Director of Engineering

Job description

ABOUT QUINCE

Quince is a destination for builders, creators, innovators, and operators who want to come together and challenge the status quo. Our mission is simple: make really high quality essentials for really low prices, fairly and sustainably. We deliver on that mission through a unique manufacturer-to-consumer (M2C) model eliminating the layers of traditional retail that add cost and result in consumers paying more than they need to. We find, build relationships with, and work directly with the manufacturing partners behind some of the world’s finest products. From there, our teams design smart, efficient operational processes and build and deploy proprietary technology, AI, and analytics to help us scale fast.

What began with a small assortment of elevated basics has quickly grown into a cross-category brand spanning apparel, accessories, home goods, and more. Today, tens of millions of people across a growing number of countries come – and return – to Quince because they trust us to deliver.

OUR CULTURE

Quince is a culture built for builders by builders. Our way of working starts with a blank sheet of paper. We question conventional thinking, use technology and data to uncover new opportunities, and move quickly to turn ideas into reality. We aren’t interested in replicating how others do retail. We’re building a better way – at a speed and scale unlike anything that’s been done before.

• We dream big and chase the hard problems others shy away from. Rejecting long-held assumptions is part of our company's DNA. Where conventional wisdom says you have to choose – soft or durable, speed or rigor, quality or price – we ask why that trade-off has to exist in the first place.
• Our pace is fast and the bar is high because our customers expect a lot from us and we refuse to let them down. We believe the best results come from challenging ourselves, learning from one another, and building on each other's strengths.
• Here, responsibility is not determined by role, tenure, or seniority. Every team member - no matter their level - has the opportunity to drive our business and shape our trajectory.

If you’re someone who likes to imagine new possibilities and build better systems rather than plug-in to outdated ones, Quince is the place for you.

THE ROLE

Director of Engineering (E-Commerce & Platform Engineering)

We are seeking a Director of Engineering to lead our E-commerce and Platform Engineering organizations. This leader will be responsible for driving the technical and organizational strategy behind Quince’s customer-facing commerce experiences while simultaneously building the internal platforms, tooling, and developer productivity systems that enable engineering teams to move faster and operate at scale.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise with exceptional leadership capabilities. You are energized by solving complex business and technology challenges, making high-judgment decisions in ambiguous environments, and building high-performing teams. You thrive in a culture where ownership, speed, innovation, and customer obsession are deeply valued, and where leaders are expected to influence strategy while remaining connected to technical execution.

As Director of Engineering, you will lead a team of 20–40 engineers through a layer of Engineering Managers, partner closely with Product, Design, Infrastructure, Data, and Business leaders, and play a critical role in shaping the future of Quince’s technology platform and engineering organization.

Responsibilities:

#### Organizational Leadership:

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Engineering Managers while building a strong pipeline of future engineering leaders.
• Foster a culture of ownership, craftsmanship, accountability, and outcome-driven execution.
• Own hiring, performance management, career development, succession planning, and compensation processes across the organization.
• Design and evolve organizational structures to support the growth of both E-commerce and Platform Engineering teams.
• Partner closely with executive leadership to drive engineering-wide initiatives, operational excellence, and cultural development.

#### E-commerce & Platform Charter:

• Drive high-quality, high-velocity delivery of customer-facing commerce experiences in partnership with Product and Design teams.
• Own reliability, scalability, performance, and conversion-critical metrics across the commerce platform.
• Lead architectural decisions that balance speed of execution, scalability, maintainability, and business impact.
• Partner with Growth, Merchandising, and Marketing teams to enable experimentation and data-driven product development.
• Build and scale internal platforms that improve developer productivity and accelerate engineering delivery.
• Define and evolve foundational engineering capabilities including APIs, service frameworks, authentication systems, data platforms, and internal developer tools.
• Drive measurable improvements in engineering effectiveness through initiatives focused on deployment frequency, lead time, reliability, and operational excellence.

#### Technical Leadership:

• Establish engineering standards, architectural principles, and technology strategy across the organization.
• Lead critical architecture reviews and technical decision-making through senior engineers, Staff Engineers, Principal Engineers, and Engineering Managers.
• Own the technology roadmap, balancing platform modernization, technical debt reduction, and strategic investments.
• Champion modern engineering practices including cloud-native architectures, microservices, event-driven systems, infrastructure-as-code, and observability-first development.
• Ensure systems are designed for scale, reliability, security, and long-term maintainability.

#### AI & GenAI Adoption:

• Define and execute the engineering strategy for adopting AI and GenAI technologies across the software development lifecycle.
• Drive adoption of AI-powered development tools including coding assistants, code review automation, and developer productivity solutions.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to build AI-enabled customer experiences such as personalization, recommendations, search, and conversational commerce.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and establish best practices around responsible adoption, productivity measurement, and ROI.
• Maintain a strong understanding of LLMs, agentic workflows, and modern AI infrastructure patterns.

#### Cross-Functional & Executive Partnership:

• Partner with Product, Design, Data, Infrastructure, and Business leaders to align engineering investments with company priorities.
• Represent Engineering in executive planning, strategic reviews, and company-wide decision-making forums.
• Communicate engineering strategy, priorities, progress, and trade-offs to senior leadership and stakeholders.
• Manage engineering budgets, vendor relationships, and strategic technology partnerships.

Qualifications:

#### Required:

• 12–16 years of software engineering experience with at least 5–7 years in engineering leadership roles managing managers.
• Proven experience leading organizations of 20–40+ engineers through multiple layers of leadership.
• Demonstrated success hiring, developing, and retaining high-performing engineering talent and leaders.
• Ability to operate effectively at both strategic and tactical levels, from executive communication and organizational design to architecture reviews and incident leadership.
• Deep experience building and scaling e-commerce, marketplace, or consumer internet platforms operating at significant scale.
• Experience leading platform engineering, developer productivity, infrastructure, or foundational technology initiatives.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, high-scale architectures, database technologies, caching strategies, and service-oriented architectures.
• Experience with observability platforms, experimentation frameworks, feature flagging systems, and operational excellence initiatives.
• Hands-on technical depth in one or more of the following technologies: Java, Go, Python, Node.js/TypeScript, or Kotlin.
• Strong track record of driving architectural decisions that balance business needs, scalability, velocity, and cost efficiency.

Preferred:

• Experience at high-growth D2C, e-commerce, marketplace, or consumer technology companies.
• Experience leading platform-as-a-product organizations with measurable adoption and satisfaction metrics.
• Track record of scaling engineering organizations through periods of rapid growth and organizational transformation.
• Experience with headless commerce, composable architectures, or large-scale commerce platform modernization efforts.
• Active participation in the broader engineering community through conference speaking, open-source contributions, technical writing, or industry thought leadership.
• Experience leveraging AI and automation technologies to improve engineering productivity and customer experiences.

WHY QUINCE?

Joining Quince means being part of a mission-driven team reshaping retail. You will work alongside talented colleagues, tackle meaningful challenges, and contribute to building a more sustainable, accessible future for customers and partners alike.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY & HIRING INTEGRITY

Quince provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applications for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

Quince is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete your application or to perform the essential functions of a role at Quince, please let us know by completing this accommodation form. We review all requests individually and will work with you to determine appropriate accommodations on a case-by-case basis.

Employment is contingent upon successful completion of a background check. Quince will conduct background checks in compliance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Security Advisory: Beware of Frauds

At Quince, we're dedicated to recruiting top talent who share our drive for innovation. To safeguard candidates, Quince emphasizes legitimate recruitment practices. Initial communication is primarily via official Quince email addresses and LinkedIn; beware of deviations. Personal data and sensitive information will not be solicited during the application phase. Interviews are conducted via phone, in person, or through the approved platforms Google Meets or Zoom—never via messaging apps or other calling services. Offers are merit-based, communicated verbally, and followed up in writing. If personal information is requested to initiate the hiring process, rest assured it will be through secure and protected means.