About the role
Shopify’s Solutions Engineers are trusted technical advisors who blend deep technical expertise, strong business acumen, and high‑trust communication to help ambitious merchants design and adopt the right commerce solutions. As a Staff / Lead Solutions Engineer, you’ll set technical direction for our most complex, highest-impact pursuits—leading large-scale solution architecture across Shopify and multi-system merchant stacks, shaping how we differentiate in-market, and creating repeatable frameworks that scale beyond individual deals. You’ll be a recognized Shopify thought leader, a culture leader across teams, and a force multiplier who raises the pace and the bar for solution engineering.
By applying to this posting, our recruiters and hiring managers across various departments will review your resume for open roles. We aim for you to apply once and have your resume evaluated by multiple teams to ensure the best match for the right roles.
Key Responsibilities
Lead technical strategy for the largest, most complex deals: Own technical direction across significant pursuits; engage executives with confidence; drive crisp decisions, clear next steps, and measurable progress.
Architect at retailer scale: Lead the design of complex architectures for major retailers, emphasizing security, scalability, and operational control; guide risk tradeoffs and technical decision-making across stakeholders.
Orchestrate multi-stack solutioning: Provide strategic guidance across integrated systems (e.g., ERP, OMS, CDP, payments, custom services); align Shopify capabilities, extensibility, and ecosystem partners into cohesive solutions.
Differentiate Shopify in a competitive landscape: Analyze competitive positioning and connect external trends, customer context, and industry signals to Shopify’s solution portfolio and technical narratives.
Create new frameworks and methods: Identify trends and gaps, then build repeatable discovery models, solutioning frameworks, demo patterns, and assets that teams reuse across segments and industries.
Expand the craft beyond “standard presales”: Develop innovative practices that improve how we engage merchants, validate solutions, and communicate value; navigate ambiguity to create clarity and leverage.
Be a sought-after technical advisor: Lead and participate in solution reviews, internal forums, and cross-team initiatives; raise technical acumen and decision quality across the org.
Model extreme ownership and raise the pace: Take accountability for outcomes (what and how), set the tempo to go faster, and help teams avoid orthodox approaches when better paths exist.
Culture leadership and mentorship at scale: Mentor across teams, build inclusive working norms, and strengthen collaboration across Sales, Product, and Partners—helping others deliver outcomes they couldn’t reach alone.
Travel: Up to 25% travel for customer meetings, team offsites, and key company events.
Qualifications
Merchant-obsessed systems thinker; Sees the full merchant system—people, process, data, and tech—and designs end-to-end solutions that optimize for adoption, outcomes, and operational durability at scale.
Curious, innovative technologist; Deep expertise in web technologies, APIs, integrations, and data flows, with strong command of Shopify architecture, scalability, and security. Designs and validates complex architectures; prototypes when needed to unblock the hardest decisions.
Direct, value-first communicator; Executive-grade communicator who can turn complex architectures and tradeoffs into clear narratives. Anchors recommendations in outcomes (revenue, efficiency, growth, risk reduction) and uses strong judgment and integrity to guide critical decisions.
Inclusive, empowering collaborator; Cross-functional leader who builds trust quickly, clarifies roles, and orchestrates the right experts and partners. Creates alignment across Sales, Product, Partners, and merchant teams in high-stakes environments.
Builder who creates the path; Models extreme ownership and accountability. Navigates ambiguity to create repeatable processes, frameworks, and assets that scale across industries and segments; sets the pace and raises standards through action.
Strategic, commercially minded partner; Connects industry trends and competitive landscape to Shopify’s portfolio and go-to-market approach. Differentiates Shopify, shapes deal strategy, and is sought out as a technical advisor internally and externally.