Intershop Developer — Key Responsibilities and Required Skills

🎯 Role Definition

We are hiring an Intershop Developer (Intershop Commerce Developer) to design, implement, customize, and support Intershop-based e-commerce platforms. The ideal candidate combines deep Intershop Commerce experience (Intershop 6/7/Commerce Suite), strong Java back-end development skills, and hands-on experience integrating Intershop with external systems (ERP, PIM, payment providers, shipping). This role focuses on delivering scalable, maintainable commerce solutions, optimizing storefront performance, and ensuring successful go-lives and upgrades.

This description is tailored to attract Intershop developers and is optimized for SEO and LLMs with keywords such as "Intershop Developer", "Intershop Commerce", "Intershop 7", "e‑commerce integration", "Java e‑commerce developer", and "Intershop customization".

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Java Software Engineer with e-commerce experience
Frontend/Full-stack Developer specializing in e-commerce storefronts
Integration / Middleware Developer supporting ERP/PIM/OMS integrations

Advancement To:

Senior Intershop Architect / Lead Developer
E-commerce Technical Lead or Platform Architect
Head of Engineering for Commerce Platforms

Lateral Moves:

Solutions Architect (e-commerce platforms)
Integration Architect (ERP / PIM / OMS)
DevOps / Platform Engineer focusing on e-commerce CI/CD and cloud deployments

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead design and implementation of Intershop Commerce features and extensions: customize core Intershop modules, build custom business logic, and implement product, basket and checkout flows that meet business and project requirements.
Implement and extend Intershop storefronts using Intershop Storefront Engine, ISML templates or alternative templating mechanisms, ensuring pixel-perfect, responsive UI and compatibility with client design systems.
Develop and maintain Intershop-based backend components in Java (Java 8/11+), leveraging Intershop frameworks, pipelines, services and job engines to implement promotions, pricing, order management, and catalog logic.
Build and maintain robust REST and SOAP integrations between Intershop and external systems (ERP such as SAP, PIM, OMS, payment gateways like Adyen/PayPal, shipping providers), including mapping, error handling and reconciliation.
Lead Intershop upgrade and migration projects (e.g., Intershop 6 → 7 or major version upgrades): scope impact, refactor custom code, migrate configurations, and validate functional and non-functional requirements.
Design and implement scalable search and merchandising solutions using Elasticsearch or Intershop Search integrations — tune indexing strategies, synonyms, facets, and relevancy for performance and conversion.
Implement data model extensions and database scripts for Intershop (SQL and schema migrations), ensuring safe deployment and data integrity across environments.
Build unit, integration and end-to-end tests for Intershop extensions using JUnit, integration test frameworks, and automated storefront test suites to increase code quality and reduce regression risk.
Configure and maintain build and release pipelines (Maven/Gradle, Jenkins/GitLab CI) for Intershop deployments; automate packaging, artifact promotion and release notes for repeatable deployments.
Troubleshoot production issues, conduct root cause analysis, and implement long-term fixes for performance, stability, security or functional incidents in the Intershop environment.
Optimize Intershop performance at application and infrastructure layers: caching strategies, HTTP/session management, Java tuning, JVM GC, and coordinated caching (CDN, varnish, Redis).
Collaborate with product owners, UX designers and QA to translate requirements into technical stories and deliverables; estimate tasks and drive stories to completion in Agile (Scrum/Kanban) cadence.
Implement authentication and authorization flows (SSO/OAuth2/SAML), customer account management and B2B account structures within the Intershop platform.
Design and build pricing, promotions and catalog import/export processes, including custom data importers, CSV/XML parsers, and connectors to upstream systems.
Provide architecture and implementation guidance for headless commerce and progressive decoupling, exposing Intershop commerce capabilities via APIs for new frontends or mobile apps.
Create and maintain technical documentation, runbooks, deployment guides and environment architecture diagrams specific to Intershop solutions to support operations and future development.
Implement monitoring, logging and alerting (ELK/Graylog, Prometheus/Grafana, New Relic) to provide observability into Intershop application health and business metrics.
Participate in code reviews and enforce coding standards and Intershop best practices to maintain code quality and platform upgradeability.
Lead proof-of-concepts for new Intershop modules, partner integrations or third-party features; assess feasibility, cost and impact for business stakeholders.
Mentor junior Intershop and Java developers, run knowledge sharing sessions on Intershop architecture, pipelines, and best practices to build internal capability.
Configure and maintain Intershop storefront features for B2B use cases such as hierarchy accounts, pricing catalogs, quote workflows, and order templates.
Manage and coordinate cutovers and go-live activities for Intershop releases, ensuring minimal downtime and verified post-release checks across environments.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc business and analytics requests by exposing commerce data via APIs and scheduled exports for BI consumption.
Contribute to the e-commerce platform roadmap by providing technical estimates, risk assessments, and upgrade recommendations for Intershop.
Collaborate with business units and project managers to translate functional requirements into technical Intershop stories and acceptance criteria.
Assist in configuring staging and production Intershop environments and participate in environment triage during escalations.
Maintain relationships with Intershop product support, third-party vendors and system integrators to coordinate bug fixes, patches and critical updates.
Participate in sprint planning, backlog grooming and retrospective meetings to improve delivery and alignment across product and engineering teams.
Provide hands-on training and documentation for internal stakeholders (PMs, merchandisers, support teams) on Intershop Admin and Commerce Management operations.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Deep Intershop Commerce platform expertise (Intershop 6/7/Commerce Suite) including extension development, pipelines, jobs, services and Commerce Management configuration.
Strong Java development skills (Java 8/11+), object-oriented design, exception handling, multi-threading and API development.
Experience building and consuming RESTful and SOAP web services; proficiency with JSON, XML, WSDL and API security best practices.
Proficiency with Intershop templating (ISML) or equivalent storefront templating engines, plus HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and client-side performance optimization.
Integration experience with ERP (SAP), PIM, OMS and external systems via middleware or direct connectors (IDoc, RFC, web services, batch imports).
Hands-on experience with search technologies (Elasticsearch/Solr) used in Intershop for product search, facets, and relevancy tuning.
Build and CI/CD tools experience: Maven/Gradle, Git, Jenkins/GitLab CI, automated packaging and deployment of Intershop artifacts.
Database skills: SQL, relational schema design, performance tuning, and experience with DB platforms used with Intershop (PostgreSQL, Oracle, MySQL).
Experience with caching, CDNs and application performance tuning (Varnish, Redis, HTTP caching, JVM tuning).
Familiarity with containerization and cloud deployment patterns (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS/Azure) for e-commerce environments.
Practical knowledge of authentication/authorization frameworks (OAuth2, SAML, JWT) and secure coding practices.
Experience with monitoring and observability stacks (ELK, Prometheus/Grafana, New Relic) and log analysis for production troubleshooting.
Automated testing skills: unit testing, integration tests, E2E/functional testing and test automation frameworks.
Familiar with payment gateway integration and PCI compliance considerations for e-commerce transactions.

Soft Skills

Strong communication skills: translate technical concepts to business stakeholders and create clear technical documentation.
Problem-solving and analytical mindset with a customer-focused approach to delivering e-commerce features and fixes.
Self-driven and accountable with proven ability to own features end-to-end from design to production support.
Collaborative team player experienced in Agile delivery models and cross-functional teams (product, QA, operations).
Mentoring and coaching abilities to upskill junior developers and share Intershop platform expertise.
Capacity to prioritize tasks, manage multiple workstreams and navigate ambiguity in fast-paced e-commerce projects.
Attention to detail for configuration, regression testing and release validation in commerce-critical systems.
Strong time management and planning skills for coordinating releases, cutovers and upgrade activities.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field, or relevant professional certifications (Java, cloud, or Intershop training).

Relevant Fields of Study:

Computer Science
Software Engineering
Information Systems
E-commerce / Digital Business (beneficial)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3–7 years in professional software development with at least 2+ years working on Intershop Commerce or comparable e-commerce platforms.

Preferred:

4–8+ years of e-commerce platform development with direct Intershop Commerce (6/7) implementation, integration, and upgrade experience. Proven track record of delivering production Intershop projects, integrations with ERP/PIM, and performance optimization for high-traffic storefronts.