Lead Software Engineer - Big Commerce

Job description

We're looking for an accomplished Lead Software Engineer with strong BigCommerce credentials to architect and deliver forward-thinking storefront experiences. This position calls for someone who can own complete technical leadership across headless and native commerce builds, guide a distributed engineering group, and craft polished, high-performing omnichannel digital journeys. Responsibilities • Take full ownership of BigCommerce storefront architecture, spanning both headless and native Stencil implementations, covering design system integration, component library management, and performance safeguards • Set up and sustain modern front-end frameworks such as React/Next.js/Remix, along with API orchestration layers and personalization hooks that fuel dynamic, cross-channel experiences • Convert UX designs into polished, production-ready responsive interfaces, with careful attention paid to accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA) and localization needs for English and French Canadian markets • Run code reviews, uphold engineering standards, and establish automated testing and CI pipelines across storefront codebases • Deliver sophisticated BigCommerce customizations, including checkout flow design, theme extensions, GraphQL storefront API implementation, micro-frontend approaches, and integration of third-party applications covering payments, search, loyalty, and personalization • Coordinate integrations across CMS, DAM, and marketing platforms to simplify content workflows, campaign execution, and PIM-based merchandising changes • Enhance site performance, SEO effectiveness, and Core Web Vitals, while maintaining observability dashboards to catch issues before they escalate • Guide nearshore and offshore front-end engineers, manage daily task coordination, clear blockers, and cultivate a culture that embraces AI-assisted development • Document best practices, runbooks, and playbooks that support smooth transitions, effective onboarding, and continuous refinement without interrupting regular release cycles Requirements • 8 or more years of front-end engineering background delivering enterprise-grade commerce or experience platforms • At least 5 years working directly with BigCommerce, including headless builds using Storefront GraphQL, REST Admin API, Channels API, and BigCommerce Widgets/App frameworks • Strong command of modern JavaScript/TypeScript, React/Next.js (or Remix), and Node.js • Deep knowledge of CSS-in-JS approaches, state management solutions (Redux, Zustand), and component-based development practices (Storybook, atomic design) • Demonstrated track record leading client-facing initiatives, with the ability to translate UX and business objectives into technical strategy and communicate trade-offs on the fly • Evidence of delivering robust, high-performing front-end experiences connected with MACH-based services, including CMS, search, personalization engines, CDP/CRM, and DAM • Solid grasp of responsive design principles, accessibility standards, and SEO, plus experience with analytics tagging and A/B test enablement • Background working with CI/CD tooling (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, CircleCI) and automated testing frameworks (Jest, Playwright, Cypress) • Working knowledge of performance-tuning tools such as Lighthouse and WebPageTest • English communication skills at a B2 level or above Nice to have • Exposure to GCP/Vertex AI-powered experiences, Dynamic Yield personalization tools, or agentic/conversational commerce solutions • Background with Shopify, commercetools, or SAP Commerce, along with the ability to apply composable best practices across platforms • Understanding of Canadian retail and promotional calendars, bilingual content management, and localized digital strategies • Experience with design operations, Figma-to-code pipelines, and governance of design systems • Ease of use with AI copilots and automation tools to speed up development and strengthen regression testing coverage