About Us:

Ground News is a platform that makes it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias, and break free from algorithms.

In a world where political polarization and media distrust are at an all-time high, Ground News offers people a better way to stay informed and see every side of the story. Our mobile app, web app, and browser extension are home to a community of mindful readers who use our platform to engage with news beyond their filter bubble.

Unlike most news companies, our values do not align with any specific political ideology. Unlike most tech platforms, we don’t rely on algorithms to keep users on our platform to sell more ads. We are supported by our readers who pay for a subscription to build a more nuanced understanding of the news, the world, and themselves.

Highlights:

• #1 on Product Hunt
• #2 on 2025 Apple Design Awards in the Social Impact category
• 3-time winner of US App of the Day
• Winner of Digital News Innovation Challenge by Facebook
• Winner of Mobile Apps Showdown at CES

The Opportunity: Director of Engineering

As the new Director of Engineering, you’ll play a pivotal leadership role at Ground News by shaping the way our Engineering teams operate, and deliver impactful products.

In close partnership with our Founders and Engineering Leads, you’ll help define technical direction, manage multiple work streams, and foster a collaborative, high-performing engineering culture.

You’ll champion delivery excellence and help teams balance speed with quality. You should have strong people management skills along with fluency in application architecture and design, as well as subject-matter-expertise in engineering best practices.

This is a unique opportunity to join a mission-driven startup during a critical stage of growth, coaching our engineering team, and optimizing overall ways of working as we continue to tackle one of the biggest challenges of our time: information integrity.

What You’ll Do:

• Lead and mentor a team of talented engineers across multiple domains (ML/DevOps, Web, Back-End, Mobile), fostering a culture of ownership, transparency, and continuous learning/continuous improvement.
• Oversee the execution layer: Ensuring effective sprint planning, realistic timelines, and the successful delivery of complex cross-functional initiatives, ensuring timely and high-quality delivery that aligns with our company’s goals and user needs.
• Oversee engineering workflows and operational cadence, continuously optimizing processes to support fast iteration without compromising long-term scalability.
• Guide architectural and technical decisions to ensure our systems are robust, secure, cost-effective, and scalable.
• Champion engineering excellence through high standards for code quality, testing, performance, reliability, and documentation.
• Collaborate closely with Product, Design, and Analytics teams to prioritize work, identify interdependencies and redundancies, to deliver user-centered solutions.
• Conduct regular feedback, coaching, and career growth conversations to help team members thrive in their roles and develop as leaders.

What You’ll Bring:

• 10+ years of engineering experience, including 4+ years in an engineering management or leadership role.
• Proven success leading teams in high-growth startup environments, with a strong grasp of how to balance speed, excellence, and quality.
• Deep experience with application architecture and modern software engineering practices.
• A track record of developing and retaining top engineering talent.
• Excellent relationship management skills and a collaborative mindset. You’re comfortable working across disciplines and translating technical strategy for diverse audiences.
• A systems thinker who proactively identifies and solves organizational and technical inefficiencies.

Bonus Points If You Have:

• Interest in the news media ecosystem or social impact products.
• Experience working on consumer-facing products at scale.
• We’re a Google shop - overall fluency in Google tools.
• Experience in technologies similar to our stack: JavaScript/Typescript, Node.js, Python, Next.js, MySQL, Redis, ElasticSearch, AWS, and ML/NLP libraries such as PyTorch, Pyspark, among others.

What We Offer:

• Flexible, remote-first work environment: Work remotely from the province or state that suits you best.
• A mission-driven culture with a small, committed team.
• The opportunity to shape a fast-growing company at the intersection of media and technology.

Compensation:

Ground News is committed to equitable and transparent compensation practices. The base salary range for this role is $172,000 – $200,000 – $258,000 CAD (min–midpoint–max). Your final offer within this range will be determined based on a variety of factors, including your skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.

In addition to base salary, Ground News offers a comprehensive benefits and wellness package designed to support your overall well-being and long-term success.

Why Work at Ground?

Co-founded by a former NASA engineer and Bain consultant, a position with Ground News provides an unparalleled learning experience both personally and professionally. At Ground, we prioritize growth: both for our business and team members. You’ll have the freedom to work remotely and play a key role in the development of Ground News products.

This is an opportunity to work with a growing and mighty team that is committed to building a world where cooperative, civil debate is the norm, media is accountable, and critical thought is the baseline of our information consumption. Ground is based in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, but this role is remote.

We are committed to building and fostering an inclusive, accessible environment for everyone. If you have any questions, concerns, or require any accessibility accommodations during our interview process, please contact talent@ground.news and we’ll be happy to support you.