Ugh, yeah, no. I don’t think that is a good way to go at all. As you’d want that person doing more than running an ecommerce website. They should be more like an CIO and if you are looking for that, then yeah, that’s a smart move, but if you aren’t, then you need to just hire a team.
@Curious101, I’d personally look into some web agencies in your area. Some that exist in my area and are nation wide would be Cohesion, Improving, TEKSystems, HMB, Cardinal Solutions, and I’m missing some, but the company I work for have utilized all of them and have little complaints with them. They can staff someone(s) in your office to create a ecommerce team, or they can handle the work on your behalf (so you are not actually hiring anyone, they handle the technical meetings, business requirements with you, etc.)
All of them will probably fit in that budget, it is a healthy budget (or so I think) for such a task. But the other good thing is you can meet with them, interview them, treat them like you would be hiring a member to help your company. If they aren’t a good fit, you are not required to pursue their services. Have them show you examples of other ecommerce sites they did with your budget in mind (don’t get drawn into things they may have done with larger budgets).
That’s my 2 cents on the matter. I think you really should look at hiring an agency to handle this. If you feel the on-going maintenance is going to be necessary for you to hire someone to help maintain it within your business, you may want to ask them for advice/help on finding that person.