VP, Ecommerce Platform Engineering & Architecture

Follett Higher Education

Westchester (IL)

On-site

USD 120,000 - 150,000

Full time

44 hours ago

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Job summary

Follett Higher Education in Westchester, Illinois seeks a visionary VP of Engineering, Commerce Platform to own the technical strategy and delivery of Follett's ecommerce and point-of-sale systems, including migrating from a legacy stack to Shopify. This role has final architectural authority across the platform and will shape how millions of students shop and pay for years to come.

The VP leads Application Development, QA, and DevOps, partners with the SVP Ecommerce on roadmap sequencing, and

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in related field or equivalent.
12–15+ years in software engineering, including 5–7+ years in senior engineering leadership (Director, VP, or Head of Engineering).
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.
Work across engineering, sales, institutional partners, and operations to balance platform modernization with ongoing academic-calendar-driven operational needs.
Serve as the technical voice in cross-functional planning for ecommerce and POS initiatives.
Build, mentor, and retain a high-performing engineering organization across App Dev, QA, and DevOps.
Foster a culture of ownership, where teams partner with product and leadership to own outcomes rather than only executing requirements.
Establish clear performance expectations and growth paths for engineering leaders and their teams.
Raise the bar for technical hiring across the organization.
Ensure secure development and deployment practices are embedded in engineering workflows, in partnership with security/compliance functions.