Engineering Manager - Personalization (Hybrid - Seattle)

Nordstrom; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 166,000 - 258,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Vision

Retirement

PTO

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

Merchandise Discount

EAP Resources

Job summary

Nordstrom in Seattle is hiring an Engineering Manager to lead the Personalization engine team, responsible for models, training pipelines, and real-time recommendations across digital experiences. This hands-on leadership role partners with data science, product, and platform engineering to deliver scalable, AI-native solutions.

You will mentor engineers, drive reliability with SLOs, own delivery discipline, and communicate value to senior leadership.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of relevant work experience in software or machine learning engineering.
• 2+ years of experience managing engineering teams, or strong tech-lead experience ready to step into people management.
• Depth in building and operating production ML or recommendation systems at scale, including training pipelines, low-latency model serving, cloud infrastructure, and Kubernetes-based platforms.
• A track record of improving reliability: SLOs, on-call health, incident response, and post-incident learning.
• Demonstrated agile delivery discipline: a team that ships what it commits to, on the date it commits to.
• A track record of influencing without authority and communicating with candor, aligning product, engineering, and business partners with competing priorities, and raising concerns early with solutions in hand.
• BA/BS in Computer Science or a closely related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

• Define the technical direction for Personalization and align teams to implement it.
• Lead engineers, grow technical leaders, and invest in career development.
• Own the reliability of a high-scale personalization platform across Nordstrom's digital properties.
• Raise the standard for model quality, data quality, and observability.
• Operate as player-coach, balancing architecture, reviews, and incident response.
• Translate model and platform work into clear business value for leadership.

Skills

Software engineering

Machine learning

Team leadership

Reliability engineering

Agile delivery

Influence without authority

Education

BA/BS in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Vertex AI

Kubernetes

Cloud platforms

Job description

Job Description

This role is offered as hybrid in Seattle, WA. Candidates must be available to work in office at the Nordstrom corporate headquarters a minimum of 4 days/week to be considered for this position.

Engineering Managers within our Technology organization create an inspiring workplace where talented professionals are empowered to deliver outstanding digital experiences and business results. As the Engineering Manager for Personalization, you will lead the team that owns the models and services behind how Nordstrom personalizes what customers see, from training pipelines to real‑time recommendations and complete‑look outfits. This is a hands‑on leadership role for someone who brings engineering discipline, stakeholder credibility, and a clear point of view to a domain that directly shapes the customer experience.

Role Summary… We are hiring an Engineering Manager to lead the engineering team behind Nordstrom's Personalization Engine, the recommendation and styling capabilities that shape what customers see across marketing and digital experiences. You will report to the Senior Director of Engineering who supports Marketing Technology and Personalization and own delivery, reliability, and team health for these products.

Personalization Engine produces ranked, personalized recommendations at scale leveraging cutting‑edge machine learning and generative AI. It builds on the same foundations to deliver product recommendations as well as complete looks with extensibility across other content types.

The team sits within Marketing Technology and Personalization. You will partner closely with data science, product, and platform engineering. The organization is adopting an AI‑native product development lifecycle and organizing around Flow and SRE squads, with managers operating as player‑coaches.

This team has real strengths and a culture worth protecting. We are looking for a leader who builds on what is working, communicates openly, and earns trust through consistency.

A Day in the Life…

• Define the technical direction for Personalization: how behavioral and product signals become ranked recommendations and complete‑look outfits across Nordstrom's marketing and digital experiences, then build alignment across product, data science, and platform teams to make it real.
• Lead a team of engineers, giving them room to own their work, developing engineers into technical leaders, and investing in where each person wants to take their career.
• Own the reliability of a high‑scale personalization platform that supports customer experiences across digital properties for Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack.
• Raise the standard for model quality, data quality, and observability so problems are caught before customers or stakeholders see them.
• Challenge the team to think critically about the right approaches and the right problems to solve, not just to stay busy.
• Operate as a player‑coach: stay close to architecture, code reviews, and incident response while building the team's AI‑native ways of planning, building, and shipping.
• Bring delivery discipline that the team and its partners can count on: shaping clear priorities, committing to dates, and consistently hitting them.
• Be the face of the team to the business and senior leadership: translate complex model and platform work into clear value, advocate for the team, and build a vision for growing its scope and bringing in new projects.

How You Lead…

• Communicate openly and without surprises, sharing context freely, especially when priorities shift or change is coming.
• Build on the culture and strengths this team already has, and respect what is working before changing it.
• Trust the team and avoid micromanaging: set clear expectations and give people room to own their work.
• Remove blockers instead of adding process.
• Push back constructively on leadership and partners when scope, timelines, or priorities are unrealistic, and shield the team from unnecessary churn and pressure.
• Support work‑life balance in practice, not just in words, and stay flexible and understanding when priorities change.
• Think about how changes to roles, priorities, or process land differently for individuals, including team members with time‑sensitive personal circumstances.
• Give credit publicly and recognize people's work.
• Follow through consistently so trust builds over time.

You Own This If You Have…

• 5+ years of relevant work experience in software or machine learning engineering.
• 2+ years of experience managing engineering teams, or strong tech‑lead experience ready to step into people management.
• Depth in building and operating production ML or recommendation systems at scale, including training pipelines, low‑latency model serving, cloud infrastructure, and Kubernetes‑based platforms.
• A track record of improving reliability: SLOs, on‑call health, incident response, and post‑incident learning.
• Demonstrated agile delivery discipline: a team that ships what it commits to, on the date it commits to.
• A track record of influencing without authority and communicating with candor, aligning product, engineering, and business partners with competing priorities, and raising concerns early with solutions in hand.
• BA/BS in Computer Science or a closely related field, or equivalent practical experience.

We're also looking for…

• Hands‑on experience with Vertex AI or comparable managed ML training platforms.
• Experience leading a migration end to end, such as moving ML serving workloads between cloud and in‑house platforms.
• Background in retail, e‑commerce, or marketing technology.
• Experience applying generative AI and agentic tooling to engineering workflows or customer experiences.
• Familiarity with sequential or transformer‑based recommendation approaches.

Pay Range Details

The pay range(s) below has been provided in compliance with state specific laws. Pay ranges may be different for other locations.

Pay offers are dependent on the location, as well as job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience.

$166,000.00 - $258,000.00 Annual

Benefits

• Medical/Vision, Dental, Retirement and Paid Time Away
• Life Insurance and Disability
• Merchandise Discount and EAP Resources

This position may be eligible for performance‑based incentives/bonuses. Benefits include 401k, medical/vision/dental/life/disability insurance options, PTO accruals, Holidays, and more. Eligibility requirements may apply based on location, job level, classification, and length of employment. Learn more in the Nordstrom Benefits Overview by copying and pasting the following URL into your browser: https://careers.nordstrom.com/pdfs/Ben_Overview_17-19.pdf

A few more important points...

The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It's not all‑inclusive. There may be additional duties, responsibilities and qualifications for this job.

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