Software Engineering Manager

Grainger; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 134,000 - 224,000; Full time

Job summary

Grainger is seeking a Software Engineering Manager to join the KeepStock engineering team. You will lead a diverse, mission-driven team building an API-based, event-driven platform and support a cloud-native transformation.

Partner with Product, UX, ML, and governance to deliver high-quality software, promote AI-enabled practices, and ensure scalable, reliable systems that drive business value for Grainger customers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent.
• 5+ years of progressive software engineering experience.
• 5+ years leading software development or Agile teams.
• Experience delivering software in cloud-based environments is preferred.
• Knowledge of software engineering principles, architectures, CI/CD, automation.
• Ability to adopt AI-enabled engineering tools to improve productivity and quality.
• Ability to lead teams through planning, execution, deployment, and support.
• Knowledge of governance, security, monitoring, incident management, and performance metrics.
• Ability to coach engineers, develop talent, and foster cross-functional collaboration.
• Strong communication and problem-solving, with prioritization skills.

Responsibilities

• Leads and develops a software engineering team, setting expectations and providing feedback.
• Partner with Product, UX, ML scientists to translate roadmaps into delivery plans.
• Oversee planning, development, testing, deployment, and production support.
• Establish engineering standards, DevSecOps, AI-assisted practices, and CI/CD.
• Monitor performance, reliability, and customer experience, addressing risks.
• Collaborate with architecture, SRE, Security, and platform teams to align with standards.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Agile delivery

AI fluency

Cloud platforms

Coaching

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/IT/Software Engineering

Tools

Kotlin (JVM) with Spring Boot

Microservices/API-first

Kafka

Snowflake

Databricks

AWS

DataDog

Containerization

Job description

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W.W. Grainger, Inc., is a leading broad line distributor with operations primarily in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom. At Grainger, We Keep the World Working® by serving more than 4.5 million customers worldwide with products and solutions delivered through innovative technology and deep customer relationships. Known for its commitment to service and award-winning culture, the Company had 2024 revenue of $17.2 billion across its two business models. In the High-Touch Solutions segment, Grainger offers approximately 2 million maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) products and services, including technical support and inventory management. In the Endless Assortment segment, Zoro.com offers customers access to more than 14 million products, and MonotaRO.com offers more than 24 million products. For more information, visit www.grainger.com.

Compensation

The anticipated base pay compensation range for this position is $134,100.00 – $223,500.00. This role is eligible for an incentive target of up to 15 %, 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.

Position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

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.

KeepStock is Grainger’s Inventory Management Solution for helping its customers streamline their inventory management processes and improve productivity. KeepStock is in the middle of a digital transformation where it is shifting from an on-premise monolithic architecture to a cloud-based microservices architecture. KeepStock has teams building full-stack web experiences, microservices, event-streaming based reporting capabilities, and IoT platforms using modern development techniques and technologies. If any of this sounds exciting, then this opportunity is right for you.

We are looking for a Software Engineering Manager to join the KeepStock engineering team. As a Software Engineering Manager, you would be responsible for creating an environment where diverse, mission driven teams find joy in the creative exercise of shipping business value daily and go home each day knowing they can focus on time away from work because their systems are resilient and performant. You would partner with Product Management to lead teams in the end-to-end execution of project work and help define and drive modern software engineering practices. You would also help provide guidance at all stages of the development lifecycle to ensure the highest quality outcomes. This role will lead a team that builds and maintains an API and asynchronous platform that provides the constructs and domain concepts that form the backbone of the KeepStock transformational system. We are looking for a leader who encourages teamwork, communicates effectively with senior leadership, and has a clear vision of what determines a successful solution for the team, the customer, and our company.

You Will

Leads, coaches, and develops a team of software engineers by setting performance expectations, providing ongoing feedback, supporting career development, building AI fluency and adoption of AI-enabled engineering practices, and fostering an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing engineering culture.

Partners with Product Management, User Experience, Machine Learning Scientists, and technology stakeholders to translate product roadmaps and business priorities into delivery plans, engineering objectives, resource allocation, and successful execution of product initiatives.

Manages the delivery of software solutions by overseeing planning, development, testing, deployment, and production support activities while ensuring solutions meet quality, security, scalability, reliability, and performance standards.

Establishes and reinforces engineering standards, Agile delivery practices, DevSecOps principles, AI-assisted software engineering practices, code quality expectations, and continuous integration and deployment processes to improve engineering effectiveness and product quality.

Monitors team performance, delivery metrics, operational health, customer experience, and engineering outcomes by identifying risks, resolving delivery issues, implementing process improvements, and driving continuous operational excellence.

Collaborates with engineering leaders, architecture, Site Reliability Engineering, Security, and platform teams to resolve complex technical and operational challenges, support technology modernization initiatives, and ensure alignment with enterprise standards and governance.

Performs other work assignments as required.

You Have

• Bachelor's Degree Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent required
• 5+ years progressive experience in software engineering, application development, or related technology roles. required
• 5+ years experience leading software development teams, technical teams, or Agile delivery teams with responsibility for coaching, performance management, and work prioritization. required
• None Experience delivering software solutions using Agile methodologies and modern software engineering practices in cloud-based environments preferred
• Knowledge of software engineering principles, system architecture, Agile delivery methodologies, DevSecOps practices, cloud platforms, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, containerization, and modern application development frameworks.
• Ability to evaluate, adopt, and lead the effective use of AI-enabled engineering tools and practices to improve developer productivity, software quality, operational efficiency, and delivery outcomes while maintaining engineering standards and appropriate human oversight.
• Ability to lead software development teams through planning, execution, deployment, operational support, continuous improvement, and delivery of customer-focused technology solutions.
• Knowledge of engineering governance, software quality, application security, operational monitoring, incident management, and performance measurement within enterprise technology environments.
• Ability to develop technical talent, coach engineers, manage team performance, facilitate cross-functional collaboration, and influence engineering decisions to achieve business and technology objectives.
• Strong communication, prioritization, and problem-solving skills with the ability to balance delivery commitments, operational needs, and team development.
• Technical knowledge in:
  • Kotlin (JVM) with Spring Boot
  • Microservices and API-first architecture, event-driven integration (Kafka)
  • Data platforms and pipelines (Snowflake, Databricks)
  • Cloud (AWS), platform usage, and containerization
  • Observability and monitoring tools (DataDog)

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.