Director, Product Engineering - Search

W. W. Grainger; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 176,000 - 294,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision, and life ins.

18 PTO days + 6 holidays

401(k) with 6% company match

Tuition reimbursement

Employee discounts

Parental leave

Job summary

Grainger is seeking a Director of Product Engineering to lead the Search organization and empower a team of managers, tech leads, and engineers delivering best‑in‑class search across Grainger’s digital experiences.

You will report to the Sr. Director of Product Engineering in a hybrid role based in downtown Chicago. The role requires 7+ years of leadership, strong experience with search systems, Agile/CI/CD, and AWS, plus collaboration with product, architecture, and data science to drive impact.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of engineering leadership experience.
• Proven track record leading teams that build and scale complex search or information retrieval systems.
• Deep experience with Agile, CI/CD, cloud platforms (ideally AWS).
• Familiarity with ML-powered search or partnership with data science teams.
• Strong product thinking and a bias for impact.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Own the Search Engineering Domain and lead cross-functional teams.
• Shape the roadmap in partnership with Product, Architecture, and Data Science.
• Ensure the search stack is modern, resilient, and delivers measurable business impact.
• Champion a hybrid retrieval strategy blending traditional and ML/semantic approaches.
• Lead and develop Engineering Managers and Senior Managers.
• Foster a culture grounded in psychological safety, learning, and technical excellence.
• Drive goals, accountability, and autonomy; support hiring and succession planning.
• Improve agile practices, observability, and operational rigor.
• Use metrics to assess health, velocity, and outcomes; partner to remove blockers.
• Promote DevOps, CI/CD, and cloud-native practices.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Team management

Agile

CI/CD

Cloud AWS

Search / IR systems

ML-powered search

Product thinking

Communication

People development

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Tools

AWS

Solr

Job description

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W.W. Grainger, Inc. is a leading broad line distributor with operations primarily in North America and Japan. At Grainger, We Keep the World Working®by serving more than4.6 million customersworldwide with maintenance, repair andoperating(MRO) products and value-added solutions delivered through innovative technology and deep customerexpertise. Known for its commitment to service and purpose-driven culture, the Company reported2025 revenue of$17.9 billion. For more information, visitwww.grainger.com.

Compensation

The anticipated base pay compensation range for this position is $176,300.00 – $293,800.00. This role is eligible for an incentive target of up to 25%, based on the achievement of individual and company performance objectives in accordance with the current terms of the incentive program which are subject to change.

Rewards and Benefits

With benefits starting on day one, our programs provide choice and flexibility to meet team members' individual needs, including:

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans with coverage starting on day one of employment and 6 free sessions each year with a licensed therapist to support your emotional wellbeing.
• 18 paid time off (PTO) days annually for full-time employees (accrual prorated based on employment start date) and 6 company holidays per year.
• 6% company contribution to a 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan each pay period, no employee contribution required.
• Employee discounts, tuition reimbursement, student loan refinancing and free access to financial counseling, education, and tools.
• Maternity support programs, nursing benefits, and up to 14 weeks paid leave for birth parents and up to 4 weeks paid leave for non-birth parents.

For additional information and details regarding Grainger’s benefits, please click on the link below:

The pay range provided above is not a guarantee of compensation. The range reflects the potential base pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual base pay compensation will depend, in part, on factors such as geographic work location and relevant experience and skills.

The anticipated compensation range described above is subject to change and the compensation ultimately paid may be higher or lower than the range described above.

Grainger reserves the right to amend, modify, or terminate its compensation and benefit programs in its sole discretion at any time, consistent with applicable law.

We’re seeking a Director of Product Engineering to lead our Search organization — the team behind the intelligence that powers discovery across Grainger’s digital experiences. You’ll support a team of engineering managers, tech leads, and engineers focused on delivering best-in-class search capabilities that serve millions of customers and support billions in revenue.

This is a highly collaborative leadership role that collaborates across engineering, product, architecture, and data science. You’ll bring a modern technical mindset, a people-first leadership approach, and a passion for building systems that scale.

You will report to the Sr. Director of Product Engineering. This is a hybrid role based in our downtown Chicago Mart office.

You Will:

Own the Search Engineering Domain

Lead multiple cross-functional teams responsible for powering search on Grainger.com and other digital touchpoints.

Shape the roadmap in close partnership with Product, Architecture, and Data Science.

Ensure Grainger’s search stack — from indexing to ranking to retrieval — is modern, resilient, and delivering measurable business impact.

Champion a hybrid retrieval strategy that blends traditional techniques (e.g., Solr) with ML and semantic models.

Lead and Develop Engineering Teams

Manage and mentor a group of Engineering Managers and Senior Managers.

Build a strong, inclusive, and high-performing culture grounded in psychological safety, continuous learning, and technical excellence.

Drive clear goals, accountability, and autonomy across teams.

Support hiring, onboarding, career growth, and succession planning.

Improve Systems and Execution

Strengthen agile practices, engineering quality, observability, and operational rigor.

Use metrics to assess system health, delivery velocity, and customer outcomes.

Partner with peers across the organization to remove blockers, align strategy, and prioritize wisely.

Champion DevOps, CI/CD, and cloud-native best practices (containers, serverless, IaC, etc.).

Operate as a Strategic Leader

Ensure strong alignment between engineering, product, data science, and architecture.

Facilitate healthy tension, resolve ambiguity, and enable smart tradeoffs.

Identify gaps in org design, domain boundaries, or team charters — and advocate for change.

Represent the Search organization across engineering leadership and with executive stakeholders.

You Have:

7+ years of engineering leadership experience, including managing managers.

Proven track record of leading teams that build and scale complex search or information retrieval systems.

Deep experience with Agile, CI/CD, cloud platforms (ideally AWS), and modern software engineering practices.

Familiarity with ML-powered search or close partnership with data science teams (bonus: semantic search, vector retrieval, personalization).

Strong product thinking and a bias for impact.

Excellent collaboration, communication, and influence skills — especially across disciplines.

A passion for people development and team health.

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field (or equivalent experience).

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or expression, protected veteran status or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

We are committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible work environment that includes both providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities during the application and hiring process as well as throughout the course of one’s employment, should you need a reasonable accommodation during the application and selection process, including, but not limited to use of our website, any part of the application, interview or hiring process, please advise us so that we can provide appropriate assistance.