SENIOR DIRECTOR - DIGITAL ENGINEERING (TRANSACT & RETAIN)

Overview

Catalyst Brands is seeking a future-forward, execution-strong Sr. Director- Digital Engineering to lead the Transact & Retain value stream across Catalyst Brands’ digital portfolio. This role owns the engineering strategy and delivery for revenue-critical digital experiences including Cart, Checkout, Account Management, Order History, Returns, and core commerce platforms. This leader will drive modernization of our commerce stack, strengthen transaction reliability and performance, and enable scalable multi-brand capabilities directly influencing revenue growth and customer retention.

As a critical member of the Digital Engineering leadership team, the Sr. Director will shape our engineering strategy, scale high-performance global teams, and embed a modern engineering culture grounded in velocity, quality, and customer value. This is a rare opportunity to drive meaningful impact at scale—building the platforms that enable how our brands win in a digital-first world.

Responsibilities

1. Lead Digital Application Modernization Across the Upper-Funnel

• Define & execute the roadmap cart, checkout, account, and post-purchase digital experiences across brands.
• Modernize legacy commerce components into composable, API-first architecture.
• Enable scalable experimentation, personalization, and content orchestration.
• Establish the foundation for composable commerce, event-driven architecture, and modern data platforms.

2. Deliver Customer-Centric Digital Experiences

• Optimize checkout conversion and reduce abandonment.
• Improve shipping, loyalty and payment orchestration, speed, and transaction success rates.
• Enable seamless account and post-purchase experiences across brands.
• Partner with Product and UX to improve engagement, search relevance, and conversion metrics.
• Integrate seamlessly with Discover & Engage and Omni-Channel value streams.
• Champion accessibility as a core design principle, ensuring inclusive experiences for every customer.

3. Build and Scale High-Performance Engineering Teams

• Attract, develop, and retain top-tier engineering talent with a strong focus on inclusion and global capability building.
• Lead cross-functional product engineering squads with clear ownership and accountability.
• Embed AI, DevSecOps, CI/CD, test automation, and SRE best practices.
• Coach directors, engineering managers and senior engineers to deliver with speed and quality.

4. Champion Engineering Excellence and Culture

• Embed a product-engineering mindset that prioritizes business outcomes, customer experience, and rapid learning cycles.
• Drive responsible AI adoption to enhance engineering productivity, quality, and innovation.
• Improve DORA metrics and engineering performance benchmarks.
• Reduce technical debt and modernize legacy components.
• Strengthen platform reliability, security, and observability.
• Foster a culture of innovation, psychological safety, and continuous improvement across distributed teams.

5. Be a Hands-On Technical Leader and Architecture Coach

• Stay deeply engaged in architecture and design decisions—able to whiteboard, code-review, and challenge assumptions.
• Mentor senior engineers and architects to ensure alignment between business strategy and technical delivery.
• Create frameworks that balance enterprise standardization with purposeful innovation.

6. Partner Across the Business to Deliver Scalable Digital Solutions

• Collaborate with product, data, infrastructure, and business leaders to convert strategic goals into scalable tech capabilities.
• Enable differentiated experiences through personalization engines, modular front ends, real-time APIs, and fulfillment innovation.
• Support brand differentiation while leveraging shared enterprise platforms.
• Act as a strategic advisor on digital discovery and experience capabilities.

Decision Rights & Impact

• Technology Architecture– Owns modernization roadmap, platform design, and engineering standards for Cart, Checkout, Account Management, Order History, Returns, and core commerce platforms.
• Influences cross-brand digital growth and customer engagement.
• Organizational Design – Leads engineering structure, workforce strategy, and leadership development within the value stream.
• Cross-Functional Leadership – Shares accountability with product, data, and experience teams for business outcomes.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of progressive engineering leadership, including 5+ years leading enterprise-scale modernization in retail, digital commerce, or consumer tech environments.
• Deep expertise in commerce architectures, including Cart, Checkout, Payments, Account Management, and Order Management systems.
• Strong experience with high-volume, revenue-critical systems, ensuring performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Proven success modernizing digital platforms in retail or eCommerce environments.
• Demonstrated ability to lead distributed, high-performing engineering team delivering mission-critical customer journeys.
• Deep experience managing and optimizing transaction flows, payment orchestration, and checkout conversion.
• Familiarity with core retail systems (eCommerce, ERP, POS, OMS, loyalty) and their integration with customer-facing experiences.
• Demonstrated success leading global, distributed engineering teams and driving measurable business impact on revenue, conversion, and customer retention.
• Ability to translate business goals into technical strategy in fast-paced, agile environments.

Leadership Attributes

• Customer-Obsessed – Understands transaction systems as growth engines.
• Retail Technologist – Understands how technology drives value across the full retail value chain.
• Strategic & Hands-On – Equally comfortable in boardroom strategy and architectural deep dives.
• Change Agent – Inspires confidence, energizes teams, and leads transformation with clarity and courage.
• Outcome-Obsessed – Focuses relentlessly on delivering customer and business impact—not just tech output.
• Disciplined Innovator – Encourages experimentation while building for scale, reliability, and performance.
• Platform-Oriented – Balances brand differentiation with enterprise scale.
• Inclusive Leader – Builds diverse, empowered teams and strong culture.

Direct Reports Directors, Senior Engineering Managers. Engineering Managers and Principal/Sr. Engineers across upper-funnel

Key relationships Product, Data, Infrastructure, Security, Business Unit Leaders, Digital Engineering & Platform Leaders

Who We Are – Catalyst Brands LLCCatalyst Brands LLC is a $9 billion global retail company powering a portfolio of iconic consumer brands, including JCPenney, Aéropostale, Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Lucky Brand, and Nautica. We reach millions of customers across stores and digital channels, blending heritage with innovation to drive relevance and growth. With bold investments in modern technology, data, and digital platforms, we are building the capabilities to lead in a faster, more connected retail future.

Pay Range

USD $159,000.00 - USD $265,000.00 /Yr.