Head of Ecommerce Platform & Architecture

Follett Higher Ed Group, LLC; Westchester (IL); On-site; USD 40,000 - 267,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision benefits

401(k) plan

Paid holidays & PTO

Job summary

Follett Higher Education seeks a visionary VP of Engineering, Commerce Platform to lead the transformation of its ecommerce and POS systems. You will own end-to-end architecture, set technical direction, and drive migration from legacy stack to Shopify, shaping a scalable retail technology stack for millions of students and customers.

This leadership role oversees App Development, QA, and DevOps, partnering with ecommerce leadership to align roadmaps, ensure reliability, and foster a culture of

Qualifications

• 12--15+ years in software engineering, including 5--7+ years in senior engineering leadership (Director, VP, or Head of Engineering) managing multiple teams through leads and managers.
• Direct ecommerce software engineering experience, having built or scaled systems for online storefronts, checkout, cart, or order management.
• Proven experience leading a legacy-to-modern platform migration.
• Expert fluency in modern web technology and architecture patterns.
• Experience owning DevOps/CI-CD and QA functions as part of an engineering organization, not app development alone.
• Demonstrated track record of building engineering teams with a strong culture of ownership.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end architecture for ecommerce and POS systems, including the transition from legacy stack to Shopify.
• Set technical direction and make final architecture calls across the environment, driving toward the organization's go-forward technology stack.
• Act as the subject-matter expert across the modern ecommerce technology stack, including loyalty programs, promotions and pricing engines, and analytics/personalization platforms, to inform architecture decisions that scale across the Follett store network.
• Maintain technical standards and architectural integrity across the engineering organization.
• Lead Application Development, QA, and DevOps teams, setting delivery standards and technical practices across all three functions.
• Ensure platform performance, instrumentation, scalability, reliability, and availability to meet the needs of the business and its institutional and student customers.
• Drive modern engineering practices appropriate to the team's scale and maturity.
• Own technology lifecycle decisions, including system upgrades, platform migrations, and modernization efforts within ecommerce and POS.
• Partner closely with the SVP of Ecommerce on roadmap sequencing, tradeoffs, and prioritization, co-owning outcomes while maintaining clear decision rights between technical execution and business/product ownership.

Skills

Ecommerce architecture

Leadership

DevOps/CI-CD

Team building

Security awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

Shopify

Job description

Follett Higher Education seeks a visionary VP of Engineering, Commerce Platform to lead the transformation of its ecommerce and POS systems. You will own end-to-end architecture, set technical direction, and drive migration from legacy stack to Shopify, shaping a scalable retail technology stack for millions of students and customers.

This leadership role oversees App Development, QA, and DevOps, partnering with ecommerce leadership to align roadmaps, ensure reliability, and foster a culture of