Senior Director, Software Engineering (San Mateo)

In this role, you will define and execute the technical strategy that powers how fans discover, evaluate, and choose from our catalog of over 5 million SKUs across more than a thousand websites — spanning partner brands such as Fanatics, NFL Shop, MLB Shop, NBA Store, LIDS, Chelsea FC, and Fanatics International.

Key Responsibilities

• End-to-End Storefront Ownership: Own the full customer-facing storefront experience, including the Home Page, Top Nav & Branding, Path-to-PDP (Search, SRP, TLP, DLP, navigation, filtering, taxonomy), the Product Description Page (PDP), Direct-to-Item / Featured Product Pages, Made-to-Order (Digital Apparel/customization), Pricing & Promotional display, and the Aspire Design System. Drive the engineering execution for Search Relevancy, Merchandising, and Personalization engines that power these surfaces.
• Technical Strategy & Platform Modernization: Define and lead the multi-year technical roadmap for the Storefront domain. Drive the modernization of our core storefront platform (Iris) toward a Micro-Frontend and Microservices ecosystem purpose-built for high-scale, global e-commerce traffic. Set the technical vision that balances velocity, quality, and long-term platform health.
• AI/ML Integration: Champion the integration of modern Generative AI and Machine Learning capabilities (e.g., OpenAI, Google Vertex AI, Gemini, internal recommendation systems, vector databases) to power personalized discovery, intelligent search, conversational commerce, dynamic merchandising, conversion-optimized PDPs, and product recommendations across the storefront.
• Performance, Quality & Site Reliability: Be accountable for the performance, quality, accessibility (WCAG/ADA), and user experience of the storefront across Web, iOS, and Android. Relentlessly optimize for speed and Core Web Vitals, and own peak readiness for marquee moments such as Super Bowl, NFL kickoff, March Madness, and major product drops. Own Storefront 24×7 on-call posture, incident response, and partner with SRE/SRO on platform resiliency.
• Design System Leadership: Drive the adoption and evolution of the Aspire Design System across all brands and surfaces, ensuring a consistent, modern, and accessible experience while accelerating engineering velocity through shared, reusable components.
• Data-Driven Development & Experimentation: Partner with Product, Design, and Data Science to leverage A/B testing frameworks (Spark/Lumen) and product analytics (Amplitude, GA4, internal tools) to define, measure, and optimize key business metrics (Conversion Rate, Search-to-Detail Rate, PDP Engagement, Add-to-Cart Rate, AOV, Core Web Vitals). Build an engineering culture of high-velocity, high-quality experimentation.
• SEO & Multi-Brand Excellence: Ensure storefront pages (TLPs, DLPs, PDPs) are technically optimized for SEO, page speed, and structured data, while supporting multi-brand, multi-region (NA, UK, EU, FI), and multi-language requirements including GDPR-compliant consent and tracking.
• Organizational Leadership: Build, mentor, grow, and empower a high-performing, globally distributed engineering organization spanning San Mateo, Boulder, Hyderabad, and nearshore contractors. Directly responsible for scaling the organization and growing leadership benches across all geographies.
• Executive Influence: Operate as a key technical leader within the broader engineering organization, partnering with peer leaders across Cart-to-Care, Lifecycle, Foundations, and Mobile to shape Fanatics' overall commerce technology direction.

Technical Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive experience in software engineering and engineering leadership, with at least 7 years dedicated to e-commerce or high-scale consumer applications, and significant time leading leaders (managing managers).
• Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field strongly preferred.
• Frontend Expertise: Extensive hands-on experience and architectural leadership in modern frontend technologies: React, TypeScript, Node.js, ES6, modern CSS/tooling, and SSR. Demonstrated experience architecting Micro-Frontend systems and design systems at scale.
• Backend Knowledge: Deep understanding of REST APIs, GraphQL, and service orchestration patterns, with experience designing and operating highly distributed Microservices architectures supporting consumer-scale traffic.
• Platform Experience: Proven experience building, deploying, and optimizing both iOS and Android native or hybrid applications as part of an omni-platform storefront strategy.
• AI/ML & Personalization: Experience leading initiatives involving Vector Databases, Recommendation Engines, semantic/vector search, and modern personalization platforms is strongly preferred. Direct experience with Google Vertex AI, OpenAI, or comparable platforms is a plus.
• Data Acumen: High proficiency with product analytics platforms (e.g., Amplitude, GA4, Google Analytics) and a strong ability to use SQL for independent data investigation, reporting, and decision-making.
• Operational Excellence: Experience owning production reliability for consumer-facing properties, including incident management, on-call programs, observability (Splunk, Datadog, or comparable), and peak-event readiness for major commercial moments.

Leadership & Business Qualifications

• Exceptional executive presence, stakeholder management, and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into business strategy for C-level audiences.
• Proven track record of success as a senior technical leader with full-lifecycle ownership of a major domain, platform, or business line at a high-scale consumer company — ideally including a turnaround or significant performance step-change.
• Strong belief in — and demonstrated success establishing — a culture where engineers are accountable for code quality, performance, reliability, and the end-to-end customer experience. Comfortable driving shift-left quality practices and mature SDLC.
• Demonstrated experience hiring, growing, and scaling engineering organizations across international and remote locations, including building leadership benches in India and other global hubs.
• Ability to operate as a senior leader who can manage multiple engineering domains simultaneously and meaningfully influence the broader organizational technology direction at Fanatics.

At Fanatics, we value transparency and honesty. If you don’t meet every single requirement, that’s okay – we still want to hear from you! We believe in the power of diverse experiences and talents. If you’re excited about the role and confident that you can contribute, don’t hesitate to apply. We’re genuinely interested in how your unique skills and perspective can help us build something amazing together.

The salary range for this position is $265,000 - $330,000, which represents base pay only and does not include short-term or long-term incentive compensation. When determining base pay, as part of a final compensation package, we consider several factors such as location, experience, qualifications, and training.

Where You’ll Work and What’s required

- Office locations: San Mateo, CA
- Hybrid work environment with flexibility between 3 days in office and 2 days remote work.
- Fast-paced team environment with exposure to multiple aspects of the Fanatics Commerce business.

What’s in it for you

- Culture: Join a team where you’re surrounded by top-tier talent, driven by a shared passion to relentlessly enhance the fan experience. With a focus on collaboration, support, and continuous development, you’ll be empowered to help shape a culture that celebrates both individual and team successes.

- Benefits: We provide a wide range of health, financial, legal, and development assistance, including wellness programs with fitness and weight management partners, paid maternity paternity leave, and infertility treatment. Additionally, we offer flexible time off to help you recharge, along with a competitive 401k plan to support your financial future. At Fanatics, we’re dedicated to supporting you in all aspects of work and life.