Sr Director, Engineering - Digital

Kavaliro; Philadelphia (Philadelphia County); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Kavaliro is seeking a Senior Director of Engineering - Digital to lead the client’s customer-facing web and mobile experiences, including product discovery, cart, loyalty, and omni-channel flows.

You will own architecture, delivery, and operations for scalable digital platforms, partnering with Digital, Marketing, Product, Data/Analytics, and Stores to translate strategy into measurable outcomes and drive improvements in traffic, conversion, AOV, retention, and uptime.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive experience in software engineering and technology focusing on customer-facing digital products.
• 7+ years leading and scaling engineering teams responsible for high-traffic digital experiences.
• Proven ability to drive measurable improvements in digital business outcomes (traffic, conversion, AOV, retention).
• Strong communication and stakeholder management across technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Define multi-year technology strategy and roadmaps for web and mobile experiences aligned to business vision and OKRs.
• Lead delivery and operations for e-commerce sites and mobile apps with robust Agile practices and incident management.
• Shape and backlogs with Product Management and ensure alignment across growth, health, and compliance.
• Provide architectural leadership for headless/composable architectures and cloud-native platforms.
• Develop and mentor high-performing engineering teams and manage contractors and vendors.
• Drive DevOps/DevSecOps, CI/CD, monitoring, and data-driven decision making to improve metrics.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Digital product engineering

Omni-channel

Tools

CommerceTools

Job description

The Senior Director of Engineering - Digital will lead the engineering organization responsible for client's customer-facing digital experiences across e-commerce websites and native mobile apps, including capabilities like product discovery, cart & checkout, loyalty, personalization, and omni-channel flows such as BOPIS, ship-from-store, and marketplace. This leader will own the architecture, delivery, and operations of mission-critical digital platforms that power our omni-channel growth, ensuring high performance, reliability, and security at scale. Reporting directly to the VP of Engineering, this role will be a key partner to Digital and Digital Marketing leaders, Product, Data/Analytics, and other business stakeholders-translating business strategy and customer insights into technology roadmaps, engineering outcomes, and measurable business impact. The Senior Director will build and lead high-performing, modern engineering teams, driving best-in-class engineering practices, experimentation, and data-driven decision making to continuously improve key digital business metrics (e.g., traffic, conversion rate, AOV, retention, performance, and uptime).

Responsibilities Digital & Business Strategy Leadership

Partner with Digital and Marketing business leaders to define a multi-year technology strategy and roadmap for web and mobile experiences aligned to business vision, OKRs, and customer outcomes. Translate business objectives (traffic, conversion, AOV, customer lifetime value, acquisition costs, campaign performance) into clear engineering goals, KPIs, and investment priorities. Oversee execution of a strategic digital technology portfolio, balancing roadmap delivery, technical debt reduction, platform modernization, and innovation. Define and track value realization metrics for digital technology investments, ensuring engineering outcomes drive measurable business impact (e.g., improved site/app performance, increased conversion, reduced checkout friction). Support senior management with strategic analysis of new and emerging digital capabilities (e.g., personalization, search, recommendations, experimentation, content management, SEO, performance optimization) to determine customer impact and financial viability (ROI).

Product & Stakeholder Partnership

Serve as a trusted technology partner to Digital, Digital Marketing, and cross-functional leaders (Product Management, Data/Analytics, UX, Merchandising, Supply Chain, and Stores where relevant to omni experiences). Shape and refine product and platform backlogs in partnership with Product Management, ensuring clear prioritization across growth, customer experience, technical health, and compliance. Establish and maintain strong communication and stakeholder management practices, setting expectations on timelines, trade-offs, and risks while ensuring alignment across business and technology. Represent digital engineering in key governance, portfolio, and investment discussions.

Digital Engineering Delivery & Operations

Own end-to-end delivery and operations for e-commerce sites and mobile apps, including uptime, performance, scalability, incident management, and continuous improvement. Ensure high-quality, timely delivery through robust Agile practices, predictable release management, and strong engineering execution across onshore and offshore teams. Establish and continuously improve engineering and operational KPIs, including lead time, deployment frequency, change failure rate, MTTR, defects per story, velocity, and SLA adherence. Partner with operations/SRE teams to conduct root cause analysis on complex incidents, drive systemic fixes, and improve reliability. Manage departmental budgets, resource allocations, and vendor spend, aligning investments to digital initiatives and capability outcomes. Drive a culture of data-driven decision-making and experimentation (A/B testing and related methods) to improve conversion, engagement, and retention.

Architecture, Platforms & Engineering Excellence

Provide technical and architectural leadership for modern digital platforms, including headless commerce, content management, search, recommendations, and mobile architectures. Lead the evolution of our composable, headless, MACH-aligned architecture (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless), ensuring flexibility and scalability of digital experiences; experience with CommerceTools or similar platforms is a plus. Ensure robust engineering standards across coding, design, documentation, testing, security, and performance; champion best practices such as code reviews, automated testing, pipeline automation, and code sharing. Partner with Enterprise Architecture, Data, and Infrastructure/Security teams to ensure alignment with enterprise standards, security policies, and cloud strategies (multi-cloud footprint such as AWS, Azure, GCP, or Oracle Cloud). Drive DevSecOps and CI/CD adoption to increase deployment speed, reduce risk, and improve quality (shift-left testing, automated controls, monitoring and alerting). Ensure applications and data comply with governance, risk, compliance, SOX, and audit policies, including appropriate logging, monitoring, and automated controls. Stay ahead of market, technology, and digital experience trends, bringing forward recommendations on tools, platforms, and practices that will improve customer experience and engineering productivity. Develop and maintain technical roadmaps for digital platforms and capabilities, clearly communicating modernization paths and key architectural decisions.

People Leadership & High-Performance Culture

Build, lead, and inspire high-performing engineering teams (including Engineering Managers/Directors) delivering exceptional web and mobile experiences in a fast-paced, high-growth retail environment. Foster an inclusive culture, emphasizing psychological safety, accountability, continuous learning, and recognition. Develop and execute talent strategies for hiring, onboarding, performance management, and career development across both FTEs and contractors. Provide ongoing coaching and mentorship to engineering leaders and senior engineers, growing capabilities in architecture, product thinking, and operational excellence. Ensure contractors and partners are fully integrated into team rituals, quality practices, and feedback loops to achieve consistent delivery excellence. Represent the engineering organization in recruiting, external partnerships, and thought leadership to help elevate client’s technology brand in the market.

Vendor, Partner & Ecosystem Management

Lead relationships with digital and engineering vendors (e.g., commerce platforms, mobile partners, development and implementation partners, cloud providers), ensuring high-quality delivery, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. Evaluate and benchmark vendor performance, ensuring clear SLAs, accountability, and continuous improvement. Make informed build vs. buy decisions in partnership with Product, Architecture, and Finance, balancing speed, cost, risk, and strategic differentiation.

Key Digital Business & Analytics Expectations

Deeply understand and help shape key digital business metrics, including but not limited to: Traffic and acquisition (organic, paid, campaign-driven) Conversion rate and funnel performance (browse? PDP? cart? checkout? confirmation) Average order value (AOV) and attach rate Repeat purchase rate, retention, and loyalty engagement Site and app performance (page load, Core Web Vitals, crash rate, latency) Partner with Digital and Marketing teams, Data/Analytics, and Product to define measurement frameworks, dashboards, and experimentation strategies to improve these metrics. Ensure engineering teams understand how their work moves the metrics, using data and insights to guide prioritization and solution design.

Qualifications Required Experience & Skills

12+ years of progressive experience in software engineering and technology, with significant focus on customer-facing digital products (e-commerce websites and native mobile applications). 7+ years leading and scaling engineering teams (including managers/directors) responsible for delivery and operations of high-traffic, business-critical digital experiences. Proven track record leading engineering teams for high-growth retail or consumer businesses, with accountability for uptime, stability, performance, and security of digital platforms. Demonstrated success partnering with Digital, Marketing, and Product leaders to drive measurable improvements in digital business outcomes (traffic, conversion, AOV, retention, performance). Strong experience with omni-channel digital capabilities such as e-commerce, OMS, BOPIS, ship-from-store, and marketplace integrations. Deep understanding of modern web and mobile architectures, including microservices, APIs, event-driven systems, and cloud-native design. Expertise with headless and composable commerce architectures, ideally with experience on MACH-aligned platforms (e.g., CommerceTools or similar). Strong experience driving DevOps/DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, monitoring/alerting, and incident/problem management in production environments. Demonstrated ability to set and manage engineering and operational KPIs, communicate them to stakeholders, and drive continuous improvement. Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to engage both technical and non-technical audiences, influence decisions, and align cross-functional teams. High degree of business acumen, able to connect engineering decisions to customer experience, P&L impact, and strategic outcomes.

Preferred Experience & Skills

Experience in high-volume retail or consumer brands with strong digital and omni-channel businesses. Experience with digital analytics and experimentation platforms (e.g., Adobe/GA, Optimizely, LaunchDarkly, or similar) and working closely with data/analytics teams. Familiarity with SEO, site performance optimization, and mobile performance best practices. Experience operating in a matrixed environment, collaborating across multiple functional and product domains. Experience with governance, risk, and compliance practices, including SOX and audit considerations, especially as they relate to digital platforms.

Kavaliro provides Equal Employment Opportunities to all employees and applicants.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Kavaliro is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. In keeping with our commitment, Kavaliro will take the steps to assure that people with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. Accordingly, if reasonable accommodation is required to fully participate in the job application or interview process, to perform the essential functions of the position, and/or to receive all other benefits and privileges of employment, please respond to this posting to connect with a company representative.