# Head of Engineering **Company:** [MerchantSpring](http://jobs.workable.com/companies/p4UjddmWJ5rSZVGnVGBw3v.md) **Location:** Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia **Workplace:** hybrid **Employment type:** Full-time **Department:** Technology [Apply for this job](http://jobs.workable.com/view/13d1e1e9-a743-4973-82f8-bfb967748da7) ## Description Global marketplaces — Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Shopify and over a hundred others — are the engines of modern commerce. But the data sits locked inside each channel, fragmented and rarely adding up to a clear picture. MerchantSpring is the API-first data infrastructure for the businesses that operate, advise on, and build for digital commerce. We consolidate cross-channel marketplace data into a single source of truth that our customers reach through a visualisation platform, an API gateway, MCP tools and embeddable widgets. We are profitable, self-funded, and seven years in — scaling on our own revenue rather than someone else’s runway. We are headquartered in Australia with a growing presence in Kuala Lumpur, and we operate as a single team across sites. Today the platform spans 120+ ecommerce channels, manages roughly 12TB of data across 35,000 seller accounts in 29 countries, serving agencies, enterprise brands, and ecosystem and technology partners. ### The role We are looking for a Director of Engineering to take full ownership of our engineering function and lead the next chapter: our evolution into a true API-first data platform. You will inherit a team of 11 engineers across our ETL, API and AI/MCP squads, with a structured handover from the outgoing Head of Engineering, and own the technical vision, the architecture, and the culture that carries us from startup to scale-up. This is a builder’s leadership role. We want someone who leads from within the architecture — setting direction, making the hard technical calls, and rolling up their sleeves to code when it helps the team move or unblocks a problem. As the team grows, the role is expected to evolve further toward organisational leadership, and we say so openly because we want someone who wants that trajectory. ### What you’ll own - **Technical vision and architecture.** Translate business goals into a technical roadmap, set direction across the squads, and own the architectural bets — with our API-first data layer as the centrepiece. - **Platform scale.** Take our API and data platform from where they are today to scale: more channels, more volume, and more external builders relying on our endpoints, MCP tools and widgets. - **Infrastructure economics.** Own the unit economics of the platform. A large and growing share of our cost base sits in database and infrastructure spend, and you will be accountable for managing and driving it down as we scale with a focus on database cost:  - TimescaleDB compression, retention and continuous aggregates - Postgres query and index optimisation and right-sizing - MongoDB indexing and sharding. - **Data integrity and reliability.** 35,000 accounts depend on financially accurate data. Own incident practices and resilience that keep serious problems rare — and provide visible, decisive leadership on the rare occasions they aren’t. - **The team culture.** Hire, mentor and grow engineers; set delivery standards and best practices from documentation to deployment; and build a team where engineers want to do their best work. - **Set direction.** Provide oversight and guidance to talented, junior teams in AI/MCP to DevOps and infrastructure. - **Partnership and foresight.** Bridge Engineering with Sales and Client Success so feedback, escalations and market signals reach the roadmap, and engage the CEO and co-founder proactively on technical strategy. ## Requirements - **A hands-on architect-leader.** Deep, current credibility in data and platform engineering: relational and document databases (Postgres and MongoDB), time-series data at scale, API platform design, and AWS. You code when it matters, and add value with breadth to give direction across squads. - **Commercially minded about infrastructure.** You think in unit economics and have a track record of optimising and reducing database and infrastructure costs at scale. - **A people-first leader.** You sit with your team, champion them, take an active interest in their development, and are the role model the junior engineers around you learn from. - **An owner.** You take end-to-end accountability and step up decisively when things go wrong. - **A culture builder by instinct.** You make team cohesion happen proactively: we fund it, and you drive it. We should never have to tell you to invest in your team. - **Pragmatic and data-driven.** You welcome rigorous debate, explain the rationale behind technical trade-offs, and tackle problems head-on with commercial awareness. - **Grounded in the customer**. You are curious about the problems our customers face so that technical priorities stay tied to user needs. - **Resilient in ambiguity.** You manage competing priorities and do not give up when the path is unclear. - **Transferable domain experience.** Scaled a multi-tenant, high-volume data and API platform through rapid growth in any industry. - **Relevant experience.** Exposure to marketplaces, ecommerce, or the Amazon SP-API ecosystem is valuable, though not required, as sharp leaders pick it up in months. ## Benefits **Why join MerchantSpring?** - **Own the function:** How we build, what gets prioritised, and where we place our bets are yours to call and defend. - **A leadership seat:** You have a direct line to the CEO and a hand in company strategy and direction. - **Hard problems, high stakes:** Your work directly shapes the platform’s reliability, scalability and cost, and therefore our competitive advantage and commercial outcomes. - **Build a lasting legacy:** Define the architecture, culture, processes and standards that guide engineering as we scale, and lead a talented team within a modern, cloud-native stack. - **Stability with autonomy:** Be part of a profitable, self-funded business scaling on its own terms. Experience the freedom of a startup without the runway anxiety. - **Travel:** Occasional trips to Melbourne a few of times a year, with colleagues including the CEO and co-founder travelling to KL for face-to-face time. You will need to be able to travel to Australia, personally and with a valid visa.