Associate Director, Application Development

Staples India; Chennai District; On-site; INR 3,000,000 - 5,000,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading retail company is seeking an experienced leader to manage their SPP Commerce team in Chennai, India. This role is focused on system modernization, technology strategy alignment, and stakeholder engagement. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in managing large teams, experience in retail/e-commerce environments, and the ability to innovate and transform IT delivery. This position offers opportunities to work on cloud-native platforms and drive adoption of modern development practices.

Qualifications

• Strong program/project management and delivery ownership across large teams.
• Excellent communication skills to engage with stakeholders effectively.
• Proven ability to lead teams in a fast-paced and global environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead and scale the India-based SPP Commerce team.
• Oversee systems supporting Commerce and Pricing Management.
• Manage end-to-end delivery of support and strategic initiatives.
• Evaluate and implement emerging technologies for promotional products.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Automation

System modernization

Tools

Cloud platforms

DevOps

CI/CD

Job description

*Proven experience in the Retail or E-commerce domain is a mandatory requirement*

Duties & Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Lead and scale the India-based SPP Commerce team (20–50+ members) within the GCC.
• Align technology strategy with SPP and IT objectives.
• Drive modernization of legacy systems and adoption of scalable, cloud-native platforms.

Functional Oversight

• Oversee systems supporting: Commerce (Store Fronts), Pricing Management Tools, Product Information Management, Special Order Quote Tools, Business Reporting, AI Collaboration and Delivery.
• Ensure seamless integration and performance across legacy, modern, and SAAS platforms.

Delivery & Operations

• Manage end-to-end delivery of support, enhancements, and strategic initiatives.
• Establish and monitor KPIs for system performance, support SLAs, and project execution.
• Promote automation in testing, deployment, and operations to improve quality and efficiency.
• Strong program/project management and delivery ownership across large teams.

Modernization & Innovation

• Lead transformation initiatives to modernize staples promotional product systems and infrastructure.
• Evaluate and implement emerging technologies to enhance promotional products agility and resilience.
• Drive adoption of DevOps, CI/CD, and automated QA practices.
• Deep understanding of modern development paradigms, leveraging services, queues, and event-driven, disconnected architectures to build scalable and resilient systems.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with global business and IT leaders to understand needs and deliver impactful solutions.
• Serve as a trusted advisor on promotional products technology strategy and execution.

Talent & Capability Building

• Attract, develop, and retain top talent in promotional products systems and IT delivery.
• Foster a high-performance culture focused on innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

Basic Qualifications

• Proven leadership experience managing large teams (20–50+) in a GCC or similar setup.
• Expertise across legacy systems, modern architectures, and SAAS (Software As A Service) platform.
• Strong background in system modernization, automation, and quality assurance.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in global commerce environments.
• Exposure to cloud-based supply chain platforms and digital transformation programs.
• Ability to lead in a fast-paced, matrixed organization with a global footprint.