Director, Software Engineering - Product

W. W. Grainger; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

PTO

Holidays

401k match

Employee discounts

Tuition reimbursement

Student loan refinancing

Financial counseling

Maternity/paternity leave

Job summary

W. W. Grainger is seeking a Director of Software Engineering to lead the Product domain, building Grainger's customer-facing API portal and eProcurement domain across multiple teams.

The role emphasizes collaboration with Product, Architecture, UX, ML, Data, and other Engineering domains to deliver scalable, high-quality solutions. The ideal candidate has over 10 years of engineering leadership experience, strong agile/CI-CD practices, and cloud expertise (AWS preferred).

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in CS or equivalent.
• 10+ years engineering leadership experience.
• Strong background in Agile, CI/CD, and cloud (AWS preferred).
• Ability to lead through change and modernization.
• Strong product thinking.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Passion for developing leaders.

Responsibilities

• Directly manage the team building Grainger's customer-facing API portal, and lead the rest of the domain through an engineering manager who reports to you.
• Own engineering for the ePro domain end to end. Drive shared understanding, alignment, and execution across every team in the domain.
• Shape the APIs Grainger exposes to the outside world.
• Make forward progress in the face of ambiguity and organizational inertia.
• Establish engineering practices and operations reviews that improve reliability, observability, and performance.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Agile

CI/CD

Cloud AWS

Communication

Product thinking

People development

Education

Bachelor's Degree in CS

Job description

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Director, Software Engineering - Product

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 x for a remote position and $180,200.00 – $300,300.00.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.

Sponsorship

This position is not eligible for any form of sponsorship now or in the future. Individualsrequiringsponsorship (e.g.OPT or H1B visa status) should not apply. Only individuals authorized to work in the United States now and for the foreseeable future will be considered for this position

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.

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.

The Director, Product Engineering leads engineering teams responsible for delivering scalable, high-quality product solutions in close partnership with Product and Architecture. This role drives engineering execution, develops strong engineering leadership, and ensures reliable delivery of customer and business outcomes through modern, sustainable technology practices.

You will build a domain focused on Grainger’s eProcurement offering and customer-facing API portal. eProcurement is a form of integrated purchasing in which Grainger understands the customer’s procurement platform (Ariba, Coupa, Jaggaer, etc.) and requirements, enabling system-to-system transactions. The eProcurement channel represents roughly one-third of Grainger’s order volume.

This is a highly collaborative leadership role that partners closely with Product, Architecture, UX, ML, Data, and other Engineering domains.

Location

Chicago, IL is the preferred location with a hybrid work environment (2 days per week in the Merchandise Mart office). We will also consider highly qualified remote candidates who are willing to travel to Chicago for onboarding and occasional team meetings. Onsite onboarding will be required.

You Will

• Directly manage the team building Grainger's customer-facing API portal, and lead the rest of the domain through an engineering manager who reports to you. Hire, onboard, and grow the leaders under you, and give every team a charter clear enough that they can make their own calls. Advocate for the technology choices you believe in and help the organization make honest trade-offs between risk and value.
• Own engineering for the ePro domain end to end. Drive shared understanding, alignment, and execution across every team in the domain, not only the one you manage directly, partnering with Product, Architecture, UX, Data, and peer engineering domains to hold that alignment together.
• Shape the APIs Grainger exposes to the outside world. Hold a strong opinion about the interface and translate our internal API style guide into standards that hold up for an external developer community.
• Make forward progress in the face of ambiguity and organizational inertia.
• Establish engineering practices and operations reviews that improve reliability, observability, and performance. Use metrics and signals to find the opportunities rather than waiting for them to find you.

You Have:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or equivalent, or equivalent experience required
• 10+ years engineering leadership experience
• Strong background in Agile, CI/CD, and cloud (AWS preferred)
• Ability to lead through change and modernization
• Strong product thinking
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills
• Passion for developing leaders

Preferred

• Experience managing mangers
• Experience with public facing API portals
• History of building resilient systems, including team support and incident management processes

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.