Sobeys

Director, Commerce Enablement

Sobeys$100K — $130K *
Retail & Consumer Goods
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10+ years of experience in enterprise-scale commerce or transactional platforms with high availability requirements.
  • Deep expertise in commerce systems, including order management and transaction processing architectures.
  • Proven track record in high-scale, high-availability environments with stringent uptime expectations.
  • Experience leading large engineering and platform teams within a matrix organization.
  • Strong background in release management, QA discipline, and platform reliability engineering.
  • Expertise in integration patterns, distributed systems, and failure management.
  • Experience with vendor management and cost optimization in a commercial context.
  • Solid grasp of commerce concepts like catalog, pricing, checkout, OMS, and fulfillment.

Responsibilities

  • Lead a high-performing commerce platform organization including diverse teams.
  • Build a culture of accountability for transaction integrity and platform stability.
  • Oversee the end-to-end lifecycle of the commerce enablement ecosystem.
  • Ensure platforms maintain high availability and reliability during peak transactions.
  • Define SLAs and incident response processes for critical transaction paths.
  • Establish and enforce end-to-end transaction integrity across systems.
  • Manage vendor relationships and reduce reliance on external partners through internal capability building.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to lead and develop a multifaceted team in a critical business area.
  • Engagement in strategic decision-making for platform evolution.
  • Possibility for hybrid work arrangements.
  • Opportunity to influence enterprise-level architecture and integration practices.
Full Job Description
As Director, Commerce Enablement, you will own the core commerce platform ecosystem that powers product, catalog, pricing, and transactional capabilities across all banners. You are accountable for ensuring transactions execute flawlessly under all conditions, while enabling the business to scale and evolve commerce capabilities without compromising stability.

This role combines deep operational ownership with platform evolution, ensuring that commerce systems are stable, performant, and continuously improving toward a modern, integration-led architecture.

Here's Where You'll Be Focusing

People Leadership
  • Lead and develop a high-performing commerce platform organization including engineers, integration teams, QA, and release management functions.
  • Build a culture of end-to-end accountability for transaction integrity, platform stability, and release quality.
  • Strengthen internal capabilities across integration, QA, release management, and platform operations, reducing vendor reliance.
  • Establish disciplined Agile and release management practices, ensuring predictable and high-quality delivery.


Commerce Platform Ownership & Operations
  • Own the end-to-end lifecycle of the commerce enablement ecosystem, including:
    • Digital commerce platforms (B2C / B2B)
    • Order management and transaction orchestration
    • Product, catalog, pricing, and promotion services
    • Commerce integration and support services
  • Ensure platforms operate with high availability, low latency, and reliability at peak transaction volumes.
  • Define and enforce SLAs, incident response, observability, and recovery processes for all critical transaction paths.
  • Balance run vs. build priorities, with a clear bias toward protecting transaction stability and customer experience.


Transaction Integrity, Release & Reliability
  • Establish and enforce end-to-end transaction integrity across systems, ensuring consistency from cart through fulfillment.
  • Own release governance, including:
    • QA standards and defect thresholds
    • Release readiness and certification
    • Rollback and recovery procedures
  • Reduce defect leakage, production incidents, and failed releases through improved engineering and release discipline.
  • Ensure robust monitoring, alerting, and performance management across all transaction flows.


Platform Architecture, Integration & Scalability
  • Ensure commerce platforms are built on resilient architectures that minimize failure points.
  • Define and enforce integration standards in collaboration with our COE, data consistency, and system contracts across platforms.
  • Simplify and standardize integration patterns to improve reliability and maintainability.
  • Enable scalable connectivity across commerce, engagement, and fulfillment ecosystems.


Backlog, Delivery & Operational Governance
  • Own a prioritized, risk-aware platform backlog, balancing business demand with platform stability needs.
  • Govern intake to ensure new capabilities do not introduce unacceptable transaction or integration risk.
  • Oversee delivery with a focus on release success rates, cycle time improvements, and platform stability metrics.
  • Ensure full transparency into delivery performance, risks, and operational health.


Vendor, Partner & Commercial Management
  • Manage relationships with commerce platform vendors and system integrators.
  • Reduce reliance on external partners by building internal capability in critical transaction pathways where it makes sense.
  • Ensure platforms and vendors meet strict performance, reliability, and delivery standards.
  • Optimize cost to serve platforms, including licensing and operational spend.


Cross-Functional Collaboration
  • Partner with Digital Experience teams to ensure front-end experiences are supported by reliable backend services.
  • Work with Business teams to enable product, pricing, and merchandising capabilities without compromising platform stability.
  • Align with Customer Engagement platforms to ensure data and integration readiness for campaigns and personalization.
  • Collaborate with IT COEs to enforce consistent service management, QA, and delivery governance models.


What You Have to Offer

Your Experience and Resume Will Show Us:
  • 10+ years experience leading enterprise-scale commerce or transactional platforms with high availability requirements.
  • Deep expertise in commerce systems, order management, and transaction processing architectures.
  • Strong experience operating in high-scale, high-availability environments with strict uptime and performance expectations.
  • Demonstrated success leading large engineering and platform teams in a matrixed organization.
  • Expertise in release management, QA discipline, and platform reliability engineering.
  • Strong understanding of integration patterns, distributed systems, and failure management.
  • Experience in vendor management, commercial oversight, and cost optimization.
  • Solid understanding of commerce domain concepts (catalog, pricing, checkout, OMS, fulfillment).


#LI-Hybrid #LI-LM1

About Sobeys

Sobeys is a Canadian supermarket chain that operates over 1,500 stores across Canada. The company was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia. Sobeys is a subsidiary of Empire Company Limited, which is also headquartered in Stellarton. The company offers a wide range of products, including groceries, pharmacy, and fuel. Sobeys is committed to sustainability and has implemented several initiatives to reduce its environmental impact, such as reducing food waste and using renewable energy. The company has a strong presence in the Canadian market and is one of the largest food retailers in the country.
Learn more about Sobeys
Size
127,000 employees
Industry
Founded
1907

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