Director Product Software Engineering - Customer Information

Grainger Businesses • Chicago, IL

1d • $180,200 - $300,300 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director, Product Software 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 lead a large, multi-team engineering organization responsible for managing tier 1 applications, customer identity, team member experiences, and complex data pipelines, all of which forms a foundational domain for Grainger and central to our strategy to know our customer better than anyone else. This is a highly collaborative leadership role that partners closely with Product, Architecture, UX, ML, Data, and other Engineering domains.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or equivalent, or equivalent experience required
• 10+ years engineering leadership experience, including managing managers required
• Strong background in Agile, CI/CD, and cloud (AWS preferred)
• Experience in data-intensive domains
• Experience leading through change and modernization
• Strong product thinking and experience working with product teams
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with both technical stakeholders (engineers, architects, managers) and non-technical stakeholders (product, UX, business)
• Passion and a track record for developing leaders

Nice To Haves

• Experience with governing data pipelines
• History of building resilient systems, including team support and incident management processes

Responsibilities

• Lead and Develop Engineering Teams – manage and mentor; drive clarity and team charters, support hiring, onboarding and leadership development.
• Drive Systems, Execution and Operational Excellence – establish strong engineering practices and operations reviews. Improve reliability, observability, and performance.
• Operate as a Strategic Leader – partnering with other teams and stakeholders, facilitate cross-domain alignment.
• Ensure shared understanding, alignment, and execution capability for domain objectives and decisions, and be a strong advocate for the right technology choices to optimize the tradeoffs between value and risk, optimizing for small feedback loops.
• Nurture a culture of continuous improvement, using metrics and signals to identify opportunities.
• Make forward progress in the face of ambiguity and organizational inertia.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans with coverage starting on day one of employment
• 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)
• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director