Vice President Research Development Jobs in Decatur, GA

hackajob is collaborating with Stord to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role.

VP of Applied AI & Internal Systems

Location: Atlanta, GA (Hybrid) or Remote

Reports to: SVP of Product & Engineering

The Opportunity

Stord is the unified operating system for modern commerce. Without Stord, brands over-spend on a fragmented web of point solutions with no shared data or execution layer. Stord's vertically integrated, AI-powered platform of front-end commerce software through back-end fulfillment execution, gives brands everything they need before and after checkout. Inside our own walls, that shows up in how our teams work: using AI to build, develop, analyze, and optimize our business.

We are looking for someone to amplify that mentality across our whole business: Sales, Finance, People, Legal, Support, Operations, Marketing, Engineering, and IT and Security, building the processes, team, and single integrated back-end platform that powers Stord’s teams and business functions.

This is a build role, not a research seat and not a reactive IT job. This individual is expected to own and drive internal business efficiency. You’ll execute with real ownership of Stord's enterprise systems and security, and the license to use AI as your primary tool for building better and faster than traditional business operations. You'll solve for Stord's own operations exactly how Stord solves for the brands we serve: one AI-powered surface to run the business on.

You'll report directly to the SVP of Product & Engineering and work closely with leadership across Finance, Revenue, People, Legal, and Operations. You'll have your own engineering and product resources, alongside IT, Security, and Internal Systems teams.

What You'll Own

Company-Wide AI Adoption

• Own Stord's AI adoption strategy across every internal team, spanning Sales, Customer Success, Finance, People, Legal, IT, and Operations

• Take the AI wins already happening across Stord and turn them into a shared standard: one AI-native operating layer that every team builds on daily, not just talks about

• Own the security and compliance review process for AI tools adopted anywhere in the company, and own IT administration for AI platforms company-wide (procurement, provisioning, access management)

• Partner with Stord's Product and Data leadership so your adoption work compounds what's already being built into our products, rather than duplicating it

• Report progress and ROI on AI adoption to executive leadership on a regular cadence

Forward-Deployed Engineering & Product

• Build and lead a forward-deployed engineering and product team: engineers and PMs who sit inside Finance, People, Legal, Support, and Operations, find the real workflow problems, and ship working software and agents against them in weeks, not quarters

• This team builds, it doesn't just advise: default to shipping custom, AI-native tooling when an off-the-shelf point solution can't move fast enough or doesn't fit how Stord actually works

• Run it the way a real product organization runs: genuine discovery, genuine requirements, a real shipping cadence, with success measured in adopted, working tools, not audits or frameworks

Building Stord's Operating Backbone

• Own the systems Stord runs on (CRM, ERP, HRIS, Procurement, Customer Success platforms, and more) and build them to keep pace with how fast we're growing

• Find the processes creating the most drag across Finance, People, Legal, Support, and Operations, and use AI to rebuild them, not just automate the old way of doing things

• Make deliberate build, buy, or cut calls on our technology investments as we scale, rather than letting the stack grow by accretion

• Set the roadmap and make the integration and architecture calls that let Stord's back office move at the same speed as the rest of the company

M&A Integration

• Own the business systems integration whenever Stord acquires a company: get the acquired business running on Stord's enterprise stack and standards quickly, not left as a permanent side system

• Partner with Corporate Development and executive leadership on the technical and operational due diligence for future acquisitions

Data You Can Build On (in partnership with the VP of Data)

• Own governance for the data domains that matter most: customers, vendors, products, locations, employees, working closely with the VP of Data wherever this touches our broader data platform and analytics layer

• Set the standards that make our data a real asset - clean enough that every team builds on it with confidence, no shadow spreadsheets required

• Partner with Finance, Revenue, and Operations to align on one shared definition of the metrics that matter

IT & Security, Built for Speed

• Own corporate IT strategy and day-to-day operations: identity and access management, device lifecycle, network infrastructure, end-user support

• Own security operations, built to move as fast as the rest of Stord without cutting corners on compliance

• Build processes that scale cleanly as we add headcount and expand geographically

Team Leadership

• Lead and grow a team across AI Enablement, Forward-Deployed Engineering & Product, IT, Security, and Enterprise Systems, with dedicated director-level owners for each discipline so every function has a leader who can go deep

• Build the kind of accountability and rigor that makes people want to work with you

• Earn trust across functions outside your own reporting line; this role only works if people are willing to change how they work because you asked them to

What Success Looks Like

In your first year:

• Stord's internal functions are running off a single AI-powered operating system, with real numbers to show for it

• Your forward-deployed engineering and product team has shipped and driven real adoption of custom tools or agents in at least two functions outside of engineering

• Every function at Stord has a real AI adoption story, active usage, and a measured impact

• If Stord has closed an acquisition this year, its business systems are already running on Stord's operating backbone, not sitting as a bolted-on side system

• Stord has a clear, documented enterprise systems architecture with a prioritized roadmap

• Every team builds on data they trust, without needing a shadow spreadsheet to double check it

• IT is ahead of problems instead of reacting to tickets

• Security and compliance are tight around the systems that matter most, and ahead of both Stord's growth and external threats

• You've built a leadership team you trust, including dedicated Directors of IT and Security, known for getting things done

What We're Looking For

Experience

• Has built and led a forward-deployed or embedded engineering team: engineers who sit inside a business function, find the real problem, and ship working software fast, not a team that writes specs for someone else to build

• Has personally led an internal platform, tools, or applied AI/agents team, comfortable evaluating engineering work and making technical hiring calls, not just approving business requirements

• Has integrated systems, data, and teams following an acquisition, and can point to what actually got merged into one operating model, not left running in parallel

• 10+ years in a senior technical or operating leadership role in a high-growth business, with direct budget and hiring ownership

• Background in technology or tech-enabled businesses; logistics or operations experience is a plus, not a requirement

Technical Depth

• Enough hands-on technical background to earn real credibility with your own engineers: you can read a design doc, push back on an approach, and tell the difference between a genuine agentic workflow and a thin wrapper around an API call

• Deep fluency in enterprise application architecture, system integration, and data management (CRM + ERP + HRIS minimum)

• Working knowledge of the current AI tooling and agentic landscape, sharp enough to make build-vs-buy calls yourself, not just sign off on a vendor's security review

• Solid grounding in IT operations, identity management, and security controls - you don't have to be the one doing the work, but you need to know when it's being done well

Leadership

• Earns trust across functions; Finance, Engineering, Revenue, and Operations all want to work with you

• Has led product and engineering talent specifically, and knows how to keep a build-focused team shipping instead of drowning in stakeholder requests

• Real change management chops: you can get a Sales or Support team to actually adopt a new way of working, not just tolerate a mandate

• Comfortable being the person who makes a newly acquired company actually feel like Stord within months, not years