IPS is retained on a VP of Software Technology & Strategy for a tech-driven automotive marketplace and the #1 transmission parts supplier, rapidly expanding into the general repair space and solidifying its position as a leader in the automotive aftermarket industry.

Founded in 1975, our client is celebrating 51 years of aftermarket innovation and has grown to 125 locations and over 1,500 team members serving customers in 80+ countries.

NexaMotion combines the stability of a well-established, financially backed organization with the mindset and momentum of a startup product team. The company is on a mission to simplify complex vehicle repair to keep the world moving, leveraging patent-winning software and technology to modernize how automotive parts are distributed and delivered.

With deep roots in transmission and general repair and an expanding technology platform, our client is modernizing its data infrastructure and cloud capabilities to support continued growth, performance, and innovation.

Position Overview:

• At the heart of their digital transformation, the Transend team builds the software, data, and AI foundation powering the future of automotive parts distribution. Our flagship product, Transend, is a modern B2B eCommerce platform that simplifies complex vehicle repair by helping professionals quickly find and order the right parts. We’re an agile, fast-growing team of innovators reimagining how technology drives the aftermarket forward.
• This role drives the evolution of Transend’s technology platform and infrastructure, shaping the future of our digital capabilities and enabling scalable growth across multiple business units. The VP of Software and Technology Strategy provides executive leadership over Software Engineering and Platform teams, ensuring that architecture, infrastructure, and delivery execution align with business priorities and long-term enterprise strategy.
• This position is responsible for leading the transformation from a legacy, database-centric monolith to a modern, service-oriented, cloud-native platform while maintaining strong delivery velocity and operational reliability. The role serves as a strategic partner to Product and AI leadership, enabling innovation through strong platform design, data architecture, and infrastructure foundations rather than formal functional ownership.
• As a hands-on, strategic leader, this role balances modernization, operational rigor, and execution, building a high-performing engineering organization capable of supporting advanced AI capabilities, scalable product development, and future enterprise growth.

Role Responsibilities:

• Technology Strategy & Architecture
• Define and own the long-term technical architecture, platform strategy, and modernization roadmap for Transend and the company.
• Lead the evolution from a monolithic, stored-procedure-heavy system to a modular, service-oriented, cloud-native architecture.
• Establish architectural principles that enable speed, reliability, scalability, and cost efficiency without over-engineering.
• Drive adoption of modern cloud infrastructure, integration patterns, and data platforms to support current and future business needs.
• Platform, Infrastructure & AI Enablement
• Serve as a strategic partner to AI leadership, enabling AI/ML development through strong data architecture, platform capabilities, and infrastructure design.
• Ensure the technology platform supports model development, deployment, observability, and responsible AI governance.
• Build scalable data pipelines and system interfaces that allow AI and analytics teams to rapidly experiment and productionize solutions.
• Collaborate on enterprise-wide standards for security, resiliency, and compliance across AI and data-driven systems.
• Engineering Execution & Delivery
• Lead engineering teams across product engineering, platform services, integrations, and data infrastructure.
• Improve the delivery velocity of customer-facing features while executing multi-year modernization initiatives.
• Strengthen software quality, reliability, observability, and deployment practices across the platform.
• Balance technical debt reduction with short-term business and operational priorities.
• Cross-Functional & Executive Leadership
• Partner closely with Product, AI, CX, Data, and Business leaders to align technology roadmaps with strategic and commercial objectives.
• Act as a senior advisor to executive leadership on platform scalability, technology risk, and long-term digital strategy.
• Create clarity and momentum in an environment with legacy systems, competing priorities, and enterprise-level complexity.
• Enterprise & Platform Enablement
• Lead platform initiatives spanning multiple ERPs, warehouses, operating units, and partner ecosystems.
• Enable Transend to function as a shared, extensible platform for future acquisitions, integrations, and strategic partnerships.
• Collaborate with central IT, Security, and Infrastructure teams while maintaining agility and product-focused execution.

Qualifications: 

• 10–15+ years of experience in software engineering and platform development within large-scale SaaS, eCommerce, or enterprise technology environments.
• 3–5+ years in senior technical leadership roles (VP Engineering, Head of Platform, Principal Architect, or equivalent).
• Proven track record of leading enterprise platform modernization and cloud transformation initiatives.
• Experience operating in complex, multi-system environments with real customers, revenue, and operational scale.
• Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with Product and AI leaders without direct functional ownership.

• Technical & Architectural Expertise
• Deep expertise in designing and scaling service-oriented, cloud-native platforms.
• Strong background in SQL-based systems, service-layer abstraction, and modern web and API frameworks.
• Proficiency in C# and Python with strong software engineering fundamentals.
• Extensive experience with AWS core services and cloud-native design patterns.
• Familiarity with modern data platforms and tooling (Redshift, Snowflake, Databricks, AWS Glue) and enterprise data architecture.
• Expertise in CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CDK), observability, security, resiliency, and disaster recovery strategies.

• Business & Strategic Mindset
• Strong ability to align technology strategy with business growth, operational efficiency, and financial performance.
• Comfortable making tradeoffs between speed, scalability, cost, and long-term platform health.
• Experience building platforms that support multiple business units, ERPs, and partner ecosystems.

• Leadership & Execution
• Builder mindset with strong execution discipline and a focus on measurable business outcomes.
• Comfortable leading through ambiguity, legacy constraints, and organizational complexity.
• Exceptional communicator, capable of influencing executives, engineers, product leaders, and enterprise stakeholders.
• Proven ability to attract, develop, and retain high-performing engineering and platform leaders.

If you are interested in learning more, please apply here or send your resume to brie@integritypowersearch.com.