Sr. Engineering Manager - Retail Hub

Nordstrom Nordstrom · Retail · Seattle, WA

This role is for a Sr. Engineering Manager at Nordstrom to lead a full-stack engineering team responsible for the Retail Hub platform, a micro-frontend and backend-for-frontend platform used by merchandising teams. The role involves owning the technical roadmap, collaborating with stakeholders, driving architectural evolution, and managing a team of engineers. While the role mentions an 'AI-first approach' to software development using AI-assisted tools, the core function is platform engineering and management, not direct AI/ML model development or deployment.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead and manage a team of full-stack engineers responsible for Retail Hub – a composable platform built on the micro-frontend and backend-for-frontend pattern that serves as the primary interface for merchandising business users.
  2. Own the platform’s technical roadmap, balancing new feature delivery with MFE/BFF architecture evolution, developer experience improvements, and operational resilience.
  3. Collaborate deeply with Merchandising and cross-functional partners to translate complex business workflows into performant, intuitive user experiences.
  4. Drive the design and evolution of BFF services that aggregate, transform, and orchestrate data from upstream systems – ensuring clean API contracts, efficient data fetching, and clear separation of concerns between frontend and backend layers.
  5. Champion frontend architecture standards including module federation, shared component libraries, consistent design system adoption, and independently deployable MFE modules.

Skills

Required

  • 8+ years of relevant work experience in software engineering, with strong full-stack depth across modern frontend frameworks and backend service development.
  • 4+ years of experience managing engineering teams, with demonstrated ability to lead senior/staff-level engineers and technical leads.
  • Hands-on experience building and scaling platforms using the micro-frontend (MFE) and/or backend-for-frontend (BFF) architectural pattern.
  • Deep proficiency in modern frontend technologies (React, TypeScript) and experience with module federation, shared component libraries, or similar composition strategies.
  • Experience designing and operating BFF services that aggregate data from multiple upstream APIs, with a strong understanding of API design, data orchestration, and service boundaries.
  • A track record of owning and evolving complex, business-critical internal platforms in a large enterprise environment.
  • Strong product sense – the ability to quickly ramp up on complex business domains and become a trusted strategic partner to Product, Merchandising, and business stakeholders.
  • Proven ability to manage competing priorities across platform modernization, new feature delivery, and operational reliability.
  • Strong communication skills – able to bridge technical complexity and business needs across audiences ranging from individual contributors to senior directors.
  • Deep understanding of DevOps best practices including CI/CD, frontend and backend observability, alerting, and production support.
  • Experience with agile delivery methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban.
  • BA/BS in Computer Science or a closely related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice to have

  • Experience building internal tools or enterprise workflow platforms that serve non-technical business users.
  • Familiarity with design system adoption and frontend platform governance at scale.
  • Exposure to retail merchandising operations or similar complex business domains.
  • Experience with event-driven architectures and messaging platforms (e.g., Kafka) in the context of real-time UI updates or data s

What the JD emphasized

  • AI-first approach to software development