiary of Spin Master, a leading global children’s entertainment company. Along with sister studios Toca Boca and Originator, Sago Mini is part of the Piknik bundle – a collection of the world’s best apps for kids in one subscription.
About the Role
The Sago Mini team is hiring an Engineering Manager to lead our Web Platform team. This small but mighty team owns the backend services, internal tools, and web apps that power our products and operations. You'll guide and support the team while also staying hands-on by writing code, shaping architecture, and solving technical problems where it counts most. You’ll collaborate closely with teams across the company, champion technical excellence, and help shape how we build for the future. If you get energized by helping people grow and want to work on products you can be proud of, then you'll love working at Sago Mini, and we can't wait to hear from you.
It’s important to note that this role is hybrid, requiring you to work from our downtown Toronto studio three days a week.
You’ll thrive in this role if you…
- You’ve led projects, mentored others, and either already manage or are ready to take that next step. This is a true player-coach role. The team is small right now (two devs plus you), so you’ll spend about half your time coding and the other half on planning, people, and leadership. You know the balance won’t always be easy, but you're excited by the challenge and organized enough to make it work.
- You like to move fast, spot problems early, and lean toward simple solutions over complex ones. You’re good at clearing the path and challenging teams to try new things.
- Sweat the details, but know when something isn’t worth the extra time.
- Get excited about making digital products that delight kids and parents around the world.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Lead our Web Platform team, a small, central group that builds and maintains the backend services that power our mobile apps (e.g. auth, accounts, and subscription management), internal tools (e.g. admin dashboard), and web applications (e.g. web store for selling digital subscriptions).
- Your time will be split between supporting the team (e.g. people management, planning, and collaboration) and contributing directly to the codebase. As the team grows in the coming years, you’ll shift more into a full management role.
- Manage our two web developers on the platform team. You'll run regular 1on1s, support career growth, and take the lead on hiring and onboarding as the team expands.
- Help shape technical direction by setting best practices, participating in design reviews, and guiding architectural decisions.
- Run sprints, manage incoming requests, clarify requirements, and help prioritize what the platform team tackles next.
- Work closely with product and content teams across the company to design shared solutions that support their goals and reduce duplicated effort.
Qualifications and Skills
- Experience leading projects from idea to launch. You’re organized, comfortable leading strategy, running sprints, and keeping your team focused on what matters.
- Great at translating technical ideas for different audiences and collaborating with product partners to keep things moving. You also understand what it takes to be a great shared service team: staying responsive and earning other teams’ trust.
- You know that work doesn’t happen without great people. You know how to build trust, lead 1-on-1s that make a difference, and have helped staff grow in their careers.
- Have built and operated web services using modern open source stacks. Our team primarily uses TypeScript, NestJS, and Postgres.
- You're comfortable wearing the DevOps hat and have experience architecting, managing, and scaling cloud infrastructure (we use AWS) to keep services humming along reliably and securely.
- Know when to lean on SaaS development tools (e.g. CI/CD, monitoring, testing) that handle the heavy lifting and help the team move faster.
- Know how to use third-party AI/ML services to create product features and tools, focusing on practical application rather than building the core tech internally.
- Experienced in growing teams whether it’s hiring directly or bringing in contractors and agencies that can integrate well, meet quality standards, and accelerate delivery.
- It’s a plus if you’ve worked with mobile apps or games and have experience with in-app purchases or app store integrations.
- Hold a degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent hands-on experience.
About the Process
- Once you apply, you'll receive an email confirming that we've received your application. After we've had a chance to review your application (1-2 weeks), we'll reach out to let you know what the next steps are.
- If you are moving ahead, your first interview will be a 30 min interview where we'll learn more about you and answer any questions you have about the role.
- In your second interview, you meet with a cross-functional group of Sago Mini teammates for 1.5hrs. You'll discuss your experience and let us know what you're excited to tackle next in your career.
- Next, we will ask you to complete a short take-home assignment that will assess your tech skills.
- Your fourth and final interview will be a 1.5hr technical interview where we will explore your technical experiences through questions/answers and a live exercise.
We welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.
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Based in Toronto, Sago Sago Toys is a subsidiary of Spin Master Limited a leading global children’s entertainment company that creates, designs and manufactures a diversified portfolio of innovative toys, games, products and entertainment properties. We hire humble and collaborative people who care about doing great work. Sago Mini is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity at our company.
