Lead Engineer, Cloud Computing, Systems Engineer

Stack Commerce is the leading commerce content platform serving 1,000+ premium publishers, including Mashable, Entrepreneur, and the NY Post. As a TPG portfolio company, we operate a portfolio of commerce brands, including Brand Cycle, Reviewed, and Stack Social.

We're seeking a strategic technology leader to guide our distributed engineering organization through a critical transformation. You'll lead the evolution from fragmented systems to a unified platform architecture while building sustainable engineering practices across our portfolio.

You are a hands-on technology leader who will oversee engineering and technology across the Stack Commerce commerce portfolio. While Brand Cycle continues to operate with business and product autonomy, you will collaborate with the Brand Cycle team on the overall technology strategy, ensuring alignment on shared services such as security, infrastructure, and data. You’ll inherit a distributed team across the US, Mexico, and Brazil, with immediate priorities to harden security, consolidate redundant systems, and establish disciplined engineering processes that enable centralized and semi-independent business units to scale effectively under a unified technology vision.

Location: 100% Remote (US-based required), Boston-based a plus

What You'll Do

• Assess all platforms to inform strategy around consolidation
• Modernize the core technology platform (“Admin”)
• Optimize AWS infrastructure and reduce operational costs
• Build automation to replace manual processes

Team & Organization Development:

• Lead the distributed engineering organization across the US, Mexico, Brazil.
• Establish consistent engineering practices, processes, and standards across all brands.
• Create career development paths and improve team retention
• Balance contractor relationships while building core in-house capabilities
• Single voice between Engineering and business stakeholders

Business Partnership:

• Partner with each brand's business and product leaders to translate strategy into a technology roadmap that balances portfolio priorities with brand-level autonomy.
• Translate business requirements into a technical roadmap
• Provide Leadership with clear visibility into technology progress, risks, and ROI
• Drive consistent reporting and metrics across all brands, particularly around GMV, conversion, payout accuracy, and platform reliability

Operational Excellence:

• Optimize project management and sprint processes
• Establish security protocols and compliance standards
• Build documentation and knowledge management systems that preserve institutional knowledge and reduce dependency on individuals
• Establish shared Dev Ops, QA, and data engineering functions that all brands can leverage
• Manage vendor relationships and budgets holistically across all brands to maximize leverage and reduce redundancy

What You'll Bring

Required Experience:

• 5+ years leading distributed engineering teams
• Experience managing contractor-heavy organizations
• Demonstrated success transforming legacy PHP, Word Press, and Ruby systems into modular, API-driven architectures with modern data, caching, and deployment pipelines.
• Solid understanding of data engineering and analytics architectures, including data pipelines, ETL/ELT processes, and data modeling best practices.
• Deep understanding of end-to-end e-commerce architecture—from front-end transactional flows to backend data, analytics, and compliance layers.
• Proven experience managing cybersecurity, data protection, and compliance initiatives (e.g., SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA), ensuring secure infrastructure and adherence to regulatory standards.

Technical

Skills:

• Strong knowledge of React, Type Script, and Next.js ecosystems
• Experience in headless CMS integrations and decoupled web architectures.
• Hands-on expertise in Ruby on Rails, Word Press, and PHP application development.
• Understanding of serverless architecture and data streaming services: AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions, AWS SAM, Kinesis, Kafka.
• Familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes.
• Strong background in AWS infrastructure, automation, and cost optimization.
• Background in designing and maintaining resilient and fault-tolerant API and microservice ecosystems.

Leadership Qualities:

• Ability to establish credibility and influence
• Experience building an engineering culture in various environments
• Strong communication skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Pragmatic approach balancing technical debt with business needs
• Ability to manage offshore teams across multiple time zones

Why Stack Commerce Needs You

Immediate Impact Areas

• Establish a technology leadership voice in the company's strategy
• Address critical security vulnerabilities in admin systems
• Create stability in the engineering organization post-leadership transition
• Build comprehensive processes where gaps and informal practices exist today
• Transform reactive firefighting culture to proactive development
• Shape technology strategy for a profitable, growing portfolio
• Develop the engineering team into a…