Technology Lead, Platforms & Ecommerce Engineering

What you'll do here:

In your role as Technology Lead, Platforms & Ecommerce Engineering within our Digital organization, you are responsible for building and operating our ecommerce platforms and the capabilities that enable them, including CMS, identity, and enterprise integrations. You will lead a lean, high‑performing team using agile principles to design, integrate, and operate scalable, reliable solutions. You will partner closely with enterprise stakeholders to support delivery of customer‑facing experiences.

With a strong focus on reliability and scalability, you will ensure platforms are stable, secure, and performant while enabling continuous improvement. You will also help advance how AI is applied within engineering workflows to improve efficiency.

You will divide your time between team leadership and hands‑on development, leading engineers while contributing directly to delivery. You will operate in a cross‑functional, agile environment, working closely with Experience Engineering, IT, Marketing, Design, and Dev Ops to align on priorities and execution. You will collaborate with other technology leads to provide technical direction and alignment across teams, and must be comfortable adapting your leadership style to the situation, leading when needed and contributing as an individual engineer when appropriate.

• Drive iterative delivery using agile methodologies
• Lead development and operation of core commerce platforms and supporting capabilities (CMS, identity, integrations)
• Define, prioritize, and communicate work clearly across Experience Engineering and stakeholders
• Design and build backend services and APIs to support transaction flows
• Own integrations across enterprise platforms including ecommerce (currently SAP), CRM (Salesforce), identity (Okta), and marketing systems
• Contribute directly to critical development and integration work
• Partner with Experience Engineering to enable efficient use of platform capabilities
• Ensure services are reliable, secure, and performant through strong testing and quality practices
• Monitor performance and integration health across critical flows
• Collaborate with Dev Ops on environments and delivery practices as needed
• Stay current with backend, integration, and AI‑assisted development practices
• Apply AI‑assisted approaches to improve efficiency and delivery quality
• Build a focused, accountable, high‑performing team culture

• Bachelor degree in Computer Science or related field, or equivalent combination of education and recent relevant work experience required
• 5+ years in a technical leadership or team lead role, including developing technology strategies and driving innovation
• Strong experience with backend development, API design, and integration patterns
• Experience working with ecommerce and CMS platforms
• Experience integrating with enterprise platforms such as Salesforce, SAP, identity providers, or marketing systems
• Strong understanding of system design, scalability, and reliability
• Experience working in agile teams
• Strong communication skills

• Experience with headless CMS and composable architectures
• Experience with event‑driven architecture or middleware
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS or similar)
• Experience using AI‑assisted development tools

• Stable, reliable ecommerce platforms with minimal downtime
• Reliable execution of critical ecommerce flows (pricing, cart, checkout, orders)
• High‑quality, reusable APIs that enable rapid frontend development
• Seamless integrations supporting end‑to‑end ecommerce experiences
• Efficient, predictable delivery of platform capabilities
• Reduced integration friction for Experience Engineering

• Prioritize reliability and scalability while enabling delivery speed
• Balance robustness with pragmatic implementation
• Operate effectively in a lean team environment
• Work across boundaries with Experience Engineering with shared ownership where needed
• Focus on enabling experiences, not overbuilding platforms
• Use AI to improve efficiency, not as a shortcut for fundamentals

At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to…