VP of Technology

Balsam Brands•Redwood City, CA

16h•$240,000 - $302,000•Hybrid

About The Position

As the VP of Technology, you will lead engineering across Balsam Brands’ Digital and Enterprise technology organizations, overseeing the Directors of Digital Technology and Enterprise Technology. You will own a geographically distributed engineering organization spanning the Americas, Ireland, and Manila, and translate business priorities into an engineering strategy, investment roadmap, and measurable results—with accountability for peak-season reliability in a high-stakes omnichannel retail environment. A core priority is evolving our AI-enabled software development lifecycle (SDLC), from requirements and design through code, testing, release, and operations, while building leaders’ and engineers’ ability to use AI effectively. You will partner closely with Product leadership to shape a joint engineering-product operating model that keeps teams aligned and moving. You will develop strong engineering leaders and be accountable for the quality, reliability, and cost effectiveness of customer-facing and enterprise technology. You will align investments with product and business leaders and resolve cross-functional tradeoffs. Your Directors will own planning and delivery within their areas, supported by clear decision rights and coaching from you.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive software engineering leadership, including 3+ years leading at the Director level or above across multiple teams or technology domains
Experience shaping engineering strategy and organizational design, developing leaders, and building accountable, collaborative teams across geographically distributed, globally operating organizations
Demonstrated AI literacy and hands-on expertise using AI in your own engineering and leadership work, including critical evaluation of outputs and limitations and concrete improvements in how you work
Genuine curiosity about AI and continuous learning through experimentation, with sound judgment about where AI helps, its limitations, and readiness for broader adoption
Experience enabling others to use AI through coaching, training, and reusable practices, developing Directors and technical leaders who can guide adoption and sustain measurable improvements
Strong technical judgment across digital commerce, enterprise applications, and their integrations, with experience connecting architecture and modernization choices to business outcomes
A record of improving delivery predictability and software quality while sustaining the reliability, performance, and security of business-critical systems in a retail, eCommerce, or similarly high-availability consumer-facing environment. Experience with peak-season operations and seasonal demand spikes is a strong differentiator
Experience with modern software development practices, automation-first testing, CI/CD, observability, and incident management, with the ability to guide technical leaders and assess operational risk
Experience managing engineering budgets, workforce and capacity plans, technology investments, and vendor relationships, with sound financial and commercial judgment
Strong communication, influencing, and negotiation skills. Ability to work with Product and business leaders, make tradeoffs explicit, and develop shared accountability for results

Responsibilities

Lead the team to achieve business outcomes by promoting collaboration and alignment with organizational values; translate company initiatives into a clear vision, aligning team actions with company priorities while fostering performance and professional development
Coach and develop the Digital and Enterprise Directors, strengthen the engineering leadership bench, and build succession plans. Establish clear expectations for performance, delegation, and talent development across the organization
Define a multi-year engineering strategy and investment roadmap with the CTO, Product, and business leaders. Balance customer and operational needs with platform modernization, technical debt, risk, and sustainable cost
Own the evolution of our AI-enabled SDLC across Digital and Enterprise. Set the roadmap, lead changes in workflows and practices, drive disciplined experimentation and adoption of AI tools, and hold Directors accountable for measurable improvements in delivery flow, quality, and business outcomes
Enable AI use through coaching, training, reusable workflows, and shared examples. Partner with AI and security leaders on data protection, review and validation standards, and human accountability for engineering decisions and outputs
Set architectural direction across digital commerce and enterprise systems. Establish standards for integration, scalability, and maintainability, and guide major technology, platform, and build-versus-buy decisions
Align priorities and engineering capacity across Digital and Enterprise. Resolve shared dependencies and competing demands, while empowering Directors to own quarterly planning, sizing, delegation, and delivery within their domains
Establish a consistent engineering operating model and measures of business impact, delivery predictability, software quality, and service reliability. Use these measures to identify systemic issues and hold leaders accountable for improvement
Set expectations for secure, reliable operations and seasonal readiness. Ensure leaders maintain effective observability, incident response, capacity planning, and tested disaster recovery and continuity plans—with rigor around peak-season preparedness in a high-stakes retail environment
Advance automation-first quality engineering, CI/CD, deployment practices, and continuous improvement across the software development lifecycle. Ensure Directors and technical leaders have the capabilities and standards to deliver dependable releases
Own engineering financial planning, resource allocation, and vendor oversight across Digital and Enterprise within approved budgets. Shape workforce and sourcing plans, manage technology and delivery partner costs, hold vendors to clear performance expectations, and assess investments against business value and total cost of ownership
Communicate engineering priorities, performance, investment choices, and material risks to executive and business stakeholders. Build alignment on tradeoffs, ownership, and follow-through

Benefits

Competitive compensation, including a cash-based incentive plan; salary is reviewed yearly and may be adjusted as part of the normal compensation review process
Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage, with 100% of monthly premiums covered for team members, and 85%+ employer-paid premiums for other coverage tiers that include dependents
Up to $2,000 annual funding toward HSA accounts
Medical, transit, dependent care FSA
Infertility coverage offered on all medical plans
Generous parental leave program and flexible return options
Company-paid life and AD&D insurance
Company-paid short and long-term disability insurance
401(k) with dollar-for-dollar company match up to $4,000 per calendar year
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and other mental health and wellness perks
Paid holidays, annual shutdown week, PTO, and volunteer time-off (VTO) packages
Paid 5-week sabbatical leave after 10 years of employment
Annual continuous learning benefit up to $1,000 per person, per fiscal year
Up to $300 flexible reimbursement to support setup of new team member's work-from-home environment
Generous team member merchandise discount
Valuable extras: identity theft protection, subsidized parking, monthly wellness, pet insurance, accident & critical illness insurance