Lead Frontend Engineer

Grainger Businesses • Chicago, IL

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

As a Lead Software Engineer (Software Engineer IV) you will be responsible for the successful development, architecture and support of customer-facing business-critical applications in our Grainger.com website. You should be comfortable discussing tradeoffs, advocate for sensible defaults within the team, champion technical excellence and own the outcomes of the team’s work. In addition to coaching engineers, you will partner with key stakeholders including Product Managers and Architecture. You will embrace curiosity to ensure a deep understanding of the business requirements that drive the analysis and physical design of technical solutions.

The CIM Customer Experiences team is responsible for developing, maintaining and extending customer-facing user interfaces in our Grainger.com ecosystem and creating delightful user experiences for our customers.

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience building, testing, deploying, and supporting modern, scalable applications in complex environments; a bachelor’s degree in computer science or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong hands‑on experience with modern front‑end technologies, including React, Next.js, and TypeScript, along with working knowledge of back‑end development using Java and Spring‑based frameworks.
• Experience designing and operating cloud‑native, distributed systems, including containerized applications, service integrations (RESTful APIs), and CI/CD pipelines.
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot and improve production systems, leveraging monitoring and observability tools (e.g., Datadog) to diagnose issues, improve reliability, and prevent recurrence.
• Proven collaboration and communication skills, with experience partnering across product, design, architecture, and engineering teams to solve complex problems and deliver customer‑focused solutions.
• Experience mentoring and influencing other engineers, promoting best practices, shared ownership, and continuous improvement through pairing, code reviews, and knowledge sharing.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and support scalable, customer‑facing web applications using modern front‑end and back‑end technologies (React, Next.js, Java), with a focus on performance, reliability, and maintainability.
• Partner cross‑functionally with Product, Design, Architecture and Engineering leaders to translate business and user needs into thoughtful technical solutions and sound architectural decisions.
• Provide technical leadership by championing sensible defaults, code quality, and engineering best practices, while coaching and mentoring engineers through pairing, code reviews, and knowledge sharing.
• Continuously improve delivery and operations by enhancing CI/CD pipelines, leveraging observability tools, and supporting on‑call responsibilities to ensure healthy production systems.
• Evaluate and apply emerging technologies and modern engineering practices to improve developer experience, system resilience, and customer outcomes.
• Own outcomes at the team level, balancing trade‑offs, navigating ambiguity, and contributing to a culture of learning, inclusion, and continuous improvement.

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

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