Humans in the Loop: Building and hiring for AI at Questrade

Co-hosted by TechTO and Questrade AI agents are becoming the new front door to financial products, and most companies don’t own that interface. So how do you build something people can trust anyway? Join us for an evening with Questrade’s engineering, product, and hiring leaders. You’ll hear candid talks and a presentation on what it takes to ship real software in the era of Agentic AI, including how we built a production MCP server enabling customers to use their own AI tools, with a human deterministically in the loop. Why attend See how we built it: why we created an MCP server, and how granular authorization keeps customers in control. Go deep on the hard parts: authentication and delegation for agents acting on a customer’s behalf, and how we design the experience when an agent sits between us and our customers. Learn how we measure it: tool evals, performance at scale, and how we bring users up the trust ladder. Meet the humans behind it: Questrade’s engineering, product, and AI leaders, plus the hiring managers and team members you’d work with. Hear how we hire for AI and ask them anything about the work and the teams building it. We’ll close the night with an open networking reception, so you can keep the conversation going over drinks and passed canapés Agenda 5:30 pm: Doors open. Check in and mingle. 6:30 pm: Talk and live demo: Humans in the Loop: Building and hiring for AI at Questrade (presented by Bartek Kowalski, Product Manager, MCP, and Kelvin Ferreira, Senior Principal Software Engineer) 7:00 pm: Panel and open Q&A with Questrade’s engineering, product, and hiring leaders 7:30 pm: Networking reception with open bar and passed canapés 9:00 pm: End of evening Who it’s for Engineers, product managers, and AI professionals who want a real look at how a Canadian fintech builds and hires in this space. On stage Kelvin Ferreira, Senior Principal Software Engineer: Kelvin is a hands-on engineer behind Questrade’s MCP and API strategy. He designs how AI agents connect to Questrade securely – from OAuth 2.1 authentication and delegation to granular, tool-level permissions – making sure customers stay in control of every action. Bartek Kowalski, Product Manager, MCP: Bartek leads product for Questrade’s MCP, shaping how customers experience Questrade through the AI tools they already use. He works on a hard question: how do you build trust and a great product when you don’t own the interface? Andrej Simeonov, Head of Technology, Questrade Experience Platform: Andrej leads the engineering behind the Questrade Experience Platform, the foundation that powers how millions of Canadians interact with their money. He’s focused on building infrastructure that scales reliably while staying ready for new ways of reaching customers, including AI agents. David Wieler, Chief AI Officer: David shapes the architecture and AI infrastructure strategy across the Questrade ecosystem. He leads how the company adopts AI and agentic tooling safely and at scale, from the platforms engineers build on to the standards that keep them secure. Open roles at Questrade Principal Software Engineer Senior Manager, Software Engineering Software Engineer Senior Software Engineer Team Lead, Software Engineering Principal Software Engineer Principal Product Designer Senior Product Designer Senior Software Engineer Principal Software Engineer Principal Software Engineer Associate Product Manager Senior Product Manager About TechTO TechTO is Canada’s largest community of tech builders - connecting 70,000+ founders, operators, and investors through year-round meetups, curated dinners, peer tables, and media storytelling. Learn more here: https://www.techto.org/ About Questrade For 27 years, we’ve remained independent and 100% Canadian-owned. We are a 13x winner of Canada’s Best Managed Companies and a 2x winner of Canada’s Top 100 Employers. Our ecosystem includes Questrade, Questbank, Questrade Wealth Management, Community Trust, Zolo, and Flexiti, all working together to help Canadians become financially secure through cutting-edge technology. We’re building something worth being part of. Come see for yourself. Approval required. Request an invite, and the hosts will confirm your registration.