Kohler E-commerce Platform
ProductionSenior Software Engineer → Lead Engineer•August 2022 - April 2025•Team: 8-12 developers
Led the development of a comprehensive e-commerce platform for Kohler Co., one of the world's leading manufacturers of kitchen and bath products. The platform serves millions of users globally and integrates sophisticated content management, authentication, and commerce capabilities. Built with modern web technologies to ensure scalability, performance, and maintainability at enterprise scale.
Technologies Used
Next.jsReactTypeScriptContentfulTailwind CSSAzureOIDCCommerce ToolCI/CD
Key Achievements
- ✓Successfully migrated 100% of users to new SSO system with zero downtime
- ✓Achieved 99.9% uptime across all production environments
- ✓Improved page load times by 40% through optimization techniques
Key Features
•Headless CMS integration with Contentful for dynamic content management
•Multi-IdP SSO authentication with OIDC Okta integration
•Responsive e-commerce functionality with Commerce Tool
•Automated CI/CD pipeline for content migration scripts
•Enterprise-grade scalability and performance optimization
•Modern, accessible UI built with Tailwind CSS
•Real-time inventory management and product catalog
•Advanced search and filtering capabilities
•Multi-language and multi-currency support
•Analytics and reporting dashboard
Challenges
- ⚡Integrating multiple identity providers seamlessly across different user types
- ⚡Managing complex content migration workflows without downtime
- ⚡Ensuring enterprise-level security compliance and performance standards
- ⚡Coordinating with multiple teams and stakeholders across different time zones
- ⚡Maintaining backward compatibility while implementing new features
Solutions
- 💡Implemented a robust authentication abstraction layer to handle multiple IdPs
- 💡Created automated migration scripts with rollback capabilities
- 💡Established comprehensive testing strategies including unit, integration, and e2e tests
- 💡Implemented monitoring and alerting systems for proactive issue detection
- 💡Used feature flags to enable safe deployment of new functionality
Achievements & Impact
🏆Successfully migrated 100% of users to new SSO system with zero downtime
🏆Achieved 99.9% uptime across all production environments
🏆Improved page load times by 40% through optimization techniques
🏆Led team to deliver all major features ahead of schedule
🏆Implemented security practices that passed all enterprise audits
Lessons Learned
- 💭The importance of thorough planning when dealing with enterprise integrations
- 💭How effective communication can significantly impact project success
- 💭The value of automated testing in maintaining code quality at scale
- 💭How to balance technical debt with feature development in large applications