Head of Product Engineering

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a quickly scaling team including engineering managers and senior ICs
• Partner with the CEO to set product, design & technical direction and translate strategy into crisp execution
• Foster a high-trust, high-ownership culture where engineers are empowered to move quickly, take initiative and own outcomes
• Hire and develop top engineering and AI talent as the team scales; build a team that is curious, customer-aware and impact driven
• Implement and execute a scaled, AI-first engineering process
• Foster a culture of ownership, experimentation, and continuous improvement
• Team Leadership
• Team Leadership
• Hands-On Technical Leadership
• Be deeply engaged at the architecture and design level
• Design agentic harness, core systems and data flows underpinning the platform
• Build proofs of concept (POCs) for new AI-driven capabilities and product ideas
• Write and review critical code paths and designs; hold a high bar for quality, scalability, and maintainability
• Guide backend development in Java, Node.js and/or Python; set direction for production-grade frontend experiences using JavaScript, React and TypeScript
• Design Agentic SDLC in partnership with the Head of Platform Engineering
• Own both engineering and product execution in close partnership with the CEO
• Translate product vision into technical roadmaps and clear engineering milestones tied to customer outcomes
• Be a customer-facing leader - engage directly with merchants and partners to understand pain points, validate solutions, and ensure what the team ships delivers real value
• Drive delivery, reliability, security, and scalability of production systems
• Lead development and deployment of cloud-native systems on AWS
• Provide technical oversight across Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines to enable fast, reliable delivery

Requirements

10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong foundation in product engineering, data products, architecture and hands-on development

Proven early stage experience leading engineering teams as a Director, Head of Engineering, or equivalent—at 0-1 scale where you were also a key technical contributor

Experience thriving in early-stage or high-growth startup environments; comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change

Experience owning or co-owning product as well as engineering—you think in outcomes, not just outputs

Executive presence: Monthly board meeting updates to ensure the board is up-to-date on the technical roadmap and product development.

Technical fluency in: Java, Node.js and/or Python, React, TypeScript, and modern JavaScript, REST API’s

Solid hands-on experience with: AWS, Docker and Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices

Experience with PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and/or event-driven systems

Strong grasp of distributed systems, scalability tradeoffs, and long-term system health

Experience building AI-native products or Agentic platforms—you understand how to design systems where LLMs and automation are first-class components, and how to measure their success

Comfortable switching between big-picture strategy and ground-level execution within the same week

Customer- facing presence. You engage with merchants, partners and externals stakeholders with confidence and empathy

Strong communicator who can align cross-functional stakeholders and keep a small team focused and unblocked

You have high standards for engineering quality—you drive this through design reviews, code reviews, and direct collaboration, not just process

Nice to have - Prior experience in commerce, retail technology or commerce platforms