dir engineering – Global Technology Strategy & Enablement

About the role

This role sets the global technical direction for Starbucks’ retail and digital platforms and then makes it real in region—connecting US-based Starbucks Technology teams, Starbucks Digital Solutions, and regional teams so that we build once, adopt widely, and give every market the full benefit of Starbucks scale. You’ll lead a team of senior engineering leaders and work through influence well beyond it, defining architecture standards, reference patterns, and engineering practices that markets build against and steering regional roadmaps toward common platforms rather than local variants.

Responsibilities

• Own the global technology strategy for international retail and digital platforms, translating enterprise direction into a clear, prioritized regional roadmap
• Partner with US-based Starbucks Technology teams and Starbucks Digital Solutions to shape global products so they scale cleanly into international markets
• Define and drive engineering standards, reference architectures, and best practices that regional teams design and build against
• Lead and develop a team of senior engineering leaders, setting direction, raising the technical bar, and growing their scope
• Drive consistency across regions, reducing duplicated builds, local variants, and fragmentation that slow adoption and raise cost to serve
• Enable regional and market teams to adopt global platforms through clear guidance, architecture review, and hands-on technical partnership
• Leverage Starbucks scale by identifying reusable capability, aligning shared investment, and making the case for build-once solutions
• Establish pragmatic governance that gives leaders visibility of architecture decisions, technology risk, and delivery health across markets
• Represent international needs in global technology forums, influencing roadmaps and design decisions without direct authority

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in modern engineering ecosystems, including cloud platforms, application development, and integration architecture
• Proven track record setting technology strategy and translating it into standards, reference architectures, and practices that teams genuinely adopt
• Experience leading engineering across multiple markets or regions, balancing global consistency with local operating realities
• Strong record of influence without authority, aligning peer engineering, product, and business leaders around shared platforms and shared outcomes
• Experience partnering with central or enterprise technology groups and digital product teams to shape roadmaps and land capability in region
• Ability to identify duplication, fragmentation, and platform gaps, and to build the business case for consolidating on common solutions
• Experience leading and developing a small, senior team of engineers and engineering managers
• Comfort with technical governance—architecture review, standards assurance, and technology risk—applied pragmatically rather than bureaucratically
• Experience operating in fast-paced, high-impact environments with multiple competing priorities and stakeholders across time zones

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in software, platform, or data engineering, with 5+ years leading engineers and engineering managers
• Experience leading engineering at director-level scope within large, complex, multi-market organizations
• Experience in retail, hospitality, or other store-based operations at scale
• Strong background in modern cloud, data, and integration architecture
• Experience defining and rolling out engineering standards, governance, or architecture practice across an enterprise
• Demonstrated success hiring, developing, and retaining high-performing engineering teams
• Strong executive communication skills, with the ability to translate technical strategy into business impact
• Experience working across distributed teams and time zones, influencing across organizational boundaries

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, and other voluntary insurance benefits for you and your family
• Short-term and long-term disability, paid parental leave, family expansion reimbursement, paid vacation from date of hire, sick time (accrued at 1 hour for every 25 hours worked), eight paid holidays, and two personal days per year
• Eligible participation in a 401(k)-retirement plan with employer match, a discounted company stock program (S.I.P.), Starbucks equity program (Bean Stock), incentivized emergency savings, and financial well-being tools
• 100% upfront tuition coverage for a first-time bachelor’s degree through Arizona State University’s online program via the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, student loan management resources, and access to other educational opportunities
• Backup care and DACA reimbursement

Schedule

This role is located in Nashville and will be in office Monday – Thursday.