Job Overview We're looking for a hands-on Director of Engineering to lead our software engineering team through the next phase of growth. This is a player-coach role. You'll lead and develop engineers while remaining actively engaged in the technical work—reviewing code, contributing to critical development efforts, solving complex technical challenges, and helping establish the engineering standards that drive quality and scalability across our platform. You'll partner closely with Product, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Applications, and business leaders to translate business needs into scalable technical solutions. Success in this role requires someone who can bridge the gap between business and engineering—clarifying requirements, challenging assumptions, and ensuring engineers understand not just what they're building, but why it matters. If you're looking for a role focused primarily on meetings, budgets, and people management, this isn't it. We're looking for a builder who enjoys leading from the front. What You'll Do

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing team of software engineers while fostering a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous improvement.
• Remain hands-on with the codebase by reviewing pull requests, contributing to development, debugging complex issues, and guiding technical implementation.
• Partner with Product Managers, Project Managers, and business stakeholders to clarify requirements before development begins.
• Translate business needs into clear technical solutions, implementation plans, engineering tasks, and acceptance criteria.
• Communicate technical concepts, tradeoffs, assumptions, and implementation approaches back to business stakeholders with clarity and confidence.
• Partner with the Enterprise Architect to ensure engineering solutions align with Cabi's long-term architecture and technical standards.
• Collaborate with the VP of Digital Platforms to align engineering capacity with product priorities and delivery commitments.
• Drive engineering excellence through code reviews, testing discipline, CI/CD, release readiness, monitoring, documentation, and continuous improvement.
• Review technical deliverables from external partners to ensure they meet Cabi's engineering standards for quality, scalability, maintainability, and security.
• Build an engineering culture focused on craftsmanship, technical curiosity, collaboration, learning, and operational excellence.

What We're Looking For The strongest candidates will have built their careers as software engineers before progressing into engineering leadership. They remain passionate about technology, enjoy solving complex technical problems, and lead by example through active technical engagement. Technical Leadership

• 8+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including significant hands-on development.
• 3+ years leading software engineering teams while remaining technically engaged.
• Comfortable operating as a player-coach, balancing engineering leadership with direct technical contribution.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers, establish engineering standards, and build high-performing development teams. Technical Expertise Candidates should demonstrate strength across many of the following areas:
• Modern backend development using Go, Java, C#, Node.js, or similar languages.
• Modern frontend development using React, TypeScript, or comparable frameworks.
• REST APIs, GraphQL, event-driven architectures, asynchronous processing, and distributed systems.
• AWS or other cloud-native application platforms.
• CI/CD pipelines, GitHub, automated testing, observability, monitoring, and DevOps practices.
• Relational and NoSQL databases.
• Enterprise integrations between ecommerce platforms, ERP systems, warehouse management systems, payment providers, marketing platforms, and third-party SaaS applications.
• Secure software development, authentication, authorization, API security, and application performance optimization.
• Modern AI-assisted software development tools and developer productivity platforms. Business & Platform Experience
• Experience building or supporting complex business platforms—not simply websites—including commerce, ecommerce, CRM, ERP, warehouse management, order management, payments, customer engagement, and operational workflows.
• Ability to translate ambiguous business requirements into clear technical solutions and communicate implementation approaches back to business stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of systems architecture, integration patterns, data flows, scalability, reliability, and operational support.
• Experience partnering effectively with Product Management, Enterprise Architecture, Project Management, QA, and business leaders. Preferred Experience Experience with one or more of the following is highly desirable:
• Shopify Plus
• Go
• React / TypeScript
• AWS
• PostgreSQL
• Oracle ERP integrations
• Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)
• Payment processing platforms
• Direct-to-consumer, retail, or direct selling technology platforms
• AI-enabled applications and modern AI development tools We value strong engineering fundamentals over experience with any single technology stack.

The ideal candidate has demonstrated the ability to learn new technologies quickly, lead engineering teams through platform modernization, and make sound technical decisions across a diverse technology ecosystem. Technology Environment You'll work across a modern technology stack that includes Go, React, TypeScript, Shopify Plus, Shopify Hydrogen, AWS, PostgreSQL, DynamoDB, APIs, event-driven integrations, CI/CD, observability tooling, and emerging AI capabilities. While expertise in every technology isn't expected, you should be comfortable leading engineers across a modern cloud-based platform and learning new technologies quickly.

Reporting Structure Reports To:

VP, Engineering & Enterprise Applications Direct Reports:

Full-Stack Software Engineers and future engineering hires.

Key Partners:

VP of Digital Platforms, Enterprise Architect, Product Managers, Project Managers, Data Platform & AI, Infrastructure & Security, Enterprise Applications, external agencies, and business stakeholders.

Pay:

$150,000.00 - $180,000.00 per year

Benefits:

401(k) Dental insurance

Experience:

Shopify:

5 years (Required) Ability to

Commute:

Long Beach, CA 90806 (Required)

Work Location:

Hybrid remote in Long Beach, CA 90806