Vice President, Application Engineering

About GNC

Since 1935, GNC has been a global leader in health and wellness innovation, inspiring people to achieve their goals with a trusted and dynamic range of products. As #TeamGNC, we prioritize our consumers, constantly collaborating and developing new ideas to deliver cutting-edge solutions. Our team is passionate about driving change and turning aspirations into actions. We believe that good health is the greatest gift, and there's nothing more rewarding than helping others achieve it. Join us in empowering others to Live Well!

What We’re Looking For:

At GNC we embrace a “Live Well” philosophy, fostering a dynamic environment where innovation meets passion.  Whether someone is an athlete or just starting to focus on their health, we want to deliver the cutting-edge products they deserve. We are looking for an individual who is excited and eager to play a pivotal role in driving excellence in the health and wellness industry. This position offers the opportunity to engage in a collaborative environment where you will make a personal impact every day. 

GNC is seeking a results-driven and hands-on Vice President of Application Engineering to lead the design, delivery, and modernization of enterprise and customer-facing application platforms. This role is responsible for building and scaling a high-performing engineering organization that delivers secure, reliable, and scalable solutions supporting ecommerce, retail stores, supply chain, and corporate operations.

The Vice President of Application Engineering partners closely with Product, Data, Ecommerce, and business leaders to translate strategy into execution, improve delivery velocity and predictability, and drive continuous improvement across engineering practices. This is a builder role suited for a technology leader who can modernize platforms, strengthen engineering culture, and operate effectively in a fast-paced, PE-backed environment.

What You’ll Do:

This is a Full-Time Salary Position

The VP of Engineering is responsible for building, scaling, and leading a high-performing engineering organization that delivers reliable, secure, and modern digital platforms in support of the company’s commercial, product, and data strategy. This role partners closely with Product, Data, Ecommerce, Technology, and Business leadership to translate business priorities into well-architected, scalable systems while improving execution velocity, quality, and developer experience.

This is a hands-on executive leadership role for a builder who can modernize platforms, strengthen engineering culture, and operate effectively in a PE-backed, results-oriented environment.

Technology & Platform Delivery

• Own end-to-end engineering delivery across ecommerce, digital platforms, store and supply chain tech, integrations, and enterprise systems
• Lead modernization of legacy systems toward modular, API-driven, cloud-native architectures
• Ensure platforms are scalable, resilient, secure, and cost-effective
• Establish clear architectural standards, technical guardrails, and engineering best practices

Execution & Operating Rigor

• Translate product and business roadmaps into executable engineering plans with clear milestones and dependencies
• Improve delivery predictability through strong planning, estimation, and prioritization discipline
• Balance speed with stability; reduce tech debt while enabling innovation
• Partner with Product and Design to deliver high-quality customer and internal experiences

People & Organization

• Lead, coach, and scale a multi-disciplinary engineering organization (front-end, back-end, platform, QA, DevOps)
• Attract, retain, and develop senior engineering leaders and high-impact individual contributors
• Establish clear role definitions, career paths, and performance expectations
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, psychological safety, and continuous improvement

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as a strategic partner to Product, Data, Ecommerce, and Business leaders
• Provide engineering perspective in roadmap, investment, and prioritization discussions
• Communicate clearly with executive leadership on progress, risks, and tradeoffs
• Collaborate with vendors and external partners while maintaining internal ownership of outcomes

Quality, Security & Reliability

• Own engineering quality, uptime, and incident management practices
• Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and regulatory requirements
• Implement strong monitoring, testing, and release management disciplines

Leadership Competencies:

• Strong leadership presence with the ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and executive leadership.
• Exceptional communication, planning, and organizational change management skills.
• High EQ and IQ with demonstrated ability to lead high-performing, multidisciplinary teams.
• Results-oriented mindset with a focus on measurable impact, customer experience, and continuous improvement.

Environmental Factors & Working Schedule:

• The ideal candidate will be based in Pittsburgh, PA; however, remote candidates will be considered based on qualifications, with the expectation of approximately 25% regular travel to Pittsburgh, PA.
• Regularly required to stand; walk; sit; use hands or fingers to handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; and talk or hear
• Sedentary work. Exerting up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects. Repetitive motion. Substantial movements (motions) of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers. The worker is required to have close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; extensive reading.
• Work is performed in an office environment and requires the ability to operate standard office equipment and keyboards.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include long periods of computer screen usage, close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus
• The noise level in the work environment is usually low/moderate

*To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 15+ years of experience in software engineering and application development, including senior leadership roles.
• 10+ years of experience in development, data engineering, integration or other associated data related disciplines required.
• Proven experience modernizing complex digital or ecommerce platforms
• Strong architectural judgment with the ability to go deep when needed
• Track record of building and leading high-performing engineering teams
• Comfortable operating in fast-moving, transformation-oriented environments
• Pragmatic, business-minded technologist with strong communication skills
• Experience with Retail technology required
• Fluency in Data architecture and engineering preferred
• Strong group facilitation and team building skills.
• Excellent written skills required for preparation of process documentation, deliverables, proposals, and statements of work.
• Excellent verbal, interpersonal and presentation skills.