Software Engineering Practice Lead

About Grainger:

Grainger is a leading broad line distributor with operations primarily in North America, Japan and the United Kingdom. We achieve our purpose, We Keep the World Working, by serving more than 4.5 million customers with a wide range of products that keep their operations running and their people safe. Grainger also delivers services and solutions, such as technical support and inventory management, to save customers time and money. We're looking for passionate people who can move our company forward. We have a welcoming workplace where you can build a career for yourself while fulfilling our purpose to keep the world working. We embrace new ways of thinking and recognize everyone is an individual. Find your way with Grainger today.

Position Details:

As a Software Engineering Practice Lead, you will serve as the catalyst for groundbreaking advancements in software development at Grainger. Your role is a blend of strategic oversight and hands-on leadership, aimed at inspiring teams to elevate their software engineering capabilities.

In collaboration with Technical Practice leads, you will dissect Grainger Technology Group's (GTG) product and technical roadmap, as well as the SDLC. Your expertise will translate strategic objectives into tactical actions, ensuring we not only meet but exceed our customer expectations.

In this role, you'll ignite moments of exceptional innovation that set new benchmarks in engineering, solidifying Grainger's reputation as a leader in technology excellence. You'll lead by example through hands-on involvement, driving efficient SDLCs that offer quick feedback loops.

Reporting to the Director of Engineering Effectiveness within Product Engineering, you'll have the option to be based in Chicago or Lake Forest, IL.

You Will:

• Technical Vision: Lead the development and implementation of best practices in software engineering, focusing on DevSecOps, continuous deployment, and software maintenance. Set the standard for what's technically achievable.

• Technical Agility: Possess and promote high adaptability to new and evolving technologies. Utilize platforms and shared capabilities built by other teams to elevate engineering practices.

• Hands-On Approach: Be a beacon of best practices by actively showing what's possible through hands-on guidance. Evaluate existing SDLCs and pipelines for optimization.

• System Maturity Assessment: Understand and communicate the complexities of large enterprise systems, including the interactions between diverse modules, monoliths, and/or microservices. Assess system maturity and identify value streams and bottlenecks.

• Data-Driven Leadership: Collect, analyze, and report key metrics to assess engineering effectiveness. Leverage data for strategic decisions and present actionable insights to leadership.

• Coaching and Mentoring: Offer direct coaching, guidance, and mentorship to team members, while also leading training programs and immersion practices like Dojos.

• Developer Advocacy: Act as a strong advocate for developers within the organization, promoting their needs and interests. Champion developer empowerment, growth, and advancement.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work alongside Security, Testing, and SRE partners to continually enhance software engineering practice. Ensure that security, infrastructure as code, and continuous testing are integral to the software development value stream.

• Infrastructure Guidance: Assist and guide teams on environment setup (dev, test, prod), pipeline automation, and the streamlined deployment of infrastructure.

• Community Building: Guide and coach, the software engineering community at Grainger. Oversee Communities of Practice (CoP) and foster a culture of continuous learning and collaboration

You Have:

• At least 5 years of experience working in or with technology teams

• Experience building production applications or components in 2 or more programming languages such as Java, C#/.NET, Node.JS, ReactJS, JavaScript, Python, Kotlin, or others.

• Experience working in a public Cloud (AWS, Azure, etc) across multiple services and technologies including containerization (Kubernetes), a microservices architecture, application services, databases and networking

• Experience with continuous integration & delivery platforms such as GitHub Actions, Jenkins, CircleCI, etc

• Experience building tests capabilities that can run during the CI process (TDD/Unit testing) and can explain the benefit.

• Experience working with different integration methods such API or data streams

• Experience applying/coaching lean, agile and DevOps principles to improve the flow of value

• Understand the Three Ways of DevOps - Flow, Feedback and Continuous Learning

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, related disciplines or equivalent work experience

Engineering Organization responsibilities:

• Practice Leadership: Collaborate with other Practice Leaders responsible for focusing on organizational continuous improvement based on their practice. (i.e., A Quality Engineering Practice Leader would focus on improving the skills and practices of all engineers within the organization.)

• Centers of Enablement: The Practice Lead will lead the Center of Enablement in collaboration with the Director of Engineering Effectiveness

• Training Programs: In collaboration with the Director of Engineering Effectiveness, create, and implement training programs for reskilling members of the engineering organization. Coordinate bringing in external resources for training where appropriate. These programs should use SMART goals and include a variety of methods to maximize potential impact.

• Oversee immersion practices to re-skill, coach and mentor talent (e.g. Dojos)

• Ensure that accountability is driven to the right levels across the organization.

Rewards and Benefits:

With benefits starting day one, Grainger is committed to your safety, health and wellbeing. Our programs provide choice and flexibility to meet our team members' individual needs. Check out some of the rewards available to you at Grainger.

• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance plans

• Paid time off (PTO) and 6 company holidays per year

• Automatic 6% 401(k) company contribution each pay period

• Employee discounts, parental leave, 3:1 match on donations and tuition reimbursement

• A comprehensive set of emotional, financial, physical and social wellbeing programs

DEI Statement

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.