Senior Manager, Merchant

Grainger Businesses • Lake Forest, IL

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Merchant connects customer needs with the right product solutions and category strategy. This role establishes and leads the strategy of a category of up to $1B in annual revenue. Works with multiple teams across the organization to implement the category strategy like Supplier Management, Product Information, Publishing, and Software Development. You will get prime exposure to the MRO industry.
Reporting to the Director of Merchandising the Senior Manager, Merchant is based out of either Grainger's Lake Forest, IL headquarters, or Chicago, IL Merchandise Mart office but will work from either office or in the field visiting customers or suppliers 3 days per week.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in engineering, technology, science, marketing, logistics, business or relevant field. required
• 7+ years required
• Experience building and executing growth, go-to-market, and/or merchandising strategies
• Experience translating strategies to tactics and leveraging analytics and customer insights to drive data-based decisions.
• Experience collaborating cross functionally at all levels of the organization and influencing senior level business partners in prioritizing and executing strategic initiatives.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with manufacturing processes and MRO customers

Responsibilities

• Start with the voice of the customer. Conduct external research on like markets and competition performance and use internal data that includes purchasing patterns, interactions on Grainger.com, and customer feedback to identify product assortment opportunities and customer experience improvements.
• Establish the right product assortment: add and discontinue products, select suppliers, and determine branding strategy, including our private label.
• Establish a category strategy and implement it (manage multiple workstreams and keep teams accountable)
• Prioritize requests sent to cross-functional teams (e.g., Product Information, Publishing, Search, Content Strategy), focusing on the most critical activities that drive category growth. Ensure requests are sequenced and scoped to support efficient downstream execution.
• Lead a cross-functional team to execute the right customer experience through building meaningful product groupings, selecting attributes for web filters, establishing product table structures, and determining the content strategy (product information, images, and complementary materials).
• Challenge the status quo, promote change, navigate uncertainty, and identify opportunities to accelerate growth and expand market share.
• Leverage technology tools to analyze large amounts of information from disparate sources to make data-driven assortment and presentation strategy decisions.

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
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees