Beyond the Code: CTO Diederik van Liere on Engineering at Wealthsimple

We’ve entered 2026 following a monumental year: We doubled in growth, launched several major products, and raised the bar for engineering. Looking back, did it feel like a turning point?

Absolutely, last year was monumental for the engineering team. We pushed hard on multiple fronts: We built and launched a lineup of products for two Wealthsimple Presents events—one focused on banking and one on investing—while also making major platform investments to support the pace and scale of our growth

All of this happened at once, and we executed while navigating an increasingly unpredictable world with highly volatile markets. The problems we had to solve grew more complex by the day, so we had to prioritize relentlessly and act decisively to keep everything moving.

What was one of the biggest lessons you learned?

With our growth doubling came a lot of lot of challenges we had to solve. We had to scale fast, make the right investments, and put the right tooling in place, all while maintaining our high standards for product quality and security.

In moments like these, I learned rallying points are very powerful. We now have Wealthsimple Presents happening twice a year, which energize our teams and help drive aggressive progress on the roadmap. I think that energy comes from getting to see our engineers’ work come to life in a new way. We announce what we build on a stage and share it with the world, creating a real sense of pride in what you’re building.

What do you think makes our engineering teams work as well as they do?

It all comes down to being surrounded by people who truly live and breathe our values. When you increase the talent density of a group that is aligned in how they show up, teams work better and move faster.

From there, you layer in the tools. When you equip people with a maker-owner mentality and naive ambition with something as transformative as AI, the results compound. You get teams aligned on the mission and values, and give them game-changing technology to build and ship great products.

Speaking of AI, teams are being encouraged to experiment and use it daily. ​ What did that look like on the engineering side? ​

We’ve been very ambitious with adopting AI across the board Wealthsimple, and our engineers approached it with genuine curiosity and a willingness to experiment and learn. That early momentum helped teams quickly build strong fundamentals, explore new tools and models, and integrate AI into their day-to-day work. We were very deliberate about putting the right guardrails in place to ensure product quality remains high and data remains secure as we scale.

I’m seeing across teams there’s a real sense of excitement in how people are talking about and using AI. At the same time, teams remain focused on using AI thoughtfully, securely, and in ways that protect our clients’ trust.

How do you see AI changing the way engineers work?

We’re seeing the models and tools become more mature, to the point where they’re starting to actually do what we hoped they would. You can make and build more than you ever could before.

As more code gets generated automatically, I see engineers shifting towards higher-level problem solving. In that world, the most valuable skill isn’t expertise in a specific tool or framework. It's a deep understanding of the problem spaces we work in, like payments, ledgers, and financial systems. Technology will keep changing, but domain expertise lasts. I think if you have a maker-owner mentality and you love to identify problems and solve them, you will thrive.

How will this impact the way teams collaborate with one another?

We’re moving toward much closer collaboration between engineering, product, and design. Teams will operate more autonomously and take ownership of the entire software lifecycle, from ideation and prototyping to code generation, testing, deployment, and learning in production.

Longer term, I think we’ll also see a shift in how work is organized across tools. Today, work is fragmented across dozens of systems and tools, each solving a small piece of the puzzle. I expect teams will spend less time jumping between tools and more time working from a single, integrated workspace that pulls in the right context and data automatically. That won’t happen overnight, and it will look different for different roles, but it has the potential to fundamentally change how teams operate.

What are you most excited about this year and onward?

Speed is our DNA. We’re a fast-moving company, and we’re only going to move faster. We've built the foundations and guardrails that allow teams to scale securely with confidence. Right now, we’re at an inflection point where you can build products that truly impact millions of Canadians, at a company that’s scaling rapidly, with technology that’s redefining what’s possible. That combination is rare.

I genuinely believe Wealthsimple will be one of the biggest tech success stories in Canada, if not already. Being here right now and being able to build through this moment is incredibly exciting.

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