Vice President of Technology

Accountabilities: You will oversee the full technology function, balancing strategic leadership, technical execution, and operational excellence. Your main responsibilities will include: Define the technology strategy and multi-year roadmap in partnership with the CTO, translating business priorities into investments, initiatives, and delivery plans across both brands. Lead software engineering, business systems, and IT as an integrated organization, developing team leaders, clarifying responsibilities, and building the capabilities required for future growth. Manage the technology budget, staffing plans, and vendor relationships, making informed build-versus-buy decisions and escalating major architectural choices and enterprise risks when appropriate. Establish a centralized technology request and prioritization process, evaluating business needs, defining project scope, allocating resources, and communicating realistic delivery timelines. Introduce scalable engineering workflows and project management practices that improve accountability, delivery predictability, and cross-functional collaboration. Oversee the architecture, development, and maintenance of custom commerce, subscription, customer service, and internal platforms, ensuring reliability, scalability, and maintainability. Remain technically involved through architecture reviews, code reviews, hands-on troubleshooting, and selective coding when critical issues require direct intervention. Establish engineering standards for testing, releases, monitoring, and incident response to protect customer and employee experiences. Reduce key-person dependencies by improving technical documentation, distributing system ownership, cross-training team members, and regularly testing recovery procedures. Lead AI and automation strategy alongside the CTO, identifying opportunities to implement practical AI agents, workflows, and tools across engineering and business operations. Evaluate AI, traditional automation, and human-led processes to determine the most effective approach, measuring business value and managing reliability and data risks. Oversee business applications, integrations, and data flows connecting e-commerce with customer service, fulfillment, manufacturing, supply chain, and finance. Direct IT services, infrastructure, access management, cybersecurity, privacy, and vendor risk, establishing appropriate standards for data protection and AI oversight. Maintain business continuity and disaster recovery plans for revenue-critical and operational systems, prioritizing technical debt according to security, scalability, cost, and business impact. Partner with E-Commerce and web experience teams to translate storefront requirements and experimentation priorities into reliable technical solutions. Collaborate with business leaders to assess operational processes, automation opportunities, and capacity requirements before recommending additional technology, vendors, or staffing. Provide the CTO and executive leadership with clear updates on project progress, service health, resource constraints, and emerging risks. Act as a responsive technology partner to department leaders, ensuring requests are properly evaluated and technical priorities remain aligned with business objectives. Requirements : The ideal candidate is an experienced technology executive who combines strong engineering expertise, strategic judgment, and the ability to build scalable teams and systems. The following qualifications and skills are expected: 8+ years of progressive experience in software engineering and technology leadership, including at least 4 years managing technical teams and developing managers or senior leaders. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related discipline preferred. Equivalent practical experience and demonstrated technical leadership will also be considered. Experience with custom-built e-commerce platforms, legacy application modernization, or migrations involving PHP/Laravel-based systems. Strong understanding of software architecture, production code, system integrations, cloud infrastructure, and modern engineering practices. Hands-on experience applying AI tools and automation to software development or business workflows, with sound judgment regarding their limitations, reliability, and data security implications. Experience managing customer-facing commerce or subscription platforms alongside enterprise applications and IT services. Demonstrated ability to make custom-built or founder-developed systems maintainable, well-documented, and independently operable. Practical expertise in cybersecurity, privacy, access management, incident response, disaster recovery, and business continuity. Strong business acumen, including experience managing technology budgets, vendors, investments, and competing organizational priorities. Ability to build trust with technical founders while exercising independent leadership and developing a stronger technology organization. Excellent communication, decision-making, and cross-functional collaboration skills. Ability to balance executive responsibilities with hands-on technical problem-solving. Bonus Points: Experience in a startup, founder-led organization, or high-growth e-commerce business. Familiarity with Shopify and the technical considerations involved in developing or integrating e-commerce functionality. Experience with RESTful APIs, MySQL or comparable relational databases, AWS or similar cloud infrastructure, and modern web development technologies. Familiarity with ERP, warehouse management, fulfillment, or customer service platforms such as Acumatica, Logiwa, Klaviyo, or Gladly. Experience with Agile, Scrum, or other structured project management methodologies; relevant certifications are an advantage. Genuine interest in food, wellness, and regenerative agriculture. Benefits : Annual base salary based on geographic location: Tier 1 (Higher Cost Markets): $190,000–$220,000. Tier 2 (National Markets): $180,000–$210,000. Tier 3 (Lower Cost Markets): $170,000–$200,000. Fully remote working arrangement within approved U.S. states. Medical, dental, and vision insurance, with 100% employer-paid dental and vision coverage and a small monthly employee medical premium. Dependent coverage is available at the employee's expense. Generous paid time off and paid sick leave. Six company-paid holidays and two additional floating holidays annually. Paid parental leave after six months of service for eligible employees. 100% employer-paid short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance. 401(k) or Roth retirement plans with up to a 4% company match after one year of service. Monthly $300 product stipend. Employee referral bonuses of up to $1,500 for successful referrals. Opportunity to contribute to meaningful initiatives in food, wellness, and regenerative agriculture.