Wouldn't engineers be interested in doing all of these things or most SF techies just want to be building and deployment code?
Recommendation engines are definitely interesting though.
I don't pretend to speak for every techie on HN but I think the qualifier for startup guys is whether there are going to be hard problems to solve as opposed to just doing routine stuff.
Management doesn't even understand software development. E-commerce management is hardwired to expect a simple action-change-reaction cycle that lasts a couple of days. You don't 'develop' software over a few months or years. You make a software 'change' and things start happening immediately with bottom line improvement in a few days or weeks.
Their thinking is "we're going to optimize forklift operator costs by having people work 2 hour shorter shifts and position forklifts differently so costs next week will be $x less." Their equivalent idea of what software development is is "write a program to reduce shifts by 2 hours and reposition forklifts so costs next week will be $x less." The industry is hardwired to think of software as a tactical tool instead of a strategy.
Even if the company doesn't have operations and is just a website, its still 'make a change to increase conversion so that revenue next week is $x more. Again, software is not a strategy, but a mechanical 9-5 type job.
As far as the business goes, operations and marketing need to scale much faster than our technology. Acquiring customers and efficiently supporting them (building and supporting tools for improved reporting, logistics, order fulfillment) are definitely more important to company growth than building a recommendation engine.
Our work varies a lot more and we get the support a huge variety of different types of projects. We support marketing, creative, customer service, operations and are constantly integrating with a new advertising network, analytics platform or shipping API.
I think engineers want to work on things that are impactful in measurable ways. Some want nerd cred, or really hard technology problems, my team builds cool stuff supporting a (more traditional) business that's growing crazy fast. And for us, that's exciting.
P.S. We're also hiring in NY.
