Director Architecture & Engineering

Staples - Framingham, MA

Full-time - Senior

Framingham, MA

10,001+ employees

Merchant Wholesalers, Nondurable Goods

About the position

The Director of Ecommerce Architecture & Engineering is a leadership role responsible for the strategic planning, development, and execution of ecommerce platforms and services. This position focuses on driving the technical direction of ecommerce systems, ensuring that architectural and engineering solutions align with business goals. The role requires collaboration with stakeholders and teams to deliver seamless ecommerce experiences, while also setting the technological direction and pioneering methodologies for software development.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical vision and roadmap for ecommerce engineering and architecture in line with the company's overall business strategy.
• Lead the architecture design and implementation of scalable, secure, and high-performance ecommerce solutions.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including marketing, product, IT, and business leaders to align technology initiatives with business goals.
• Oversee ecommerce engineering teams, ensuring timely delivery of projects and adherence to best practices in software development.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives and implement modern development methodologies (Agile, CI/CD) to streamline the ecommerce engineering process.
• Foster a culture of innovation and technical excellence within the team, mentoring and developing engineering talent.
• Design and maintain a robust and scalable ecommerce architecture, addressing both short-term needs and long-term scalability.
• Ensure system integrations are seamless between ecommerce platforms, payment gateways, CRM, ERP, and other back-office systems.
• Optimize the performance and reliability of ecommerce platforms, implementing appropriate monitoring, automation, and alerting tools.
• Evaluate and adopt new ecommerce technologies and platforms to improve the overall digital shopping experience.
• Ensure that ecommerce systems adhere to industry-standard security and compliance regulations (e.g., PCI DSS, GDPR).
• Implement security protocols, data encryption, and fraud prevention measures to safeguard sensitive customer information and transaction data.
• Drive improvements in ecommerce platform performance, including page load times, search functionality, and overall user experience.
• Analyze traffic patterns, site metrics, and customer feedback to continuously refine and optimize ecommerce experiences.
• Evaluate and manage relationships with third-party vendors and service providers to ensure the ecommerce architecture remains best-in-class.
• Manage budgets for ecommerce architecture and engineering projects, ensuring effective resource allocation to meet project goals and timelines.
• Drive the organization through an innovative mindset, creating forums to develop ideas and deliver value.
• Conduct Architecture Review Board sessions to ensure best practices are implemented and developed.
• Maintain technical expertise in all areas of software engineering, continuously researching and evaluating emerging technologies.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related technical field or equivalent work experience.
• A minimum of 15 years of software engineering experience with a track record of progressively complex projects and solutions.
• Demonstrable experience leading large-scale software development projects through all phases of the lifecycle, from conception to deployment and maintenance.
• Proficiency in multiple programming languages such as Java, C++, Python, or similar modern programming languages, and a solid understanding of object-oriented design principles.
• Extensive experience with software architecture design, including patterns for distributed systems, microservices, micro frontends, and cloud-native solutions.
• Familiarity with front-end technologies and frameworks (e.g., HTML/CSS, JavaScript, React) and backend development (e.g., Node.js, Django).
• Solid understanding of network protocols, web services (REST, SOAP), and APIs.
• Expertise in software development best practices, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, and testing.
• Proficient in using version control systems such as Git, and continuous integration tools like Jenkins or CircleCI.
• Practical experience with containerization and orchestration technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud, particularly in ecommerce deployment.