Vice President, Application Engineering

Vice President, Application Engineering

Position Summary

The Vice President of Application Engineering will lead the strategy, delivery, and lifecycle management of the business-critical applications that power our end-to-end furniture manufacturing and operations. This executive will oversee a portfolio of both custom and commercial systems that support supply chain, manufacturing, logistics, sales, service, and corporate functions.

This leader is accountable for the success of Durable Application Teams—long-standing, cross-functional teams that pair deep technical ownership with product-aligned delivery. Each Durable Team is led by an Application Engineering Manager who oversees the administration, configuration, support, maintenance and feature development of specific software applications in production.

This is a hands-on leadership role ideal for someone passionate about building high-performing teams, driving modern software practices, and enabling digital transformation in a complex, physical product business.

Key Responsibilities

Application Strategy & Leadership

• Define and execute the enterprise application strategy aligned to business objectives and product roadmaps.
• Lead a portfolio of Durable Teams, each responsible for a set of applications with dedicated Application Engineering Managers and engineers.
• Ensure application roadmaps reflect strategic priorities and deliver measurable value to business operations.

Technical Application Sprint Planning

• Oversee sprint planning across application teams, ensuring engineering capacity is effectively allocated and focused on the highest-value work.
• Ensure Application Engineering Managers translate business vision into technically feasible deliverables by decomposing work into clear, actionable user stories.
• Proactively manage technical risks, escalating blockers and mitigation strategies as needed.

Technical Ownership & Quality Assurance

• Champion a culture of deep technical ownership—ensuring Application Engineering Managers and engineers maintain strong knowledge of their codebases, integrations, and business context.
• Oversee support, maintenance, and continuous improvement across all business-critical applications (ERP, MES, OMS, WMS, etc.).
• Ensure operational readiness through monitoring, incident response planning, and prioritization of stability, uptime, and performance.
• Drive quality through code reviews, standards enforcement, and structured release practices.
• Ensure all application development complies with security, data privacy, and documentation policies.

Collaboration, Innovation & Team Enablement

• Serve as an executive sponsor for cross-functional collaboration across product management, design, infrastructure, and data teams.
• Foster a culture of innovation by promoting the adoption of emerging technologies and process improvements.
• Support coaching and professional development for technical staff—setting clear expectations, career paths, and feedback processes.
• Represent the application engineering function in enterprise-level technology and business planning.

Qualifications

Required

• 15 years in software or application engineering, with 5 years in executive leadership.
• Proven success managing portfolios of enterprise applications across manufacturing, logistics, ecommerce, and corporate systems.
• Experience leading both new feature development and operational support functions in Agile environments.
• Deep understanding of application architecture, modern SDLC practices, and DevOps/automation approaches.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with a track record of cross-functional leadership.

Preferred

• Industry experience in furniture, manufacturing, or consumer goods.
• Knowledge of cloud-native development, SaaS integration, and scalable architecture design.
• MBA or advanced technical degree a plus.

What Success Looks Like

• Durable Teams deliver consistently on application roadmaps, with clear prioritization and strong collaboration.
• Business applications demonstrate high performance, availability, and user satisfaction.
• Application modernization reduces technical debt and accelerates feature delivery.
• The Application Engineering organization is recognized for operational excellence, innovation, and talent development.
• Application strategies are tightly aligned to product and business goals, delivering measurable outcomes.

About Ashley

At Ashley, we’re more than a business…we’re family. As the largest manufacturer of home furnishings in the world, we know what it takes to build incredible furniture and future leaders. We’re problem solvers with the grit to persevere during challenging times and innovators who won't coast when times are good. We create solutions, not excuses. And never settle for status quo. It’s the reason we’re always searching for better ways to deliver an exceptional customer experience. That's why Ashley Furniture is #1 in our industry.