Head of Product Engineering

Job description

Your next career: Come build the future of commerce with us at fabric! We’re building the Agentic Commerce Infrastructure to help merchants grow, sell, and operate in today’s AI Commerce-powered shopping experience. Backed by top-tier investors and led by industry and AI veterans, our team is building foundational technology at the intersection of AI, commerce, and great user experience. We move fast, experiment often, and ship production-grade software that powers real businesses. We’re looking for a hands-on Product & Engineering Leader who will own the end-to-end building lifecycle (Why, What and How), and who thrives in the 0–1 environment and knows how to move a small team with speed and focus. This is a rare opportunity to join as both a player and coach. You’ll report directly to the CEO and own Engineering and Product execution for a lean, high-output team. You’ll lead by example, influencing the architecture, writing code and building proofs of concept. Your impact will be measured not just by what the team ships, but by the customer outcomes those products deliver. If you’re energized by early-stage environments, Agentic AI, passionate about commerce and excited to reimagine how commerce operates - this role is built for you. Your Responsibilities: Team Leadership Lead and manage a quickly scaling team including engineering managers and senior ICs Partner with the CEO to set product, design & technical direction and translate strategy into crisp execution Foster a high-trust, high-ownership culture where engineers are empowered to move quickly, take initiative and own outcomes Hire and develop top engineering and AI talent as the team scales; build a team that is curious, customer-aware and impact driven Implement and execute a scaled, AI-first engineering process Foster a culture of ownership, experimentation, and continuous improvement Hands-On Technical Leadership Be deeply engaged at the architecture and design level Design agentic harness, core systems and data flows underpinning the platform Build proofs of concept (POCs) for new AI-driven capabilities and product ideas Write and review critical code paths and designs; hold a high bar for quality, scalability, and maintainability Guide backend development in Java, Node.js and/or Python; set direction for production-grade frontend experiences using JavaScript, React and TypeScript Design Agentic SDLC in partnership with the Head of Platform Engineering Product & Execution Own both engineering and product execution in close partnership with the CEO Translate product vision into technical roadmaps and clear engineering milestones tied to customer outcomes Be a customer-facing leader - engage directly with merchants and partners to understand pain points, validate solutions, and ensure what the team ships delivers real value Drive delivery, reliability, security, and scalability of production systems Lead development and deployment of cloud-native systems on AWS Provide technical oversight across Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines to enable fast, reliable delivery What you bring to the table: 10+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a strong foundation in product engineering, data products, architecture and hands-on development Proven early stage experience leading engineering teams as a Director, Head of Engineering, or equivalent—at 0-1 scale where you were also a key technical contributor A track record of building and shipping production-grade B2B SaaS products, ideally with a clear line from your technical decisions to customer outcomes. Experience thriving in early-stage or high-growth startup environments; comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change Experience owning or co-owning product as well as engineering—you think in outcomes, not just outputs Executive presence: Monthly board meeting updates to ensure the board is up-to-date on the technical roadmap and product development. Technical fluency in: Java, Node.js and/or Python, React, TypeScript, and modern JavaScript, REST API’s Solid hands-on experience with: AWS, Docker and Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices Experience with PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and/or event-driven systems Strong grasp of distributed systems, scalability tradeoffs, and long-term system health Experience building AI-native products or Agentic platforms—you understand how to design systems where LLMs and automation are first-class components, and how to measure their success Comfortable switching between big-picture strategy and ground-level execution within the same week Customer- facing presence. You engage with merchants, partners and externals stakeholders with confidence and empathy Strong communicator who can align cross-functional stakeholders and keep a small team focused and unblocked You have high standards for engineering quality—you drive this through design reviews, code reviews, and direct collaboration, not just process Nice to have - Prior experience in commerce, retail technology or commerce platforms Who we are: We’re a team of dedicated experts creating a new way to commerce for the age of AI Shopping. fabric is on a mission to build the Agentic Commerce Infrastructure to help merchants grow, sell and optimize the commerce experience for everyone in today's AI-powered commerce landscape. Headquartered in San Francisco, fabric was founded by a group of industry veterans determined to bring the same technical principles found at Amazon to retail. Leading retailers trust fabric to run their modern commerce business. No matter what field you are in, fabric has exciting opportunities for people passionate about making a difference and skilled at what they do! Here are four questions you should ask yourself: Do I believe in fabric's mission? Do I prefer iteration, testing and learning over checklists? Am I excited to use AI to experiment and work efficiently? Am I motivated to disrupt e-commerce? If the answer is yes, we want to talk to you! Where we hire: We are both a remote-first and hybrid employer (depending on your role and location). We focus on building our team in the following geographic locations depending on the role. United States - We're limited to hiring in the following states: California, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire Washington Canada - We're limited to hiring in the following provinces: Ontario & British Colombia