VP R&D – AI, E-Commerce & Product Innovation

VP R&D – AI, E-Commerce & Product Innovation

We're looking for a hands-on Vice President of R&D to build and scale a brand-new engineering organization in the e-commerce space. This is a rare opportunity to join from day one, take full ownership of architecture and execution, and lead the delivery of AI-powered products from the ground up.

What You’ll Do:

• Build and lead a new R&D organization, including hiring, defining architecture, establishing processes, and selecting tools
• Set the technical vision and lead by example with a hands-on approach
• Design and implement scalable systems using technologies such as Node.js, React, TypeScript, AWS, and Kubernetes
• Work closely with Product to shape the roadmap and deliver innovative e-commerce experiences
• Integrate AI technologies, including large language models, recommendation engines, conversational interfaces, and generative AI
• Drive the adoption of AI tools to enhance developer productivity and code quality
• Collaborate with UX, QA, DevOps, and Data teams to ensure end-to-end excellence
• Lead agile development practices, manage timelines and risks, and align team goals
• Serve as a mentor and technical leader as the team and platform grow

Your Skills and Experience:

• 8–10+ years of software development experience, including 3+ years in senior R&D leadership roles
• Proven ability to build engineering teams and platforms from scratch
• Strong hands-on expertise with Node.js, React.js, TypeScript, and cloud-native infrastructure
• Deep knowledge of microservices, APIs, CI/CD pipelines, Docker, Kubernetes, and AWS
• Solid experience with MongoDB (must-have)
• Familiarity with AI/ML tools such as OpenAI, Vertex AI, LangChain, and others
• Experience with developer AI assistants like Cursor AI is a strong advantage
• Strong leadership, communication, and mentoring capabilities
• Experience with agile methodologies and tools such as Jira, GitHub, and Confluence

Nice to Have:

• Experience with Elasticsearch, Kafka, Terraform, and Helm
• Background in building large-scale B2C or e-commerce platforms
• Passion for creating products that people love