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. As the Technology Lead, 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 DevOps 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. Job Duties 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 DevOps 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 Skills Required 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 Preferred 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 What Success Looks Like 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 Key Expectations & Tradeoffs 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 Compensation At Cengage Group, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here: to learn more about the Total Rewards Philosophy. The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. Sales roles often incorporate a significant incentive compensation program beyond this base pay range. In this position, you will be eligible to participate in the company’s discretionary incentive bonus program. This position’s bonus target amount, which is not guaranteed and is dependent on individual performance and overall company results among other factors, is provided below. 15% Annual: Individual Target $101,900.00 - $175,000.00 USD Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws. Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at View email address on click.appcast.io. Warning Be aware, there has been an increase of targeted recruitment scams perpetrated by bad actors falsely providing job offers on behalf of Cengage Group to candidates as a means of obtaining personal information. Note that Cengage will always interview candidates via live in‑person meetings, phone calls and video calls before an offer would be extended. Also, be sure to check that communication is coming from an @cengage.com email address. #J-18808-Ljbffr