IT Director, Store Solutions Engineering & Architecture

Location: Dallas, TX or Akron, OH (Hybrid)

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Director, Store Solutions Engineering & Architecture is the senior technology leader, accountable for the engineering, architecture, and operational health of Signet's in-store technology ecosystem across our brand portfolio. This is a leader-of-leaders role: the Director develops a team of managers, technical leads, and senior individual contributors who design, build, modernize, and operate the systems store associates rely on every day, including POS, store mobility, device management, payment technology, store networking, and the supporting operational and observability tooling. The Director owns the multi-year Store Solutions technical roadmap and is equally accountable for production reliability, incident response, and the day-to-day operational performance of these platforms in production. The Director partners with senior business and technology leaders across Store Operations, the broader Unified Commerce Solutions organization, and corporate partner functions to translate operational priorities and customer experience strategy into resilient, supportable, and cost-effective technology outcomes.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

Store Solutions Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, coach, and develop Store Solutions managers, engineers, analysts, support leaders, and senior individual contributors; operate as a leader-of-leaders rather than a tactical operator.
• Build and maintain a proactive, service-oriented support culture focused on minimizing store disruption and improving the team-member experience.
• Lead the evolution toward AI-assisted operational support and software delivery practices, equipping teams with integrated SDLC and operational tooling to improve delivery speed, quality, troubleshooting, and support responsiveness.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, technical excellence, operational discipline, and continuous improvement.
• Champion engineering and operational health using measurable performance indicators including support responsiveness, incident reduction trends, release quality, system uptime, and delivery effectiveness.

Store Solutions Strategy, Architecture & Modernization

• Own and maintain the multi-year Store Solutions technology roadmap aligned to broader Unified Commerce and enterprise technology strategies.
• Lead modernization efforts across POS systems, store mobility platforms, device management, payment technologies, and operational tooling.
• Define and enforce architectural standards, integration patterns, platform governance, and lifecycle management practices for Store Solutions technologies.
• Partner with enterprise architecture, infrastructure, cybersecurity, and application teams to ensure scalable, secure, and supportable solutions.
• Drive evaluation and adoptions of emerging technologies that improve store productivity, customer experience, operational efficiency, and supportability.

Store Operations Support & Reliability

• Own availability, performance, and incident-response posture for platforms in scope; partner with InfoSec on security and data-protection requirements.
• Ensure stores receive responsive, proactive, and business-aware support that minimizes operational impact and protects revenue.
• Lead major incident management and escalation processes involving stores, vendors, carriers, infrastructure teams, and third-party providers.
• Communicate with senior leaders about issues, including brand presidents, senior store operations leaders, and other key stakeholders.
• Drive root-cause analysis and permanent corrective actions for recurring store issues, connectivity failures, POS instability, payment disruptions, and device performance concerns.
• Establish and monitor service levels, operational KPIs, peak-readiness plans, disaster recovery capabilities, and support performance metrics.
• Partner with InfoSec and Infrastructure teams to maintain secure and compliant store environments.
• Ensure store technology deployments, upgrades, and changes are properly tested, communicated, and executed with minimal business disruption.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives focused on release quality, observability, monitoring, support tooling, and operational efficiency.

Business Partnership & Store Experience Alignment

• Build and maintain trust-based, peer-level relationships with senior business partners across Unified Commerce, Operations, and corporate functions.
• Translate store operational needs and customer experience priorities into actionable technology roadmaps and support models.
• Serve as the primary technology leader representing Store Solutions in cross-functional planning, prioritization, and executive discussions.
• Communicate technical risks, operational impacts, priorities, and trade-offs in clear business language.
• Maintain strong understanding of store operations, including sales workflows, inventory processes, customer engagement, fulfillment operations, and associate productivity challenges.
• Balance project delivery priorities with operational support demands to ensure stable store execution.

Delivery, Vendor & Partner Management

• Lead successful delivery of Store Solutions projects and operational initiatives.
• Manage relationships with POS vendors, managed service providers, telecom carriers, payment providers, hardware vendors, and system integrators.
• Hold vendors and internal teams accountable for SLAs, delivery quality, operational performance, support responsiveness, and financial commitments.
• Coordinate multi-vendor escalations and cross-functional issue resolution efforts impacting store operations.
• Support enterprise rollout planning including communication planning, training coordination, deployment readiness, pilot execution, and post-implementation stabilization.

Financial & Operational Stewardship

• Own Store Solutions operating budgets, capital planning, hardware lifecycle planning, and vendor financial management.
• Drive vendor optimization, license rationalization, and FTE / contingent workforce conversions where they improve economics, capability, and continuity.
• Ensure responsible prioritization of investments that improve operational reliability, customer experience, and long-term maintainability.
• Develop business cases and ROI analysis for modernization, replacement, and operational improvement initiatives.

POSITION QUALIFICATIONS:

Required Experience

• 10+ years of progressive IT leadership experience supporting retail, omnichannel, or consumer-facing technology environments.
• 5+ years leading Store Solutions, POS, retail infrastructure, or store operations technology teams.
• Demonstrated experience leading through senior managers, technical leads, and senior individual contributors.
• Track record of building trust-based relationships with senior business partners (Director / VP level) outside of direct reporting lines.
• Proven ability to manage large-scale, business-critical retail technology environments with high operational uptime requirements.
• Experience supporting distributed retail store environments across multiple locations (states and countries) and multiple brands.
• Strong background in incident management, operational support, peak readiness, and disaster recovery planning.
• Proven comfort and effectiveness operating in a matrixed environment — both for technology delivery (across shared platforms, infrastructure, security, and SI partners) and across business partners with competing priorities; able to drive aligned outcomes without direct authority.
• Strong financial acumen, including operating-budget ownership and vendor / SI economic management.

Preferred Qualifications

• Specialty retail or jewelry retail experience.
• Multi-national store solutions experience.
• Experience leading POS modernization or store technology transformation initiatives.
• Experience supporting endless aisle, BOPIS, ship-from-store, or unified commerce capabilities.
• Experience adopting modern engineering and delivery metrics (DORA, DX, or comparable).
• Experience adopting AI-assisted, end-to-end SDLC tooling at team or organization scale.
• Experience managing strategic SI partnerships in an SOW / managed-service operating model.

Technical & Leadership Skills

• Strong understanding of retail store operations and store associate workflows.
• Strong working knowledge of:
  • POS platforms and payment systems
  • Store networking and connectivity technologies
  • Mobile device management (MDM)
  • Cloud architecture and distributed systems
  • APIs, integrations, and microservices
  • IT service management and operational support practices
  • Monitoring and observability platforms
  • Incident management and root-cause analysis methodologies
• Strong leadership presence with the ability to remain calm, organized, and fact-based during high-pressure operational situations.
• Exceptional prioritization and multitasking capabilities in fast-paced retail environments.
• Exceptional communication range and equally effective with senior executives at the top of the house (CEO, brand presidents, CDTO, CFO/COO) and with engineers, store associates, support technicians, and vendor partners closer to the work; adjusts substance, depth, and tone to audience, making technical complexity land in business terms upward and translating strategic intent into concrete, executable direction downward.
• Strong coaching, mentoring, and organizational leadership capabilities.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams).

Critical Success Factors

• Ability to effectively balance operational support, modernization efforts, and project delivery.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for store uptime and operational stability.
• Deep empathy for store associates and customer experience impacts.
• Ability to simplify complexity and drive alignment across business and technology teams.
• Strong analytical and decision-making skills grounded in facts, data, and operational impact.
• Ability to lead through ambiguity and competing priorities while maintaining team focus and execution discipline.

BENEFITS & PERKS:

• Competitive healthcare, dental & vision insurance
• 401(k) matching after one year of employment
• Generous time off + company holidays
• Merchandise discount
• Learning & Development programs
• Much more!